Michael Moran named St. Joseph Harbormaster

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What started as a hobby of passion has turned into an official government position for one St. Joseph resident.

Michael Moran, whose interest in ships and ship photography led him to start the popular Facebook group “St. Joseph and Benton Harbor Shipping News,” has been named harbormaster by the City of St. Joseph.

“I started the Facebook page so people could know when ships are coming in,” said Moran, standing on the shores of the St. Joseph River where he oversees shipping activity. “The city and a couple other people kind of liked how that was going and saw my interest and decided to offer me the position. … I was pretty excited. I’m happy to help out. It’s something that I’m very passionate about.”

While the position with the city is unpaid and mostly administrative, Moran is happy to do it – for the love of the ships.

“The Manitowoc is one of my favorite ships just because I know the crew so well and they’re here so frequently,” said Moran, whose day job is an emergency room tech at Spectrum Lakeland. “The Alpena because she’s 80 years old … and the oldest steam-powered freighter on the lakes.”

Moran’s passion extends beyond tracking the ships and ship photography as well. Every chance he gets, he delivers doughnuts – mostly from Red Coach Donuts in Sawyer – to the crews of each ship.

“I try to get doughnuts to everybody,” Moran said. “I get down to Red Coach pretty frequently – they know me very well there.”

According to reporting by The Herald-Palladium, the harbor has not had a harbormaster since 2016, when the Berrien County Harbor Authority was dissolved.