American Fortitude

American Fortitude was built in 1953, is 690 feet long and flies a U.S. flag

Info
The American Fortitude was built as the Ernest T. Weir in Lorain in 1953 as a vessel in the National Steel fleet. In 1978, Oglebay Norton bought the boat and renamed her the Courtney Burton. Three years later, a self unloading boom was added to her deck giving her a new and longer life on the Great Lakes. Without the addition, she would probably have seen the scrap pile sometime in the 1980’s.

The Courtney Burton was laid up for two years in Toledo in 2003 but was back out working the Great Lakes to open the 2005 season. She took over the route run by both the Joseph H. Frantz and the Kinsman Independent, taking wheat from Duluth Superior to Buffalo.

In Nov. 2008, the American Fortitude entered long-term layup in Toledo. On November 26, 2014, the American Fortitude left Toledo under tow of the tug Evans McKeil, presumably destined for a scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas. She laid up in Oswego, NY for the winter of 2014-2015. On May 14, 2015, she arrived (under tow) at IMS, Port Colborne, Ontario, to be scrapped.