Great Lakes Patrol assigned to operate against criminals who were ravaging the logging industry. These so called timber pirates conducted illegal cutting of timber on federal land and then smuggled the valuable commodity out of the area in order to sell it. The areas most affected were in the western Great Lakes region, along the coasts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. Much of these forested areas controlled by the government were reserved for the building of new warships. The illegal timber trade centered on Chicago and Milwaukee. It was nearly as violent as the alcohol trade, which was carried out over the
The Great Lakes Group Old River Channel on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2007, the Shipyard began new construction of tugboats. On July 29, 2011, the Shipyard debuted its new Mobile Vessel Hoist, named "America" after one of the company's original tugboats. The 770-ton hoist, manufactured by Marine Travelift, is the largest of its kind on the Great Lakes, second-largest in the Western Hemisphere and third-largest in the world. Great Lakes Shipyard recently teamed up with Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine Inc. to create a marine service center. Rolls-Royce's repair and overhaul services in the Great Lakes Region will be performed by Rolls-Royce in