Hi, my name is Peter Janes and I am a tour guide here on the William Irvin in Duluth, Minnesota.

How are you?

I was just a summer replacement kid, the entry level bottom of the food chain job.

It's called a wiper.

And you're in the boiler room with the fireman, so there's leftover ash and golf ball sized clinkers.

They call them.

And every four hours, the fireman in the wiper had to clean out those four furnaces of that spent coal.

Good job.

I'm Brian Thiry.

Used to sail on these boats back when I was younger.

Sailed from 1970 till 1985 on on the sister ship.

I was called a deck watch is one step above deckhand.

And then I wanted to advance.

So I had to get off that boat, get on another one that had an opening.

I was up as far as second mate, two steps away from captain.

I thought it was going to be the skipper one day, but the bottom fell out of the steel industry and couldn't hold my my seniority anymore.

This is what built our country.

I mean, first it was lumber and it was wheat, and then iron ore, and US Steel was the first billion dollar corporation in this country ever.

It is kind of amazing the people get it that someone actually worked on this boat 52 years ago.

The Slice from PBS North