250 ( L c l c s c o n c 1 VOL. 4 A U Q U S T 1 9 5 5 N 0 . 8 Oil painting of Mackinaw Boat "Wabesi" By Oliver A. Birge, 1938 Description p.3; plans p.8 KIRBY LAKE ERIE STEAMERS, p.If PORT OF ST. JOSEPH, MICH. p. 11 2 3 * 1t z t a p t R. H. Davison, J.F.. Johnston, PUBLISHED BY ASSOClCtG ^ tOP E d i t o r : G reat L akes M o del Shipbuilders' G u il d Membership $3,00 bille isle dctboit7.micmgam Subscription $2.50 Supported in part by the Detroit Historical Society. HHHHHHHHHHHHHHRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHriHHUHHHHHHHHHHHH The Fourth Annual Model Exhibition of the Great Lakes Model Shipbuilders* Guild will be held on Monday and Tuesday, August 22nd and 23rd, aboard the J. T. WING as in past years. Since much of the work in setting up, maintaining and taking down the exhibit must be done by Guild members, those members who will be free to assist on those days and on the preceding Sunday evening will be appreciated for the services they may render. The next meeting of the Guild will be held on Tuesday night, August 23rd, after the conclusion of the exhibition. In Memoriam: Mrs. Joseph E. Johnston It is with deep regret that the members of the Guild learn of the death of Mrs. Johnston on Thursday, July ?th. Despite the disturbances of museum affairs, magnified by their proximity to the Johnston household in quarters aboard the J.T. WING, Mrs. Johnston was a patient and gracious hostess to members of the Guild, both as they met collectively at Guild meetings and worked indivi­ dually upon their own projects at the museum. The success of the Guild and of the Museum together Is due almost wholly to the efforts of the Johnstons; her passing leaves a void which cannot be filled. G.P.R. THE GUI ID 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 Robert L.Ruhl,........ Detroit. Walter Massey,..LaSalle,Ontario. JohnK. Helge sen,...... Detroit. Leo M.Flagler, • .Windsor, Ontario. Frank Slyker,•••• .East Detroit. Donn Chown,••••••••••••.Detroit. SKELETON OF MACKINAW BOAT The "Wabesi" was painted white, and boasted snow-white sails, wholly LIES ROTTING ON HESSEL BAY untouched by the hemlock bark color­ By John T. Nevill ing of that era, and this, coupled with her graceful stance in the wat­ er, gave her her Indian name, "Wab­ esi," which means the swan. (Taken from a clipping in the Sault Her sails, incidentally, were Ste. Marie, Michigan Evening News, controlled by single halyards, one Thursday, January 17, 1952). line serving for both peak and thr­ oat, and this applied to either HESSEL, Mich.------The Twenty-six mast. Her sides were pine, over foot Mackinaw boat, "Wabesi," which cedar ribs. Her knees also were performed a noble service to the cedar while her keel, stern post, hardy and venturesome Les Cheneaux and bow post were oak. pioneers of 75 years ago, lies in The man who owns the "Wabesi's" rotting fragments on a Hessel Bay few remaining remnants is John Osog- beach, but thanks to the imagination win, pioneer Hessel resident, who and interest of a Hessel artist she will be 73 years old in March. The lives on in blue-print form. craft was left by John Osogwin's The artist is Oliver Birge, whose father, Joseph Osogwin, who owned it oil paintings and murals are widely for at least 60 years prior to his known throughout the midwest, and death in 1915* This the boat, now the blue-prints, made by Birge, are about 106 years old, has been in the believed to be the only set of scale possession of the Osogwin family for drawings in the world of a genuine 96 years. Great Lakes Mackinaw boat. Birge, who devoted almost a year In Fur Trade. of work to gathering the information and perfecting the prints, selected Although little is known of the The "Wabesi," because her rotting "Wabesi's" early history, John Osog­ keel, ribs, knees, bow and stern win assumes she was used to some ex­ posts are on property of a neighbor tent in the fur trade, which then who was her last owner. But it was a was seeing its last days of import­ fitting selection, because for many ance on Mackinac Island. That being years the "Wabesi" was the Les Chen­ as it may, she was acquired by Jos­ eaux area's only link with the out­ eph Osogwin when he was 15 years side world. old, and Joseph died in 1915 at the Built by the Shaneys, a family of age of 75. boat builders in St. Ignace, about Joseph Osogwin, as a young man, 18^5, the "Wabesi" was 26 feet long, was employed by William Wendell, one with a seven foot six inch beam. Be­ of a group of brothers, who were ing a Mackinaw, she was a double- county officials with headquarters ender, with a fairly flat bottom, in the then county seat on the Is­ wide cheeks at bow, a narrow fore­ land. By the time he acquired the front, and a long, narrow stern. Mackinaw boat, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company was beginning Two Masts. its end. So young Joseph sailed the "Wabesi" to Big Bay de Noquet, pick­ She had two masts, both easily ed up a wife at Nahma, and ultimate­ demountable through a system of col­ ly settled near Hessel in Les Chen­ lars and locking pins, and many's eaux. the time the masts were removed to In Les Cheneaux, the "Wabesi" was be used as rollers in beaching the used mostly in the fishing trade, craft. Her main-mast towered twenty- but the early homesteaders were bad­ seven feet from keel to top, while ly in need of a more convenient mode her fore-mast was about three feet of travel to markets where they shorter. Both were tapered, and could buy supplies and provisions. shaped to almost perfect roundness with draw-knives. Continued on page 7 3 THE LAKE ERIE SIDEWHEELERS OF FRANK E^ KIRBY by Gordon P. Bugbee III. The Influence of Aesthetics Upon Design. Although the influence of by fashionable borrowings from aesthetics upon design is per­ familiar sources. I t s sole haps more obvious than the con­ conventional exterior decora­ siderations we have just dis­ tions are the lathed stanchions cussed, it remains last since of the promenades, the carved it is almost wholly dependent wood paddle box decorations upon the preceding considera­ (absent in the Kirby vessels), tions. Like most ships the the panelled surfaces of cabins steamer is one of the most (also absent), and the carved functionally determined struc­ wood bow piece (which is per­ tures in spite of its trim­ haps an outgrowth of the figure mings. As with any ship, the head of sailing craft). This designer is limited in the ex­ design purity occurs probably tent to which he can arbitra­ because there was no establish­ rily mould and embellish the ed visual criterion of speed to steamer, because of probable be copied. Paradoxically in conflict with the operation of recent times when design has the ship. With these conditions generally been purified of imi­ the exterior of the steamer re­ tations, marine design has em­ mains generally plain and un­ phasized "streamlining” beyond adorned, while the interior em­ its functional demands - some­ bellishment becomes mere face­ times even subjugating function lifting, necessary for impres­ to appearance - to convince a sing the patronage upon which speed-conscious age that a the economic success of the facelifted structure i s steamer is dependent. "modern." Blanket condemnation of the trend is not justifiable, A ship is streamlined to for streamlining is often a some degree to permit a smooth useful artistic means of ex­ flow of water and air around pressing motion through develop­ its moving form, so that it ing the inherrent contours of appears to be fashioned by the the ship, but it is to be con­ wind, but its aerodynamic re­ demned where it tries to make quirements are less restrictive the ship something foreign to upon design than t h o se of its nature. faster-moving land a n d air craft. Thus, its appearance The appearance of the spontaneously expresses motion, steamer is^determined by an in­ partly by mental association terpretation of her structure with its function as a moving and placement of spaces and body, but also by the peculiar functions in a balanced form. treatment of its lines and con­ 'Oiat is not to say that design tours. Despite i t s dated is an automatic process.