Late in 1964 following the decision to enlarge the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, various Great Lakes ship operators expressed interest in the possibility of building new bulk ore carriers up to 1, 000 feet in length. This jump in size from the previous standard of 730 feet length raised numerous questions as to the strength standards and scantlings to be utilized in the new ships. In order to obtain the necessary technical data upon which decisions could be made, the Hull Structure Committee of The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Technical and Research Program in cooperation with numerous government, regulatory and industry organizations in the United States and Canada implemented an extensive program to determine the wave climate on the Great Lakes and Gulf of St. Lawrence and to measure the effects of this wave climate upon actual ships.
Three Canadian and one United States Great Lake ore carriers were instrumented to measure wave or otherwise induced hull stresses and an extensive system for obtaining wave and sea state records from remote wave recording buoys (both moored and ship launched), wave staffs and gages, ship observations, weather stations, etc. was established. The basic wave data obtained in 1965, 1966 and 1967 in Lake Superior and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is presented in this report. Waves were recorded at fourteen locations and a total of approximately 18, 000 usable wave records were collected.: The analyzed results are presented in various forms, but it .was felt that most naval architects and scientists would only require the original wave data. The details of the manipulation of the data to obtain estimates of the probabilities of occurrence of wave heights and wave frequencies have therefore not been included.
A pictorial bargraph presentation of significant wave heights and peak wave lengths, probability curves of significant wave heights and peak frequencies, and examples of acceleration and displacement spectra can be found in Volume II of Mechanical Engineering Report MH-107A published by the National Research Council of Canada, March 1971. The results obtained from this research program are summarized in two Technical and Research bulletins, namely, No. 2-17 "Wave Climate Study, Great Lakes and Gulf of St. Lawrence" prepared by the National Research Council of Canada in cooperation with Task Group HS-1-1 (Great Lakes Waves) and No. 2-18 "Seaway Stresses Observed Aboard the Great Lakes Bulk Ore Carrier EDWARD L. RYERSON (1965-1968)" prepared by Task Group. HS-1-2 (Wave Loads -Great Lakes Vessels).
The data presented in these two bulletins have been analyzed and the results and various interpretations presented in a series of papers on July 21, 22 and 23, 1971 published as T & R Symposium Report No. S-2 "Hull Stresses in Bulk Carriers in the Great Lakes and Gulf of St. Lawrence Wave Environment."