New U.S.-built Freighter Hits the Great Lakes

Stuff We Love

By Lynda Wheatley | Nov. 6, 2021

For the first time since 1983, a U.S.-flagged freighter has been constructed on the Great Lakes. Fincatieri Bay Shipbuilding, based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, built the 639-foot beast for the Great Lakes’ own Interlake Steamship Company, whose roots trace back more than a century, to 1913.

Named the Mark W. Barker in honor of Interlake Steamship’s president, the self-unloading bulk-carrier launched last week. Its mission for the next half-century or so: transporting raw materials throughout the Great Lakes region.

If you’re not a boat nerd and the name Interlake sounds familiar to you, that’s likely because the longtime family-owned company made big news Up North in 2020, when it acquired the historic SS Badger passenger and car ferry; its sister ship, the non-operating SS Spartan; and an esteemed ol’ workhorse, the articulated tug-barge Undaunted-Pere Marquette 41 from Ludington's Lake Michigan Car Ferry Co.