Great Lakes Preview

As the trim, new, diesel-powered ship, the Marquette, pulled alongside its dock at Chicago last week, leather-faced Captain Andre Senft, 40, broke out a bottle of champagne and drank a toast to Chicago. It was the first time a vessel flying the French flag had touched shore there since Father Marquette beached his frail canoe in 1674.

The Marquette's cargo--wines, liquors, marble, foodstuffs and cork from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal--was a symbol of the flourishing postwar trade between Europe and Great Lakes ports. Shippers estimate that the all-water route is 10% to 20% less costly than rail-water transshipment from Europe via New York City. There are now 44 ships in the service, all shallow enough in draft to navigate the St. Lawrence River canals (maximum depth: 14 ft.) and short enough to get through the smallest lock (270 ft.).

Ocean-going vessels have been coming into Chicago since 1931, when the Swedish freighter, Anna, docked there. But the real expansion in the trade developed after the war, when French and German lines joined Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian shippers in the service. In 1947, the export-import total was 66,774 tons; last year it rose to an estimated 225,000 tons. All the ships are running with capacity loads. One reason there are not still more ships in the trade: Great Lakes ports are short the docks to handle them without wasteful waiting.

The shippers are all boosters for the St. Lawrence Seaway. They know that what they are hauling represents only a small fraction of the overseas trade that could be carried on by Midwestern cities. One company, the Dutch Oranje line, is building a combination passenger-freighter which it hopes will be the pacesetter if the seaway project goes through.

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