Word: canals
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...loaded with some 1,600 tons of cement. And the ship does it cheaply, carrying its high-bulk, low-cost cargo for less than the cost of sending it by either train or truck, which is, Kaldefoss explains, why the vessel is still working. Commercial traffic on the Erie Canal has all but disappeared; the Erie Navigation Co. of Erie, Pa., which owns and operates the Peckinpaugh, is one of the last shippers still using the water route across New York. But the Peckinpaugh and its eight-man crew remain and, more important, pay their way. "This...
...Roger once managed the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians, the Peckinpaugh was drafted into service during World War II to carry coal offshore, and made several runs to Cuba. But then it was restored to its original purpose, which was to run the still waters of the canal...
...into the rectangular lock enclosure until its rail towers above the head of the lock keeper. A moment later, the lock's forward gates swing open and the ship sails on, a full 16 ft. higher than it was when it entered. Ahead of it stretches the Erie Canal, as straight and flat as a highway...
There are other craft on the canal as well. A transportation department tug, painted a bright blue and yellow and looking more like a child's bathtub toy than a working boat, passes the Peckinpaugh toward midmorning, heading east for Utica. Otherwise, the only other boats are recreational, mostly Canadian boats using the canal to get to the Hudson and the Atlantic Ocean. A large trimaran, the Tournamente of Toronto, its mast removed and lashed to the deck, chugs by under power, its crew bundled against the autumn chill and waving as much to keep warm as to greet...
...talk like neighbors who have not seen one another for a while. Walker reports that the man who used to be in charge of the next lock, No. 22, died within the past month. Kaldefoss reports that he hopes to make a few more trips before ice closes the canal system around the end of November. Both men wonder how long it will be before the state of New York, which is spending in excess of $25 million a year to maintain the barge canal system, decides that it can no longer afford...