The Edwin H. Gott was built for US Steel Corporation in Sturgeon Bay, WI and was christened in July of 1978, four days following the Stinson's debut in Detroit.. In external appearance she represents a return to plan "B" with wide, covered bridge wings like the McCarthy and Oglebay Norton. Her power plant, however, is different, consisting of two Enterprise/DMRV 16 cylinder Diesels driving two propellers and generating 19.500 hp, making her the most powerful ship on the Great Lakes.

The Gott began life with an extremely short self-unloading boom (similar to the Cort's), since it was expected that she would be used only to carry taconite pellets from selected western Superior ports with appropriate facilities, to Gary, IN. This apparently became inconvenient and she was fitted with a convention center-line boom, which is 280 ft in length, in 1995 - the longest in the entire Great Lakes fleet.