PROMO [MARCUS]: We’ve all seen them – massive ships navigating through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, transporting cargo to various ports such as Montreal, Ogdensburg and Oswego. They’re huge, majestic, and mysterious. What happens on these ships? What goes on behind the scenes? What does the ship look like inside? What do they transport? What is the crew like? In short, what is it like to live and work on one of these freighters? Tune in to “More to the Story: Life on a Freighter.” OPEN UNDERWRITER: “More to the Story” is brought to you by Advanced Business Systems, proudly serving the central and Northern New York regions since 1991. With over 27 years of service, our offerings have grown from copiers and printers, to an assortment of business technologies. Advanced Business Systems, connecting you with your business technology. Marcus: Many people who live and vacation along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River stop and stare in awe when massive commercial ships pass by. Artists paint and photograph these freighters and lakers, or cargo ships, built for traversing the Great Lakes, and marketers use their likeness to promote the Thousand Islands. But not many people know where they go, what they carry and what it takes to ensure their safe voyage. Fewer can imagine what the crews are like, the work they perform and the lives they live aboard these vessels. I wanted to find out. Hello, I’m Marcus Wolf, and I’m a reporter with the Watertown Daily Times. In July, Watertown Daily Times photographer Daytona Niles, WPBS-TV crew members Tracy DuFlo and Ryan Proven, and I boarded a freighter in the Welland Canal near Niagara Falls, and journeyed with it to Eisenhower Lock in Massena. We worked in cooperation with The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation in Canada, St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation in the U.S., the company Canada Steamship Lines, or CSL Group, and Transport Canada to arrange a trip to show you the life and work on one of these ships. We spent about 30 hours on board the laker CSL Welland and engaged with the crew on board to give you “More to the Story: Life on a Freighter.” Marcus (voiceover) [Ship b-roll] The CSL Welland was named after the Welland Canal, which connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario via a series of 8 locks that lower or raise ships, depending on their direction, a total of 326 feet. The Canal is approximately 27 miles long. The ship was built in 2014 and came to Canada in February of 2015. The Welland is 740 feet long and 78 feet wide, the widest ship that can pass through the Welland Canal. By the way, the locks at the canal are only 80 feet wide, so there’s not much room to spare! 1 Page [Time lapse of Welland Canal with music] Marcus: We boarded the ship at lock 7 in the Welland Canal. It was early July, and the weather was hot and sunny, about 85 to 90 degrees. The CSL Welland was in the midst of a five-day voyage delivering grain from Thunder Bay on the coast of Lake Superior to Quebec City, which borders the St. Lawrence River. After a safety briefing, we were given a tour of the ship. Inside, the air conditioning was running full blast, but outside, the steel decking absorbed the sun’s rays and summer heat. In order to be on the deck, we were required to wear hard hats, safety glasses, long pants, and steel-toed boots. Marcus [Marcus-Stairs_07] There are 9 flights of stairs between the main deck and the bridge. Four in the Engine Room, and no elevator. So getting up and down them can be quite the workout. Marcus: [Marcus-Bridge_03] So though the door, and up another flight of stairs, is the bridge. But it’s really busy right now, because the crew is navigating us through the St. Lawrence Seaway. But we’ll see if the Captain has a few moments to speak with us. Video: Captain on the Bridge with Captain voiceover: CAPTAIN WILSON WALTERS (from Thorold, Ontario, Canada): My name is Wilson Walters. I'm captain of the ship the CSL Welland, and I've been with CSL for 25 years. I grew up in a little town in Newfoundland, Canada. When you grow up in this town you either fish or you go away to look for work. Fishing was starting to die, so a lot of the people from my town had come to the Great Lakes and found work and they enjoyed what they were doing. So I thought I would go up and see what it was all about. I think on day one I was sold. I got on a ship and went, "You know what, I think this is for me." I fished when I was a young kid with my dad. I wasn't enjoying the life and I came on these large ships and felt a life that I thought, you know what, this is gonna fit the type of personality that I have. [Interview setting] MARCUS: What are some of your responsibilities as captain aboard a ship? WILSON: I have multiple tasks. I navigate all the waters of the Great Lakes, rivers, I pilot in the Welland Canal, same area as Detroit River, down the lower seaway. That's my navigational job, but I also run the ship and I have three officers, first mate, second mate, and a third mate that I give daily tasks to keep the ship running, and we have a crew that I'm responsible for, for safety. I'm in charge of the environment and I also wanna make sure that the ship don't get destroyed so the company don't take a loss. So basically safety, environment and protection of my crew. MARCUS: How did you work your way up to captain? 2 Page WILSON: There's two ways of going about becoming captain. The slow way, which is what I did. Or there's a fast track, which is a cadet system. And A cadet system today you can do in four years with all the exemptions you have you can actually become a captain within four years, or I should say you could have the certificate in four years. And then with a couple years training you can be captain in five, six years. The way I did it, I came up through the ranks. I started as a deckhand, then I went wheelsman, then to third mate, second mate, first mate, and then I became captain. So because I worked and had a family, I would go to school on my time off. So I would work eight months a year and basically go to school for three. That's how I did it, so it took me a long time. Where young kids, they have a much better chance of becoming captain faster. MARCUS: What was it like when you finally became captain? WILSON: I'll use an expression that I tell everyone and they think I'm joking, but it's basically true. Bad day captain is still better than a good day first mate. So all you first mates that are ... get your captain's license. MARCUS: How many crew members are there on this ship? WILSON: We have 15 crew members in total. But at times like now, we do a lot of training on here. So we have extra people on board for training. I have a fantastic crew. Everybody thinks they got the best crew on the lakes, well I definitely don't think it. I'm pretty sure I got the best crew on the Great Lakes. MARCUS: Are all crew members men or do you have some women on board? WILSON: Today we only have one female on board but in the spring I had two. No ... Women are taking over the industry as well. The trainer that I had in the spring, it was a female. She's gonna be our next captain. She's gonna be the next one trained and the next one captain. We have first mates that are females. We have second mates, third mates, we have cooks that are here. We have deck hands. We have wheelsmen. We have Ma’s in the engine room. We have engineers. We have oh ... yeah, we have probably one of the greatest second engineers in the industry on this ship here and that's a female. So. MARCUS [Voiceover] Crew members work a varied schedule. They can choose one month on, one month off; two months on, one month off; six weeks on, six weeks off, even six months on, six months off. Shipping stops for three months in the wintertime. WILSON: The captains do ... Some do two months, some six weeks on six weeks off. Most of the chief engineers, six weeks on, six weeks off. Most of the second engineers, six weeks on, six weeks off. Our first mates are more two and one. And the crew, they work a little longer. They do like three months on and one month off. So it's different. If you're a non licensed person, you have to work a little longer. The officers, they work a little less. MARCUS: But you, yourself. How long are you on and how long are you off? 3 Page WILSON: I do two months on and one month off. So I worked April, May.