Great SHIPS on the Great LAKES Great SHIPS on the Great LAKES A Maritime History Catherine M. Green Jefferson J. Gray Bobbie Malone Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press Publishers since 1855 ©2013 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin Publication of this book was made possible in part by a generous grant from Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Michigan Historical Center. For permission to reuse material from Great Ships on the Great Lakes, 978-0-87020- 582-8, please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not- for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. wisconsinhistory.org Photographs identified with WHi or WHS are from the Society’s collections; address requests to reproduce these photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706. For photographs identified as belonging to Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, please contact Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, 500 West Fletcher, Alpena, MI 49707. Front cover: The schooner John J. Audubon lies 170 feet deep in Lake Huron. Photo by Doug Kesling, NOAA, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Frontispiece: The City of Alpena steamer, courtesy of the Thunder Bay Sanctuary Research Collection Designed by Composure Graphics 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Green, Catherine, 1974– Great ships on the Great Lakes : a maritime history / Cathy Green, Jefferson J. Gray, Bobbie Malone.—1st ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-87020-582-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ships—Great Lakes (North America) —History—Juvenile literature. 2. Shipping—Great Lakes (North America)—History— Juvenile literature. 3. Navigation— Great Lakes (North America)—History—Juvenile literature. 4. Great Lakes Region (North America)— Navigation—History—Juvenile literature. I. Gray, Jefferson J. II. Malone, Bobbie, 1944- III. Title. VK23.7.G724 2013 386.0977—dc23 2013008043 Contents 1 What Is Maritime History? 2 Lakes, Rivers, and Ice People Tell Stories about Great Floods The Great Lakes under Water The Great Lakes under Ice Melting Glaciers Create Lakes Great Lakes Shorelines Wetlands Rivers and Their Watersheds 3 Paddles and Pelts Native People of the Great Lakes Dugout Canoes Birchbark Canoes Europeans Travel the Great Lakes The Canoes of the French Fur Traders The Mysterious Disappearance of the Griffon Exploration, Not Settlement 4 Fighting for the Inland Seas Europeans Build Forts The French and Indian War How Did the Revolutionary War Affect the Great Lakes? Pioneering Spirit Battle on the Lakes: The War of 1812 African American Sailors Why Were Sailing Ships Important to the War of 1812? 5 Connecting with Canals The Push West The Erie Canal The Great Lakes and the Great Eight Building along the Great Lakes Waterways 6 Sail and Steam Early Shipping The Great Lakes Schooner How Locks Work Steam Engines Bigger and Faster Ships Great Lakes Shipping Today 7 Sailors and Keepers The Sailor’s Life Lighthouses Lighthouse Keepers Lighthouse Families 8 Shipwrecks The “Shipwreck Century” Shipwreck Alley Thunder in Thunder Bay: The Isaac M. Scott Shallows and Shoals: The New Orleans Crowded Shipping Lanes: The Pewabic Fire! The Montana The Death’s Door Passage “Captain Santa” and the Christmas Tree Ship A Superior Shipwreck: The Sinking of the Lucerne 9 Exploring Shipwrecks Shipwrecks, Shipwrecks Everywhere The Sinking of the Cornelia B. Windiate Searching for Shipwrecks Documenting Shipwrecks Conserving Shipwrecks What is a National Marine Sanctuary? Past, Present, and Future Time Line Glossary To Learn More Places to Visit About the Authors Index 1 What Is Maritime History? University of Wisconsin Cartography Laboratory When we study history, we use stories and clues from the past to help us understand events and why they happened. If we get our stories and clues from the lakes, seas, or oceans, then we are studying maritime history. This is a maritime history book. It uses stories and clues from the Great Lakes to explain how people in the Great Lakes region used their natural resources, including the lakes, to live their lives. And it tells about the many different types of boats people built to help them follow their dreams. For thousands of years, people have used lakes and rivers in the Great Lakes region to travel and move their goods. In the time before there were streets, railroads, and highways, water was the best way to move people and the things they used or wanted. Why was traveling by water easier than traveling by land? How did people use waterways for transportation? Where did people go? What kinds of boats did they use? How did those who came from other places reach the Great Lakes region? These are some of the questions this book will answer. 2 Lakes, Rivers, and Ice Water. We drink it. We wash dishes, take baths, fish, and swim in it. We canoe, water ski, sail, and ice skate on it. We also ship things and travel across water. We even make power from water. Water is part of everything we do and is absolutely necessary for all life on earth. Water even makes up 60 percent of our own bodies! Luckily, the Great Lakes region has plenty of water. With Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario, and Erie, much of the northern border of the region is formed by water. And water is everywhere in between—with thousands of lakes and thousands of miles of rivers and streams. In fact, the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and parts of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and the Canadian province of Ontario have so many lakes and rivers that much of the land is actually under water! No matter which direction we travel, we can find a waterway, a body of water deep and wide enough for people to navigate a boat. Smaller waterways, such as creeks or ponds, may only be large enough for a small boat, like a canoe. The Great Lakes, however, are large enough to allow huge ships to travel them. For thousands of years, people have used large and small waterways to travel and to move their goods. Transporting goods led to business and trading with folks living in areas that border these waterways and those who lived beyond. People have also used these waterways to supply other needed natural resources, such as fish and plants. More recently people have enjoyed vacations on our lakes and rivers. By learning about waterways in the Great Lakes region and how people have used them, we can learn a lot about the ways people have lived and worked here. Two people kayak on the Detroit River. Michigan Sea Grant A freighter in Green Bay Harbor, Wisconsin, about 1990 Wisconsin Department of Tourism How did so much water find its way into our region? How has it shaped our landscape? In this chapter we will explore the answers to these questions, but we will find ourselves asking many more as we navigate our way through this book. Although we may not often think about the water around us, it has amazing qualities. It’s like a superhero! It can easily and quickly change from steam (gas) to water (liquid) to ice (solid). Water is strong like a superhero, too. By pushing up against or supporting floating objects, water can lift and move heavy materials—from huge logs to ships made of steel and concrete. And just like a superhero, water can change its shape. Water always moves to the lowest point and takes the shape of whatever it fills—a bowl or a glass, or a lake or a riverbed. Illustration by Jill Bremigan No matter what form it takes, water can be very forceful. That is why floods are one of the most powerful natural disasters. For example, a river can flood when winter snow melts too quickly or when rainfall is very heavy. During a flood, the river spills over its banks. The water from the flood can cover an area in a short time. Sometimes a flooding river contains enough power to destroy buildings or change the way an entire landscape looks. Even small amounts of water, moving over a long period of time, can wear down huge rocks to form caves and cliffs. This is what happened in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the shoreline of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in the caves on Bayfield Peninsula along Lake Superior. Both the fast and slow movements of water and ice have completely shaped the Great Lakes and changed the land and waterways surrounding them. Movements of water and ice helped the Great Lakes region look as it does today. Wisconsin’s Bayfield caves were formed by water wearing down huge rocks over a long period of time. Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located along the shoreline of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Dean Ducas People Tell Stories about Great Floods Water’s terrific power has always amazed people. Many groups around the world have passed down stories that tell of great floods that completely changed the Earth. If you are Christian or Jewish, you may know a story about a great flood that includes animals marching into an ark two by two and a dove carrying an olive branch to show that land was beginning to appear again. In The Mishomis Book, Ojibwe author Edward Benton Banai shares his people’s story of a great flood. Here is a short version of that story: At one time, people on Earth had lived in harmony.