Steamship Valley Camp

The SS Valley Camp is a freighter boat that served on the Great Lakes for almost 50 years and is currently serving as a museum ship in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

The Valley Camp was launched in Lorain, Ohio, in 1917 as the Louis W. Hill for the National Steel Corporation. She sailed for this company for 38 years hauling iron ore and coal until 1955 when she was sold to the Wilson Marine Transit Company. It was in this fleet that she received her current name. For this company she carried a wider array of bulk goods including grains and stone. The Valley Camp was a member of the Wilson Fleet only until 1959 when the Republic Steel Corporation bought her and several of her Wilson fleetmates, including her identical sister the Silver Bay (formerly the Albert Heiken of National Steel). Republic kept the Valley Camp's name, and for that company she hauled iron ore and coal to their mills in Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Indiana Harbor, Indiana. In 1967, the Valley Camp sailed her last. Her age was not an issue at this time, it was her triple expansion engine that was still being fed by coal burning boilers that doomed her to an early retirement.