Vol. 4 May 1955 No

tt/descope 2 5 0 VOL. 4 MAY 1955 NO. R. H. Davison, J.F,. Johnston, PUBLISHED BY Associate Editor Editor: G reat L a k e s M o d e l S hipbuilders' G u il d Membership $3*00 BKLLK ISLE DETROIT 7, MICHIGAN Subscription $2.50 Supported in part by the Detroit Historical Society. EDITORIAL NOW IS THE TIME . n o w is t h e t i m e , to take steps to pre Now is the time to act. The period serve an important part of our great of usefulness of the schooner "Wing" American heritage. New England has is drawing to a close. There will be its Peabody Museum, in Salem; a fine no advantage in waiting until it is whaling museum at New Bedford; and a necessary to move the exhibits into restoration of a whole historic sea another temporary home, even if one port at Mystic,Connecticut.They are should be available when needed. The monuments to the the men who, in the cost of moving a second time will be past, made their communities great. a needless expense, running into the On down the Atlantic Coast, as far thousands when loss of revenue^haul as Newport News, Virginia, maritime ing costs, and extra help is includ museums, long ago established, are a ed. perpetual reminder of America s past Everyone can help with this unique and present achievements on the seas and worth while project,acting as an of the world. No one who has visited individual, or through whatever or one or more of them will deny that a ganization they are affiliated with. greater appreciation of America and If you feel that you would like to its free institutions followed that have a part in preserving the fasci experience. nation history of water transporta We of the Great Lakes region shall tion on the Great Lakes and their regret our failure to take advantage tributaries, just drop a line to the of the present opportunity to devel- Secretary of the Guild, stating your ope into a permanent maritime museum name and address, your line of busi the very creditable collection which ness, or occupation, and list all of has been brought together in the old the organizations in which you hold wooden, and therefore obviously tem membership. You will be supplied at porary, sailing ship "J.T.Wing",last once with suggestions as to how you of her kind on these waters. may help. With each suggestion there On the other hand we may take much will be an explanation of how advan pride in being the ones who, by tak tages to your own community will re ing action at the right time, and in sult from its participation. the proper manner, have preserved an If you live in the Great Lakes re important cultural asset. gion this is your museum. THE GUILD ORGANIZED IN 1952 TO LOCATE. ACQUIRE. AND PRESERVE INFORMATION AND OBJECTS RELATED TO THE HISTORY OF SHIPPING ON THE GREAT LAKES AND TO MAKE SAME AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC THROUGH THE MUSEUM OF GREAT LAKES HISTORY AND THE COLUMNS OF TELESCOPE. THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUTHENTIC SCALE MODELS OF GREAT LAKES SHIPS IS ONE OF THE PRIME OBJECTIVES OF THE ORGANIZATION. WHICH HAS BROUGHT INTO BEING THE LARGEST EXISTING COLLECTION OF MODELS OF THESE SHIPS. THE MUSEUM OF GREAT LAKES HISTORY. LOCATED ON THE SHORE OF BELLE ISLE. IN DETROIT. IS OFFICIAL HEADQUARTERS FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND THE REPOSITORY OF ALL OF ITS HOLDINGS. THE GUILD IS INCORPORATED AS AN ORGANIZATION FOR NO PROFIT UNDER THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. NO MEMBER RECEIVES ANY COMPENSATION FOR HIS SERVICES. DONATIONS TO THE GUILD ARE DEDUCTIBLE FOR TAX INCOME PURPOSES. OFFICERS Robert H.Davison,••••President. John F.Miller,•••Vice President. Joseph E.Johnston,Sec-Treas. DIRECTORS £*?uh1’........ Detroit. Walter Massey,..LaSalle,Ontario. John K. Helge sen, Detroit. Leo M.Flagler, • .Windsor. Ontario. Frank Slyker,••••.East Detroit. Donn Chown,•••••••••....Detroit. 3 THE LAKE ERIE NIGHT STEAMERS OF FRANK KIRBY by Gordon P. Bugbee I. The Influence of Historical Circumstance Upon Design, Of the types of modern ship paddlewheel and the steamer to ping that owe ancestry t o gether became discredited ana Fulton’s historic ’’North River chronisms by fashion. Further Steamboat” of 1807, the Ameri more, the steamer reached its can steamer o f the Eastern peak development in the late lakes, rivers and sounds seems XIX and early XX Centuries and least removed from its grand now represents a technological parent. A principal reason is dead end, superseded by modern that the steamer was developed land and air transportation. on the same sheltered waterways Yet the implication of ana where pioneer steam craft were chronism may be somewhat decep first developed and strengthen tive, concealing the structural ed before steam ventured t o and technological advances that sea. Again, throughout their were required for the success development the great steamers ful development of the steamer. retained the paddle wheel pro pulsion used b y the steam The American steamer was de pioneers; f o r adaptation to signed to carry a large volume heavy seas Ericsson's propeller of passengers and freight ef replaced the paddle wheel on ficiently over a relatively the ocean and coastal routes, short route generally sheltered and since the ocean liner is from open sea. A group of re now the idolized epitome o f gional types evolved from the modernism afloat, emulated even original CLERMONT according to by the lowly harbor ferry, the required seaworthiness a n d b C ity o f A l p e na n 1 8 8 3 function, economic justifica when she joined the Detroit and tion, skill of the designer and Cleveland Navigation Company in historical circumstance. A pa 1868. Fifty years later, re latial building could be placed gional variances were obvious, on a shallow raft to form the and the Goodrich p r o peller "steamboat" of western rivers ALABAMA of 1910 could hardly be (the distinction between compared to the D&C sidewheeler "steamboat" and the "steamer" CITY OF DETROIT III of 1912, in is thus both geographical and spite of their common lineage, structural). The steamer con and the latter i n turn was formed more closely to a ship's easily distinguished from Long lines. The sleek vessels of Island Sound sidewheelers. The the Hudson represent a n ad famous Fall River liners of vanced art in interpretation of Long Island Sound a n d t h e the adaptation of style to fun steamers of the Lake Erie over ction and materials, but the night lines never abandoned the more ponderous coastal steamers paddle wheel,and hence retained are no less a careful work o f the broad sponsons protruding craftsmanship. Until the ad from the sides of the ship to vent of the propeller the early enclose t h e paddle wheels. steamers were somewhat stand Many long Island Sound and ardized and regionally inter Chesapeake Bay lines adopted changeable. The Lake Michigan the propeller before the turn Goodrich liner NORTHWEST was of the century, retaining nar not out of place on Lake Erie rower sponsons f o r their spatial advantages. The dis Reputation was likely to spread tinctive turbine ships of the a designer's direct and in Eastern Steamship Lines fol direct influence to other re lowed on Long Island Sound in gions; Newton built a number the present century. Coastal of glorious Lake Erie side craft o f fleets like Lake wheelers whose short existence Michigan's Goodrich Line and was terminated abruptly by the the East Coast's Merchants and * Panic of 1857 and Lake Erie Miners Transportation Company, never saw ships of equal size operating in less sheltered again until late in the century. waters, abandoned both paddle George Peirce created the Fall wheel and sponsons which were River liners of the late Nine easily damaged in heavy s eas teenth Century as examples in impractical where the volume of fluencing other regions f r om trade was not so heavy. Chesapeake Bay to the Lakes. Frank E. Kirby emerged in the In several instances a sin Twentieth Century as the ne w gle designer or shipbuilder leader in steamer design, and directed a period of regional perhaps the final culrainator in evolution. Overlooking t h e view of the changing economic originators Fulton, Livingston trends. The reverse of Newton, and Stevens who were more pre Kirby's career began on Lake occupied with engineering, the Erie and extended later to the most prominent of the early de Hudson. signers and perhaps the man who defined the steamer in appear A series of fortunate coin ance and form was Isaac Newton, cidences seem to direct Kirby's designer of the grand Hudson early career. Perhaps the first River steamers of mid-century. was his birth, July 1, 1849, BUFFALO built at Lorain and into t h e family of Captain finished at Detroit. The main Stephen R. Kirby, a Saginaw product of iron ore carriers shipmaster who turned ship which form the lifeline of the builder and eventually directed steel industry. After the mer the old Detroit Dry Dock Compa ger of 1898, Kirby left the ny. A family friend from New shipbuilding field a n d prac York City persuaded the younger ticed as a consultant naval ar Kirby to go east to study naval chitect during the height of architecture at the Cooper Ins his career. titute Night School there in 1864, and introduced him to the Outside of his passenger contemporary shipping and ship ships, Kirby has many accomp building leaders.

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