SHIPS THAT PLY THE LAKES
Mylle
By the time the Finnish freighter Mylle came through the Seaway in 1967, it had survived 30 years of saltwater service. It is rare that a ship this old takes so long to come to the Great Lakes for the first time.
The vessel had been built at Gothenburg, Sweden and launched as Asteri on May 3, 1937. It was completed in August and noted as having an ice-strengthened hull that was “all-welded” instead of the usual riveted system of construction.
The 98. 3 -metre -long by 13.6-metre-wide general cargo ship was equipped with two Atlas-Diesel oil engines and achieved a service speed of 12 knots.
On April 25, 1942 in the middle of the Second World War, the crew of Asteri found 15 sailors from the sunken freighter Lammot Du Pont that had been sent to the bottom two days earlier by U-125. They were discovered about 800 kilome- tres southwest of Bermuda.
Amazingly, 23 days later another 33 from that same ship were found adrift by the USS Tarbell, but eight had already succumbed and at least three more subsequently perished.
In 1952, this ship was sold and renamed Pan and then became Frigg in 1957. None of these owners sent the vessel to the Great Lakes and this initially continued when it became Mylle in 1961.
Finally in 1967, the vessel, now under the flag of Finland, headed into the Seaway, likely for a load of grain. It continued to sail becoming Mercia in 1969, also registered in Finland and then acquired the sixth name of Alkmini A. in 1974. Amazingly, the ship lasted another ten years before being sold for scrap.
Finally, after 47 years of saltwater service, the vessel was delivered to Greek shipbreakers at Piraeus on Feb. 10, 1984, to be dismantled by M. Guozaouassis.