JANUARY - FEBRUARY, 1978 Volume XXVII; Number 1 GREAT LAKES MARITIME INSTITUTE DOSSIN GREAT LAKES MUSEUM Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan 48207 JAN/FEB, 1978 Page 2 MEMBERSHIP NOTES Welcome to 1978! A brand new year, a brand new slate, and a brand new outlook. It is going to be difficult to keep up with the pace set in 1977, but the continued success of the Institute demands that we not just meet, but surpass last year. At the close of the year our member­ ship had grown to approaching 1,50C. pretty good for an organization that had 97 members in 1959...but this year we’ll shoot for 1,600. It’ll take a lot of work, and you’ll have to help, but you always have, so we should make it. Telescope production last year produced a total of 244 pages, and in addition to that we produced the FITZGERALD book with 60 pages. For the uninitiated, this means your Editor typed, then Varityped 608 pages. This much production takes a lot of time, but we are going to do something about it, and we’ll have an announcement to make perhaps as early as the next issue. Not only will what we have planned result in far less work to getting Telescope out, but it will produce a far better product. Yes, 1977 was a good year...but 1978 looks better. MEETING NOTICES Regular membership meetings are scheduled for January 27, March 31, and May 19 (early to avoid Memorial Day weekend). All meetings will be at the Dossin Museum at 8:00 PM. Business meetings are scheduled to be held on February 24, April 28, and June 23 (early to avoid July 4th weekend). These meetings are held at the Dossin Museum and members are urged to attend. CONTENTS Membership notes, meeting notices, etc. 2 Paddlers, Propellers and Pushers Sam Breck, Jr, 4 From Coal to Gas Skip Gillham 15 Great Lakes & Seaway News Edited by Frec/ericE , Weber 21 OUR COVER P IC T U R E .. .The venerable LANSDOWNE approaching the dock in Detroit. The photo was taken by member Karl Kuttruff in 1960, before she had been shorn of two of her stacks and while she had her earlier pilot house T e l e s c o p e Magazine is produced with assistance from the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, an agency of the Historical Department of the City of Detroit, TELESCOPE Page 3 Announcing... EDMUND FITZGERALD 1957 - 1975 by ROBERT E. LEE, Telescope Editor • 60 PAGES...PHOTOGRAPHS THROUGHOUT HER CAREER: BEING BUILT, S A I L I N G , and UNDERWATER AFTER S I N K I N G . • BOTH DISASTER REPORTS. THE COAST GUARD F IN DING S And th e LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION REBUTTAL REPORT, COMPLETE. • BLUEPRINT VIEWS OF THE SHIP, TAKEN FROM SHIPYARD PLANS. • FULL COLOR CENTER S P R E A D . A PAINTING OF THE SHIP, DONE SPECIALLY FOR T H I S BOOK by PAUL C. LaMARRE, J R . • FULL COLOR COVER FROM A PAINTING BY JAMES CLARY. (This book was produced, in part, with funds realized from Sustaining memberships. A copy will be sent free to each sustaining member FOR 1977. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS LAST YEAR’S sustaining members, not current year’s. ORDER YOUR COPY NOW $3,50 GREAT LARES MARITIME INSTITUTE DOSSIN GREAT LAKES MUSEUM BELLE ISLE D e t r o i t . M ic h ig a n 4 8 2 0 7 JAN/FEB, 1978 Pa ge 4 PADDLERS. PROPELLERS AND PUSHERS * This article was written for and origi* Ontario, to Windsor, the first rail­ nally published in three successive issues road to reach the Detroit-Windsor of The Inside Track, a raiIf an bulletin. We reprint it for its interest to Tele­ area from the east, it transported scope readers with appreciation to the passengers and freight to the De­ author and Inside Track, for permission to do so. troit shore via a small fleet of "break bulk" vessels onto which freight was loaded from the rail The first self-propelled railroad cars, ferried across the mile-wide car ferry began operating across the river, and reloaded on the cars. Firth of Forth, in Scotland, in 1850 However, when the Great Western and the idea of carrying loaded realized that it would have to con­ railroad cars across water barriers vert its "broad" guage of 5'-6" to wasn’t long in coming to North Amer­ the "standard" 4'-8" in order to ica. The Buffalo and Lake Huron obtain interchange and through Railway, a line from Fort Erie-Buf- traffic from the American railroads, falo northwest to Goderich, Ontario, it ordered its first car ferry and on Lake Huron (now a CN line), began the first car ferry on the Detroit ferry service across the Niagara river, Great West ern t Fabricated in River between Black Rock, New York Scotland, Great Western was assembl­ and Fort Erie in 1858 with the ferry ed in Windsor from more than 10,000 International„ However, Internation­ pieces, and began service in January al's useful life was short due to 1867. 220-feet in length, Great the opening in 1873 of the Inter­ Western was the largest steel or national bridge between the two iron ship on the Great Lakes at the points, a bridge that still is in t ime. use today for Amtrak, N&W and Con­ In 1858 the Great Western built rail trains. what was then a branch line into When the Great Western Railway Sarnia from London (now a main line opened for traffic in 1854 from of the CN) and established a break- Suspension Bridge (Niagara Falls), bulk service to Port Huron across TELESCOPE Page 5 In this view the M IC H I GAN CENTRAL approaches Windsor, Scarcely anything on the Detroit skyline, seen here, remains today, McDONALD Col lection/Dossin Museum the St. Clair River, in 1872. A Transit, passed into the hands of ferry, Transit, was built for this the Grand Trunk. crossing but never used at Port The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, Huron because she was sent to De­ which reached Point Edward, north of troit that year. The Great Western Sarnia via a line from St. Mary’s in also added a third boat at Detroit, 1859 (now CN), had operated a break- Saginaw, for the summer of 1872, but bulk ferry service across the river later that year Saginaw was sent to to Fort Gratiot at a point where the Port Huron. Both Saginaw and Transit Blue Water Bridge stands today. For had wooden hulls and proved to be car ferry service at this point the inadequate for the volume of traffic Grand Trunk ordered, in 1872, the at Detroit/Windsor. (Saginaw had a International, a large, iron-hulled capacity of only four cars, and soon boat built of Scottish prefabricated after her car ferry service was sections. She was the first three- converted to a tug.) A larger boat track ferry on the Lakes, and could was needed on the Detroit River, it carry 21 cars on her deck. She was was obvious, and by February, 1874 very successful in service on the Michigan, with an 18-car capacity St. Clair River, so much so that GT and a wood hull plated with steel, ordered another boat for that cros­ was placed in service. However, sing, Huron, also to be assembled in Michigan’s hull was weak, and she North America from hull sections proved to be ineffective as an ice­ made in Scotland. Huron was launched breaker, something of a disappoint­ in June 1875, cost about $200,000, ment. In August, 1882, when the and was equipped with twin-screw Great Western was absorbed by the propellers powered by a pair of Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, the single cylinder steam engines. M ichig an, along with Saginaw and Meanwhile the Grand Trunk abandon­ JAN/FEB, 1978 Page 6__________ ______ ed the Sarnia/Port Huron crossing the Grand Trunk from Windsor to Fort in favor of the Point Edward/Fort Erie, an arrangement that included Gratiot service, and Saginaw was the use of the Grand Trunk’s ferries laid up at Windsor as a result. Be­ on the Detroit River. Because of the cause Michigan’s weak hull continued increase in traffic resulting from to be a problem at Detroit, the this plan, it was necessary to bring Grand Trunk contracted for a new Huron and Internat ional down from iron-hulled ferry into which the Sarnia to Windsor. Both had been in­ Michigan’s engines would be placed. active since completion of the Port The new boat, Lansdowne was a famil­ Huron/Sarnia tunnel under the St. iar sight on the Detroit River for Clair River in 1891. I nternational ninety years after it entered serv­ was put up for sale and sold to the ice in November, 1884. Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway, Upon delivery of Lansdowne, Tran­ (later a part of Pere Marquette, now sit was laid up at Windsor and soon the Chessie System lines in Ontario) after was destroyed by fire, as was for Detroit River service. She later Saginaw a few years later. Thus, the became Pere Marquette’s first car Grand Trunk’s service on the Detroit ferry. Huron, however, was placed in River was provided by Lansdowne and service by the Grand Trunk on the Great Western, Huron was still mak­ Detroit River in 1899. ing the crossing at Point Edward. In Great Western provided service June 1897, however, the Wabash Rail­ until 1923 when she was converted to way arranged for trackage rights on a sand barge, and she may still be The TRANSPORT of 1880, After railroad service she became a pulp­ wood harge and was lost in Lake Superior, McDONALD Collection/Dossin Museum TELESCOPE Page 7 fires in Huron were finally quenched in 1971 and she, too, operated as a barge until early 1 9 7 5 when both boats were withdrawn from service and tied up at Windsor.