The Speer was built in separate pieces. The bow section was fabricated in Toledo, OH and towed to Lorain, OH to be joined to it's stern section and launched in May of 1980. According to www.boatnerd.com, seven older ore carriers were retired almost immediatly from the United States Steel fleet with this ship's coming on line. The Speer, like her USS sister-ship, the "Gott", is powered by two massive Diesels, but the Speer's were manufactured by GM and are just slightly smaller in generated horsepower.

In apparence, the Speer is identical to the Gott, except that she lacks the center-boom self-unloading boom. Like the Cort, (and the Roger Blough), the Speer has retained her side-mounted "shuttle-type" unloading mechanism