North Star Port

Buffalo, N.Y. Cleveland C A N A D A W I S . M I N N . M I C H . O H I O P A . N . Y . Detroit Duluth Grand Rapids DANCO's short-sea service cut freight costs by 15%, moving containers of canned food, flour, lumber and more from Duluth to Detroit on the decks of lake freighters, while their cargo holds were filled with iron ore, grain or other bulk cargoes. FISHYBACK FREIGHT DULUTHPORT.COM | 13 The Duluth Seaway Port Authority constructed the Clure Public Marine Terminal in part to recapture package freight business that had evaporated from the port, and it opened in conjunction with the Seaway's inauguration in 1959. DANCO sought guarantees that the new facility would be available for the twice-weekly service, as usage of the new made-in-Duluth 90-ton Clyde gantry cranes was critical to the operation. DANCO would lease office and trailer spaces at the Clure Terminal. The idea – ships, route, etc. Browning 's service was meant to demonstrate that ships already calling at the Head of the Lakes to load iron ore or grain for lower Great Lakes ports could haul additional deck cargo for those same markets. The DANCO concept was an early attempt at realizing this. Due to its similarities to "piggyback" trailer ser- vices provided by railroads, the DANCO operation was nick- named "fishyback" shipping. Fruehauf Trailer has its own history in transportation innova- tion, with its founder August Fruehauf pioneering the first semi- trailer in 1914. The trailers were quickly adopted for different uses. As the firm grew in the 1950s, putting trailers on ships was a focus. In a 1956 address to an American Bankers Association conference in Chicago, Roy Fruehauf suggested that the Seaway would see an increase in trailer ships following its completion, and remarked a year later at an event in Cleveland that that trailer ships would become "one of the dominant features" of Great Lakes-Seaway traffic. At the same time the Duluth service was gaining momentum, Fruehauf was partnering with another transportation pioneer on the East Coast: Malcolm McLean. Fruehauf had already pioneered the transportation of truck trailers by rail and vessel. In April 1956, McLean's converted tanker Ideal-X made its first voyage with 58 35-foot long "trailer vans" from New Jersey to Texas. So, Browning 's service was not unique to the Great Lakes, but his application varied—McLean was purpose-building ships to haul truck trailers and containers on the East Coast; Browning sought to demonstrate that existing Great Lakes ships, designed to haul bulk cargo, could be reconfigured to haul additional deck cargo for those same markets. Local trucking companies moved 33-foot trailer vans from pickup points to Duluth's Clure La ke S u p e ri o r L a k e M i ch i ga n L ake Eri e L ake O n tario L a ke Huro n Short-sea route Proposed expansion • Trucks hauled canned food from the Chun King facility to the Clure Terminal. • Clure Terminal gantries transferred containers from trucks onto lake freighters. • Freighters sailed to Detroit, where trucks handled last-mile grocery deliveries. • Lakers returned to Duluth with backhaul cargo and reloaded for the next voyage.

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