The Mythologizing of the Great Lakes Whaleback
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VERNACULAR IN CURVES: THE MYTHOLOGIZING OF THE GREAT LAKES WHALEBACK by Joseph Thaddeus Lengieza April, 2016 Director of Thesis: Dr. Bradley Rodgers Major Department: Maritime Studies, History The “whaleback” type of bulk commodity freighter, indigenous to the Great Lakes of North America at the end of the nineteenth century, has engendered much notice for its novel appearance; however, this appearance masks the essential vernacularity of the vessel. Comparative disposition analysis reveals that whalebacks experienced longevity comparable to contemporary Great Lakes freighter of similar construction material and size, implying that popular narrative overstates whaleback abnormality. Market and social forces which contributed to the rise and fall of the whaleback type are explored. VERNACULAR IN CURVES: THE MYTHOLOGIZING OF THE GREAT LAKES WHALEBACK A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of the Department of Maritime Studies East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Maritime Studies by Joseph Thaddeus Lengieza April, 2016 © Joseph Thaddeus Lengieza, 2016 VERNACULAR IN CURVES: THE MYTHOLOGIZING OF THE GREAT LAKES WHALEBACK By Joseph Thaddeus Lengieza APPROVED BY: DIRECTOR OF THESIS:_________________________________________________________ Bradley Rodgers, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: _______________________________________________________ Nathan Richards, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: _______________________________________________________ David Stewart, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: _______________________________________________________ Benjamin Ford, Ph.D. CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY: ______________________________________________________________________________ Christopher Oakley, Ph.D. DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: ______________________________________________________________________________ Paul J. Gemperline, PhD DEDICATION ILLI ROBUR ET AES TRIPLEX CIRCA PECTVS ERAT, QVI FRAGILEM TRVCI COMMISIT PELAGO RATEM PRIMVS. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to the patience of my wife, family, committee, and especially my advisor, who has been like unto the Righteous Job himself. Punctuated by illness, career turmoil, and the other circumstances of life, this work has been a long, slow clawing to windward, and I am grateful for the companionship of all who have been fellow travelers along the way. Belated thanks as well to Umberto Eco, whose How to Write a Thesis was eminently helpful. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER 1: GREAT LAKES WHALES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM .................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 General Description of Vessel Type .......................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 2: TRADE AND CIVILIZATION MOVE WEST ............................................ 16 Infrastructure ............................................................................................................ 24 Patents………. ........................................................................................................... 30 Growth and Consolidation…………………………………………………………. 31 The Cyclical Picture……………………………………………………………… ... 33 Summary……………………………………………………………………………. 34 CHAPTER 3: ALEXANDER MCDOUGALL……………………………………………. 37 Early Life…………………………………………………………………………… 38 The Formative Years.................................................................................................. 39 The Vessels ………………………………………………………………………… 43 CHAPTER 4: THE FLEET ………………………………………………………………… 56 Boom Times ………………………………………………………………………… 57 A Fleet of Orphans …………………………………………………………………. 60 CHAPTER 5: RECKONING………………………………………………………………. 64 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. 81 WORKS CITED ........……………………………………………………………………… 85 Primary Sources……………………………………………………………………. 85 Secondary Sources………………………………………………………………….. 87 APPENDIX A: SHIP DISPOSITION DATA SET AND COMMENTARY ....................... 92 Data Set Parameters and Methodology………………………………………….. .... 92 Selected Statistics Derived from the Data Set……………………………………… 96 Data Set in Tabular Form…………………………………………………………. .. 98 LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Selected Particulars of Whaleback Propellers……………………………………….. 9 1.2 Selected Particulars of Whaleback Barges…………………………………………… 10 2.1 Total Annual Shipments of Lake Superior Iron Ore by Ranges …………………….. 20 2.2 Population Growth in Selected U.S. Cities ………………………………………….. 24 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 “Whaleback Freighter Locking Through Canal, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.” …………… 4 1.2 Plans of the Whaleback Steamer Colgate Hoyt…………...…………….……….......... 6 1.3 Alexander McDougall…………………………………………………………………. 7 1.4 The Whaleback Passenger Steamer Christopher Columbus……………….…………... 8 1.5 R. J. Hackett…................................................................................................................ 13 1.6 “Elevators and Shipping, Buffalo, NY”……………………………………………….. 14 2.1 General Map of the Great Lakes ………………….………………………………….. 17 2.2 “The Poe Locks at Sault Ste. Marie Nearing Completion”…………………………… 28 3.1 Portrait of Alexander McDougall ……………………………………………………. 38 3.2 McDougall’s Initial “Tow Boat” Patent ……………………………………………… 45 3.3 McDougall’s 1888 Patent …………………………………………………………….. 46 3.4 Samuel Calthrop’s Streamlined Train ………………………………………………… 47 3.5 Winans’ Steamship……………………………………………………………………. 49 3.6 The Cleopatra’s Needle Barge ………………………………………………………… 51 3.7 HMS Polyphemus …………………………………………………………………….. 52 4.1 Doxford Turret Ship…………………………………………………………………… 62 4.2 Dracone Barge………………………………………………………………………… 63 5.1 Cause of Loss of All Bulk Freighters………………………………………………… 66 5.2 Cause of Loss of Wooden Freighters….……………………………………………… 67 5.3 Cause of Loss of Wooden Freighters, Excluding Burning…………………………… 68 5.4 Cause of Loss of Whaleback Propellers……………………………………………… 69 5.5 Cause of Loss of Freighters of Comparable Tonnage to Whalebacks………………… 70 5.6 Cause of Loss of Ferrous Non-Whaleback Freighters…………...…………………… 71 5.7 Cause of Loss of Freighters 4,000 Tons or Greater….................................................. 72 5.8 Cause of Loss of Whaleback Barges…………………….…………………………… 73 5.9 Average Freighter Longevity in Years……………………………………………….. 75 5.10 The Telescoping Hatch Cover………………………………………………………... 78 5.11 Hulett Unloader………………………………………………………………………. 79 5.12 Ships Wait to Transit the Locks at Sault Ste. Marie…………………………………. 80 CHAPTER 1: GREAT LAKES WHALES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM “A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing.” Attributed to Susan Sontag Introduction Out of all the vessels in history, few have been more unjustly burdened with moral and intellectual baggage than the whaleback. Whalebacks of the Great Lakes bulk commodities trade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were not as remarkable as has come to be believed. They were not especially safe, nor were they fearfully dangerous. They were not golden geese, nor white elephants. As feats of engineering, they were neither tremendous prodigies nor vast follies, and yet all of these have been asserted, believed and repeated. Whalebacks were unusual in appearance, certainly, but on the balance they were not atypical craft for their time and place. Certainly the whaleback has no greater symbolic meaning, although attempts have been made to invest them with it (Bowen 1946:181-182; Wilterding 1969:2; Frew 2008:169). The narrative they are best equipped to carry is perhaps that in tumultuous times fortunes could rise and fall quickly. The weight of general opinion, insofar as opinion about them was ever general, has swayed between two poles: the first that, as Bowen opines, they were “truly a symbol of Great Lakes ingenuity” (Bowen 1946:182); the second that they were self evident dead ends in the development of shipbulding. Thus when the (British) Institution of Naval Architects considered the whaleback design, the society’s vice president, Mr. B. Martell declared a whaleback “a vessel, no one can doubt for a moment, entirely unfit for ocean-carrying purposes…” only to be interrupted by a second member, Mr. John Corry, interjecting “any purpose” (Goodall 1892:199). This bi-polar image is very much off the mark, but it has made for good stories. The real story, though, is interesting too. The conventional narrative of whalebacks is that they were economic failures (Daley 2000:8-12); however, it is possible to argue that based on the performance of the vessels themselves, and based on the survival of elements of their design, that the ships acquitted themselves reasonably well. This standard narrative of whalebacks, found mainly in non- academic popular history, is actually a flattening and conflation of three separate narratives: that of the technical aspects of the vessels themselves; that of the company which built them, the American Steel Barge Company; and that of their inventor, Captain Alexander McDougall. These stories tend to resolve into two types. Earlier Gilded-Age accounts emphasize elements of innovation and progress, reinforcing America’s contemporary self-image. In this vein are the Los Angeles Times article, which trumpets the whaleback Christopher Columbus as “probably the most noteworthy vessel, as to model, ever built” (Los Angeles Times 1892:6), and the Washington