The steamship William G. Mather is a retired Great Lakes bulk freighter now restored as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio, one of five in the Great Lakes region. She transported cargo such as ore, coal, stone, and grain to ports throughout the Great Lakes, and was nicknamed "The Ship That Built Cleveland" because Cleveland's steel mills were a frequent destination.
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships.
SS Carl D. Bradley was an American self-unloading Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Michigan storm on November 18, 1958. Of the 35 crew members, 33 died in the sinking. Twenty-three were from the port town of Rogers City, Michigan, United States. Her sinking was likely caused by structural failure from the brittle steel used in her construction.
Col. James M. Schoonmaker, formerly Willis B. Boyer, is a lake freighter that served as a commercial vessel on the Great Lakes for much of the 20th century. Named for Medal of Honor recipient James Martinus Schoonmaker, it is currently a museum ship in Toledo, Ohio.
USS Nokomis (YT-142/YTB-142/YTM-142) was a Woban-class harbor tug built in Bremerton, Wash, and assigned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1940. Nokomis was present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. She was the first vessel on scene at the USS Arizona, and was called off by the officers on deck because of the imminent explosion of the battery below deck. It then left and helped beach the USS Nevada, with Hoga (YT-146), and YT-153. The beaching of the Nevada saved Pearl Harbor's mouth from being blocked. After that the USS Nokomis fought fires and dewatered the battleship USS California, for 3 days. This effort made the California salvageable, to be recommissioned again later in the war. Nokomis was also the last vessel to move the surviving YC-699 barge prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Post-war she continued serving Pearl Harbor ships until she was decommissioned in May 1973, and eventually sold for "scrap" to Crowley, in San Francisco. She was renamed Sea Serpent and served many years in the San Francisco Bay as a tug and fire boat. In 1989, after the Loma Prieta earthquake in the SF Bay area, Nokomis and Hoga fought fires alongside each other again.
ST Cervia was built in 1946 as a seagoing tug for use as a fleet auxiliary by Alexandra Hall & Company Ltd of Aberdeen, Scotland. Today she is a floating Museum still undergoing restoration in Ramsgate, Kent.
The William Rest was a tugboat built for the Toronto Harbour Commission in 1961 for $150,000 CAD. She was built in Erieau, Ontario by the Erieau Shipbuilding and Drydock Limited. She displaced 61 gross tons. She was named after the commission's recently deceased director of planning. Rest had worked for the Commission for 46 years.
The George M. Carl was a lake freighter with 10,000 ton displacement.
The Bagotville is a tugboat built in Quebec in 1964.
Portland is a sternwheel steamboat built in 1947 for the Port of Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
Fosdyke Trader was a 411 GRT Empire F type coaster that was built in 1944 by Henry Scarr Ltd, Hessle, United Kingdom as Empire Fathom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was sold in 1946 and renamed Fosdyke Trader. In 1961, she was sold to Canada and renamed Fort Carillon. Further sales in 1972 and 1975 saw her renamed Janolyne and Fermont. A proposed conversion to a floating restaurant fell through and she was sold in 1990 to an American and renamed Mon Ami. She was wrecked on 17 November 1991 on Seal Island, Canada.
John Ward Westcott was an American ship captain on the Great Lakes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is noted for making and developing the first floating range lights and the first lightship for safe navigation in Lake St. Clair at the Detroit River. He was the youngest ship captain on the Great lakes.
The Amboy was a wooden schooner barge that sank along with her towing steamer, the George Spencer on Lake Superior off the coast of Schroeder, Cook County, Minnesota in the United States. In 1994 the remains of the Amboy were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
SS S.R. Kirby was a composite-hulled bulk carrier that served on the Great Lakes of North America from her construction in 1890 to her sinking in 1916. On May 8, 1916, while heading across Lake Superior with a cargo of iron ore and the steel barge George E. Hartnell in tow, she ran into a storm and sank with the loss of all but two of her 22-man crew off Eagle Harbor, Michigan. For over 102 years the location of S.R. Kirby's wreck remained unknown, until June 2018, when her wreck was discovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) in 825 feet (251 m) of water, completely broken up.
Gunilda was a steel-hulled Scottish-built steam yacht in service between her construction in 1897 and her sinking in Lake Superior in 1911. Built in 1897 in Leith, Scotland by Ramage & Ferguson for J. M. or A. R. & J. M. Sladen, and became owned by F. W. Sykes in 1898; her first and second owners were all from England. In 1901, Gunilda was chartered by a member of the New York Yacht Club, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean with a complement of 25 crewmen. In 1903, she was purchased by oil baron William L. Harkness of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the New York Yacht Club; she ended up becoming the club's flagship. Under Harkness' ownership, Gunilda visited many parts of the world, including the Caribbean, and beginning in 1910, the Great Lakes.
SS Russia was an iron-hulled American Great Lakes package freighter that sank in a Lake Huron gale on April 30, 1909, near DeTour Village, Michigan, with all 22 of her crew and one passenger surviving.
Essayons was a tugboat of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Her mission with the Corps was to support the installation of breakwaters and piers, and the dredging of harbors on Lake Superior. She was built in 1908 and served with the Army until 1949, when she was sold to the Zenith Dredge Company. Essayons continued her support of port construction and maintenance under her new owner until the mid 1960s. In 1994 she was sold again, this time to a local businessman, who hoped to convert her into a floating Bed and Breakfast. This plan never came to fruition and she sank at her moorings in Duluth Harbor in 2009.
SS Cayuga was a steel-hulled American package freighter in service between 1889 and 1895. She was built in 1889 in Cleveland, Ohio by the Globe Iron Works Company for the Lehigh Valley Transit Company of Buffalo, New York. One of five identical sister ships, Cayuga entered service in 1889, carrying package freight between Buffalo and Chicago, Illinois, also making stops in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Gladstone, Michigan. Throughout her brief career, Cayuga was involved in several accidents and incidents. In the first in 1889, the ship went aground in a gale just outside of Buffalo harbor. Six tugboats managed to pull her free. In 1891, the Cayuga was involved in a collision with the freighter Delaware near Cheboygan, Michigan. During the ship's final voyage in May 1895, Cayuga collided with the wooden freighter, Joseph L. Hurd near Ile Aux Galets in northeastern Lake Michigan and sank with one casualty. Because of Cayuga's value, several salvage efforts, between 1896 and 1900, were attempted but were unsuccessful.
SS Chester A. Congdon was a steel-hulled American lake freighter in service between 1907 and 1918. She was built in 1907 by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company of South Chicago, Illinois, for the Holmes Steamship Company, and was intended to be used in the grain trade on the Great Lakes. She entered service on September 19, 1907, when she made her maiden voyage. In 1911, Salt Lake City was sold to the Acme Transit Company. A year later, she was transferred to the Continental Steamship Company, and was renamed Chester A. Congdon, after lawyer and entrepreneur Chester Adgate Congdon. She was involved in several accidents throughout her career.
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