the great lakes car ferries - mhpress.commhpress.com/glcf.pdf · 10 the great lakes car ferries the...

Photos and Illustrations from

The Great Lakes Car Ferries

St. Ignace, from American Steam Vessels, by Samuel Ward Stanton

George W. Hilton

Montevallo Historical Press

Photos and Illustrations from


13

Chapter One:The River Car Ferries

5

Chapter One: The River Ferries

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Facing Page: Sketches by Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S.J., of the University of Detroit, of transIt (I) and MIchIgan (I) of the Great Western Railway on the basis of their only known delineations, a small drawing in a panoramic view of the Detroit River in the 1870’s. Both ships had the enclosed car decks characteristic of the early ferries.

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8


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10


The lansdowne, veteran of over 77 years on the Detroit River, is one of the greatest collections of Victorian marine technology afloat. Below, left, are her horizontal low-pressure engines, inherited from the MIchIgan (I) of 1873. Each cylinder has a nine-foot stroke. One of the ship's oddest features is her steam steering engine, mounted in the base of her wheel. This arrangement gives her pilot house involuntary steam heat, winter and summer alike. (Below, Gordon P. Bugbee) Until about 1912, the lansdowne carried pilot houses fore and aft (above, St. Clair collection) and passengers on Wabash trains were allowed to stroll about her decks. At present she operates in freight service only, painted in standard Canadian National Railways steamship colors. (Above, Edward J. Dowling, S.J.)

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12


The Grand Trunk's ferries between Point Edward and Port Huron were InternatIonal (II) of 1872 (above, W. A. McDonald collection) and huron of 1875 (left, Edward J. Dowling, S.J.). International (II) became the Pere Marquette's first river ferry, but huron remained in the hands of the Grand Trunk and the successor Canadian National. At the left, with her high-pressure non-condensing engines exhausting into the summer air, she approaches Brush Street, Detroit. Her ancient lines, barely changed since 1875, contrast with the modernity of the New York Central baggage car she is carrying. Below, a paddle ferry, the Canada Southern's transfer (I) of 1873, loads at her slip in Amherstburg in an old woodcut (Fort Malden Museum).

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Lavoinne and Pontzen in their book, Les Chemins de Fer en Amerique (1882) chose the transport, an iron paddler of 1880, as their example of modern American car ferries. Their drawing below shows the unusual cog-wheel gearing of the horizontal engines to the wheels characteristic of the Michigan Central ferries (British Museum).

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The cut-away drawing (above, from Railway Gazette) shows the odd combination of gear-driven paddle wheels and an ice-breaking screw on the transfer (II) of 1888. Below, she is pushing through sheet ice in the Detroit River during her later years on the Wabash (Marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library). At the right is one of the MIchIgan central's ferry aprons, as drawn by Lavoinne and Pontzen (British Museum).

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The detroIt, last of the Michigan Central's ferries, is one of the few ships to operate at various times with four, three, and two stacks. She ran for the Michigan Central with four, but was running for the Wabash in the early 1930's with three (above, Capt. William Taylor), and subsequently was reduced to two. The Detroit River car ferries are not equipped with the jacks and chains of the Lake Michigan boats; cars are secured only with rail clamps. Here is the uncluttered car deck of the MIchIgan central (Dowling collection).

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17


The first of the modern Detroit River car ferries was Frank E. Kirby's pere Marquette 14 (left, Elmer Treloar) which went into service in 1904 (plan, below, American SB Co.). She had a career of 53 years, and all later river car ferries were modelled after her. How little the design changed is evident in a comparison with the last of the river ferries, pere Marquette 10 of 1945 (above, Edward J. Dowling, S.J.).

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19


The most common propulsion for the Great Lakes car ferries was a pair of three-cylinder compound engines. At left, a set sits on blocks at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company's engine shop, awaiting installation in pere Marquette 12 in 1927 (Manitowoc SB, Inc.). Above, the pere Marquette 12 pulls out of her slip under the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit (W.A. McDonald).

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Above, the Canadian Pacific's big paddler, ontarIo, sits marooned in the ice off Detroit about 1905 (David T. Glick collection). Her running mate, MIchIgan (II) was originally similar in appearance, but like the ontarIo, ended her days as a pulpwood barge (below, St. Clair collection).

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The transport operated in the Wabash fleet until 1933, but spent most of her last years idle (above, W. A. McDonald). Below, the detroIt, empty save for a tank car of bunker oil, prepares to put into Detroit to load. Her running mate, the MantItowoc of 1926, has just pulled out for Windsor (Elmer Treloar).

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Finding beauty in Detroit River propellor ferries is an acquired taste, but the plan above (from Marine Engineering) shows that wIndsor is well proportioned. The wIndsor of 1930, latest of the Wabash's ferries, pushes through slush ice into her Windsor slip (below, Elmer Treloar).

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Chapter Two: The Mackinac Transportation

Company

Captain L. R. Boynton (1833-1927) was the first master of the st. Ignace and the commodore of the Mackinac Transportation Company until 1916. He was the most prominent car ferry captain of his day, and the leading practical authority on ice-breaking on the Great Lakes. Frequently, he acted as consultant to shipbuilders and car ferry operators on ice-breaking problems. Here in 1903, at the peak of his fame, he sits for his portrait. (Courtesy of O. C. Boynton.)

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25

Chapter Two: The Mackinac Transportation Company

When a full cut of iron ore on her port track caused st. Ignace to sink in her slip in 1902, a large crowd of amateurs and professionals came to survey the damage (Elizabeth Wenzel collection).

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Second of the Mackinac car ferries was the saInt MarIe (I). Her wooden hull, intended to be the strongest on the Great Lakes, is shown on the stocks at Wyandotte. Below, the ferry called at Port Huron in June 1893, on her way to St. Ignace (both, Dowling collection).

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chIef wawataM has been the Mackinac Transportation Company's regular boat from 1911 to the present. Frank E. Kirby's marine architecture is evident in every line of her design (above, Edwin Wilson). saInte MarIe (II) spent her entire career as spare boat to the chIef wawataM. Here she is shown, characteristically, tied up at St. Ignace with her boilers cold (below, Edward J. Dowling, S.J.).

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Chapter Three: The Ann Arbor Railroad

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ann arbor no. 1 had three distinct profiles in her history. She appeared with widely spaced stacks fore and aft in 1892 (previous page, top, McDonald collection). With her spar deck cut back to improve clearances on her car deck, she is shown around 1895, working hard to free ann arbor no. 2 from the ice (previous page, bottom, Dowling collection). Finally (above, St. Clair collection), she operated with a single tall stack aft. She sits marooned in a windrow which her bow propellor, removed in 1896, might have helped to break. ann arbor no. 2 appeared on the Toledo Ann Arbor & North Michigan's early passes (passes from the author's collection).

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ann arbor no. 1 perished in this spectacular blaze at the Chicago & North Western slip in Manitowoc in 1910 (Dowling collection). Marine Engineering in its first volume (1897) illustrated the Ann Arbor's initial method of securing cars. Here the jack at the left is braced against the jacking rail of the adjacent track.

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ann arbor no. 3 arrived in Frankfort in 1898 with this unimpressive appearance. Her two stacks abreast were shortly replaced by a single funnel. A sea gate, aft pilot house, an addition to her length and a new superstructure were to change her almost beyond recognition by the 1930's (Dowling collection). Upon going into service, she replaced ann arbor no. 2 on the railroad's passes.

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In 1909, when a switching crew put eight cars of iron ore on the port tracks of ann arbor no. 4, she capsized in her slip at Manistique. Her starboard plates were removed and the wrecking tug Favorite took out her hopper cars through the open sides. With her stack gone and her starboard side open, she was towed off for repairs (both, Marine Collection, Milwaukee Public Library).

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Frank E. Kirby's steel car ferry for the Ann Arbor is a noble boat. Above, ann arbor no. 5 in January 1911 cuts through solid sheet ice in the St. Clair River on her way to Frankfort to begin service (Marine Historical Society of Detroit). This was her first taste of of the winter conditions she was to battle for more than 50 years. Below, her lines were impressive even in the slip (St. Clair collection).

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ann arbor no. 4 ended her worst disaster sunk by the south pierhead at Frankfort in 1923 (Dowling collection). Once again, she was repaired, and emerged, below, with a new superstructure (McDonald collection).

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ann arbor no. 7 was the Ann Arbor's version of the standard Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company car ferry of the 1920's. Above, she steams out of Frankfort in the 1930's (Kenneth E. Smith collection). Below, she waits for a switcher in the North Western slip in Manitowoc shortly after coming out. This slip is now used by the C&O ferries, and the Ann Arbor loads at a new slip at the right of the small peninsula (Glander studio, Manitowoc).

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The wabash's raised forecastle gives her a unique profile among the car ferries. Her plan (above, Marine Engineering) shows the Ann Arbor's characteristic cut-away bow, designed to facilitate rising on sheet ice. Below, she inches out of her slip in Kewaunee, making a right-angle turn into the channel (W. A. McDonald). Car ferries berth by putting their own deck hands ashore to make fast. Wherever possible, cleats or dolphins are designed so that the lines come free automatically when the ferry moves out of the slip.

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In 1958, Manitowoc Shipbuilding took the ann arbor no. 6 (above), cut her apart forward of the stacks for lengthening (above, left), and re-equipped her with non-reversing Diesels and variable pitch propellers (lower left). The finished product, barely recognizable, was renamed arthur K. atKInson (below; all photos Manitowoc SB, Inc.)

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Above, Frankfort harbor in 1960. Below, ann arbor no. 3 leaves port near the end of her 62 years of service (Kenneth E. Smith).

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Above, Alco switcher number 7 has just put 24 loads and three empties aboard the arthur K. atKInson at Frankfort. The deck hands are uncoupling the idler from a Seaboard box car, and within half an hour the ferry will be off for Kewaunee (Jim Boyd, courtesy of Trains magazine).

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Chapter Four: Pere Marquette District—Chesapeake &

Ohio Railway

Opposite top: F & P. M. No. 1 was the first of the break-bulk freighters of the Flint & Pere Marquette. The arrangement of cargo on the main deck and passengers on the spar deck was carried over into the car ferries. Opposite bottom: Pere Marquette 5, largest of the line's break-bulk steamers, is shown leaving Chicago after her sale to the Barry line in 1906. (Both, St. Clair collection.)

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Chapter Four: Chesapeake & Ohio Railway

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Robert Logan's original pere Marquette of 1896 (above) was hailed as a titan of size and power, but Logan's later ferries were more successful (W. A. McDonald collection.) The infamous Pere Marquette 16 (right, bottom) did not spend her time entirely in disasters; here she sails peacefully out of Ludington harbor in the early years of the century (Mason County Historical Society).

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pere Marquette 19 was one of the railroad's pair of freight-only ferries. Above, she sails out of Milwaukee in her later years (Edwin Wilson). Below, she is drydocked in Manitowoc for some work on her port screw (Glander Studio). the Goodrich liners Carolina, Florida, and Christopher Columbus (foreground), are in winter lay-up, but the pere Marquette 19 has steam up and will shortly be battling the ice once more.

50


Wheelsman Simon Burke, Mate Walter Brown, Captain Peter Kilty, and Mate Joseph Berniski pose on the bridge of the pere Marquette 18 (I) on March 15, 1910 (right, Madison County Historical Society). When the ship (above, Mariners Museum) foundered in September, all except Burke drowned.

pere Marquette 17 (below, St. Clair collection) had a long life, avoiding the shipbreakers until 1961.

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52


pere Marquette 18 (II) was rushed to completion in 1911, but she made a leisurely trip to the scrapyard. She is shown in 1955 during her lengthy lay-up in Ludington (Kenneth E. Smith). Below, pere Marquette 21, after the addition of her cabins in 1957, calls at Kewaunee (W.A. McDonald). Her original profile was virtually identical to the plan on page 53. pere Marquette 21 and 22 may be distinguished by the four windows below the pilot house; on the 22 the four windows are equally spaced, but on the 21 the center pair are side-by-side.

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54


The car ferries do not use tugs for berthing in mormal operation, but here the cIty of sagInaw 31 is towed out of the shipyard at Manitowoc upon completion in 1929 (above, Glander Studio). Her plan (left, Marine Engineering) shows the placing of her turbo-electric machinery. Below, her sister, cIty of flInt 32, is launched on November 27, 1929—just in time for the Great Depression (Manitowoc SB, Inc.).

55


pere Marquette 20 and pere Marquette 17 went to the Michigan State Ferries as City of Munising and City of Petoskey. Above (Edwin Wilson), the City of Munising is towed out of Manitowoc by the shipbuilder's tug Manshipco after the conversion in 1928. Both ferries were later modified to load from the bow (below, John R. Williams).

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The Pere Marquette's first boat built after the Depression, cIty of MIdland 41 (right, Edwin Wilson), was the first car ferry to have two decks of passenger accomodations. She was also the first to have Unaflow engines. Below, a workman at the Skinner plant poses at the controls of one of the engines. At the left is the enclosed cylinder housing of the engine, installed in the ferry. Below, right, is the control station, with separate telegraphs and controls for the port an starboard engines (Skinner Engine Company).

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This is a cross-section of the Unaflow engines of the cIty of MIdland 41. Steam is admitted through the ports at the top right and top bottom of the cylinder. The poppet valves at the ports are actuated by rotary cams in the housing at the right of the piston. Steam exhausts through the port in the cylinder wall at the left of the piston upon completion of the stroke. In the ordinary (or counterflow) steam engine, the exhaust ports are at the ends of the cylinder; thus, there is a back pressure as the piston forces the expanded steam out of the cylinder. Absence of back pressure has one great general advantage: it prevents condensation in the cylinder almost entirely. Beyond this, absence of back pressure makes Unaflow engines respond very quickly to the controls (center, right) for reversal of direction. Unaflows had proved themselves on the Virginia Ferry Corporation's Princess Anne (1932) and Del-Mar-Va (1933) and on the Erie Railroad's New York harbor ferry Meadville (1936), all of which had much the same need for flexibility in reversing as the car ferries (Skinner Engine Compeny).

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60


The C&O's current flagship is the badger of 1953 (above, right, Edwin Wilson). Her sister, spartan (below, left) waits to be loaded at Kewaunee. At the right, a pair of Kewaunee Green Bay & Western hood units work cars into the badger (both, Willard V. Anderson, Trains Magazine). Above, pere Marquette 21, after her lengthening and re-engining, waits to be loaded at Jones Island, Milwaukee (Edward J. Dowling, S.J.).

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Like much else on the car ferries, passenger accomodations are a mixture of rail and marine technology. At left is a standard passenger cabin on the spartan with a roomette-style bed lowered. The couch at left also opens into a bed. At the right is the spartan's main lounge and restaurant. All of the C&O car ferries are normally fired by automatic stokers, but the engine room crew fires up a cold boiler manually. Here a coal passer fires up the badger for her maiden voyage (all, the Christy Corporation).

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At left, a solitary hopper of bunker coal is spotted on the port center track of the spartan. Lying between the jacking rails is a collection of gear for securing the cars: screw jacks, rail clamps, and chains (Christy Corporation). The gangway at the right connects with the passenger accomodations on the spar deck. Below, left, a deck hand tightens the butterfly nut on a rail clamp—sometimes known as a "dog"—as the first step in making a car fast (C&O). Compare this photograph with the diagram on page 71. Below, deck hands prepare to make the badger fast to the apron on her first call at Kewaunee. The last 20 feet of the car deck is paved with asphalt to faciliate loading automobiles (Willard V. Anderson, Trains magazine).

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Chapter Five: The Grand Trunk Milwaukee

Car Ferry Company And Other Lake Michigan Services

The grand haven rides high in the water, empty in her slip. Slush ice in the river indicates a spring thaw (Glander Studio).

67

Chapter Five: The Grand Trunk And Others

The Grand Trunk's MIlwauKee, which began life as the ManIstIque Marquette and northern I, ended her days by foundering with all hands in 1929. It was the worst disaster in car ferry history. Above, she is turning in Milwaukee harbor (Edwin Wilson). It was 15º below zero on Christmas day in 1933 when the MadIson put into Milwaukee after a hard passage. A Milwaukee Journal photographer, seeking a symbol of a hard winter, produced a superb picture of the rigors of winter on the car ferries (marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library).

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The Grand Trunk's flagship, cIty of MIlwauKee, newly painted in Canadian National Railway colors, steams out of Milwaukee and sets her course for Muskegon. Photographed in the 1950's (Edward J. Dowling, S.J.), she is barely changed from her plan of 1931 (above, Marine Engineering).

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Steam locomotives were already a rarity around the ferry slips when the Grand Trunk's 8307 loaded the cIty of MIlwauKee at Muskegon in 1954. (Above, and next page.) Diesels occasionally go onto the apron, but steam engines, with their great weight on drivers, were kept well back. The 8307 uses three idlers as she pushes the last cut of cars aboard (both, Jim Scribbins).

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The grand rapIds (above, Edwin Wilson), like the other car ferries, was designed with twin screws for maneuverability in berthing. Watching the vacuum gauges at the port and starboard engine controls are relief engineer Michael Wagner (left) and chief engineer Thomas Nello. Oiler Harold Brehrenwald stands at the telegraph. This scene, enacted when the captain rings "Stand by," occurs thousands of times each year as the car ferries prepare to leave port (Canadian National Railways).

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The harbor tug Andy has just put a line aboard the No. 4 as the S.M. Fischer tows the big barge into Benton Harbor in 1897 (Dowling collection). The Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transportation Company bravely towed railroad cars on open barges at right angles to the prevailing wind on a route more than half the length of Lake Michigan. Not surprisingly, the company lost three of its four barges in storms including No. 2 (below, McDonald collection) which capsized in Chicago harbor in 1906.

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The harbor tug Arctic works the barge No. 4 of the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transportation Company into the Wisconsin Central slip in 1897. This is the most difficult slip for berthing on the Lakes, but the standard car ferries berth here unaided. The unwieldy barges of the LMCFTCo required local tugs at all their terminals. Note the crew members directing operations from the tops of boxcars (St. Clair collection). Below, in a rare photograph of the 1890's the S. M. Fischer (center) and three of the barges line up behind the harbor tug Violet H. Raber (left) in Peshtigo Harbor (Dowling collection).

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Standing out among the miseries of the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transportation Company was the excellence of its tugs. Both were handsome, powerful, and well-suited for the line's needs. The J.C. Ames was a fine Victorian, complete with window shutters. The S.M. Fischer was a modern steel tug with an attractive sheer. Both served for other owners after the end of the LMCFTCo. The J.C. Ames (above, marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library) towed for the Nau Tug Line. The S.M. Fischer (below, Dowling collection) is shown towing the forward portion of the Matoa for the Reid Towing & Wrecking Company.

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This page was intentionally left blank.

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Chapter SixThe Lake Erie Car Ferries

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The Erie Railroad towed its Chicago harbor car floats with the sister tugs Alice Stafford (above, marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library) and Frederick U. Robbins.

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79

Chapter Six: The Lake Erie Car Ferries

shenango no. 1 churns pack ice with her propeller as she opens a path for shenango no. 2 about 1896. Although owned by the subsidiary United States & Ontario Steam Navigation Company, the ships carried the Maltese cross herald of the parent Pittsburgh Shenango & Lake Erie Railroad (above, Dowling collection). Neither ship was a success. shenango no. 1 burned on March 11, 1904 after nine weeks frozen in the ice in Conneaut harbor. She was the only victim among the car ferries of the grim winter of 1904 (left, both, Richard J. Wright collection). shenango no. 2 went on to a career of continual accidents on Lake Michigan.

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The collier Marquette and Bessemer No. 1 went home to the Buffalo Dry Dock Company in 1917 for work on her hull (left, Capt. Frank E. Hamilton collection). The odd vessel spent her last years as the bulk freighter Carrollton (below, Edwin Wilson), but to the end she carried an angular stern designed to load at ferry slips (above, marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library).

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The two ships name Marquette and besseMer no. 2 met very different ends. The first, shown loading above in Conneaut, foundered with all hands in 1909 (marine collection, Milwaukee Public Library). The second (below, Mariners Museum) spent her last years peacefully as a showboat.

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The ashtabula (above, Edwin Wilson) was the only ship the Pennsyvania-Ontario Line ever had. She served the Ashtabula-Port Burwell route for 52 years before colliding with the bulk freighter Ben Moreell (below, Edwin Wilson). The ferry was so badly damaged that she was not rebuilt (left, both, Duff G. Brace).

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The Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo's only car ferry, MaItland no. 1, spent only 16 years in service, and then a decade in lay-up at Ashtabula (above, Mariners Museum), before being reduced to a pulpwood barge (below, Edwin Wilson).

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The Michigan & Ohio Car Ferry Company's regular tug was the Champion, shown here in a catalog of the Detroit Dry Dock Company (Hoey collection). Tangible evidence of the short-lived operation is very meager, but a waybill of the obscure company survives as an exhibit in the M & O's complaint before the ICC against the Michigan Central's charge of $5.00 per car for switching at Detroit (ICC Docket Room).

Chapter Seven: The Ontario Car Ferry

Company and the Upper St. Lawrence River Services

ontarIo no. 1, shown here early in her career, operated without the benefit of a sea gate (Edward Levick collection, Mariners Museum).

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ontarIo no. 2 had ample passenger accomodations and — as one might expect of a ship that was ordered two years after the Titanic disaster — boats for all (John R. Williams collection).

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Chapter Seven: The Ontario Car Ferry Company

The ungainly double-ender charles lyon began life as a set of plans lettered ogdensburg (American SBCo). By 1932 she was lying idle at Port Dalhousie awaiting reduction to a barge (Ivan S. Brooks). Her replacement was the tug-and-barge combination, Prescotont and ogdensburg (George Deno).

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91

Chapter Seven: The Ontario Car Ferry Company

the wIllIaM arMstrong was a small but highly-regarded car ferry. At left, (Lawrence Bovard, Daniel C. McCormick collection) she breaks ice at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River at Ogdensburg. She sank off Morristown in 83 feet of water in 1889 in the Canadian Pacific Car & Passenger Transfer Company's most serious accident. To say that she was a mess shen raised would be a gross understatement (above, McCormick collection).

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