Unlike many of my videos that cover long gone lakeboats this video is about a one of a kind oreboat, the GREAT REPUBLIC which is still actively sailing. Her concept was dreamed up in the late 1970s when the steel industry was still booming on the USA. The problem was that some of the most active steel mills were in Cleveland, Ohio far up the Cuyahoga River. That twisting waterway was too narrow and winding for the biggest of the ore carriers, especially the new 1,000 footers. Yet, the American Steamship Company had a contract with Republic steel to ship taconite to their mills. The big footers were easily able to drop the ore at Lorain, Ohio some 30 miles to the west. So, what ASC needed was a special boat to shuttle about 20,000 tons at a time over and through the Cuyahoga. For the best efficiency that boat needed to operate both coming and going without the use of expensive tugs. Thus, the AMERICAN REPUBLIC, a one of a kind oreboat, was born.