Realistically speaking? A Great Lakes Freighter? Why? I don't get it...

And I never pictured her as a sailing ship... Maybe because I read Stans bio where he talks about maritime insurance fraud being such big business that "whole shipping conglomerantes have been formed in recent years whose sole purpose is not, ..., the movement of goods, but rather the sinking of ships in as profitable a manner as possible"

From an unproduced radio play, "The Mary Ellen Carter"

The example that follows talks about 'a smallish freighter, as old and rickety as possible'

I guess that's how I picture The MEC