The SS Pere Marquette (also Pere Marquette 15) was the world's first steel train ferry. It sailed on Lake Michigan and provided a service between the ports of Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Pere Marquette Railway from 1897 to 1930. The railway used the name Pere Marquette for many of its ships and ferries, adding a number to the end of the name.
The carferry was built by the Wheeler Shipyards in Bay City, Michigan, in 1896 at a cost of $300,000. The vessel was built for the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad and complete when launched, except for a few finishing items needed for the cabins. It left Bay City on December 30, 1896, and arrived first in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a day's public inspection. [1] It then continued onto Ludington, Michigan, from there and arrived on January 13, 1897. The ship had split cabins, one in front of the smoke stacks and one behind them. They provided sleeping berths for the officers and ten passengers. [2]
The steamship was 350 feet (110 m) long and 56 feet (17 m) wide. It measured 2,443 gross register tons and had two 12-foot (3.7 m) propellers to drive it. There were two compound engines that produced 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW). [3] The ship had electricity from stem to stern that was controlled at the pilot house. The inside deck had four railroad tracks with a capacity of 30 freight boxcars. Fully loaded the carferry had a displacement of some 4,050 tonnes (3,990 long tons ) on a 12.25-foot (3.73 m) draft of water. The vessel traveled in both the summer and winter and was capable of handling severe gales. [4] Its hull was constructed to break up heavy ice. [5] The steamship was the first steel train ferry constructed in the world. [6] [7] [8] [9]
The vessel carried railroad cars and passengers and went into service as a cross-lake train ferry going across Lake Michigan. It made its official maiden voyage from Ludington to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on the night of February 16, 1897. It carried 22 railroad freight boxcars and traveled all night at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) and arrived at its destination at 7:00 A.M. on February 17. [10] On February 21 it struck and sank the fishing steamer T. W. Ferry docked at the Pere Marquette Railway Company dock in Ludington. [11] The steamship was originally called the Pere Marquette and renamed the Pere Marquette No. 15 in 1924. [12] She was scrapped in 1935. [13]
The naval architect who designed the steamship was Robert Logan. He designed six car ferries for the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad between 1895 and 1910. He was born in Scotland and started shipbuilding in Canada in 1888. [14]
Ludington is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat and the largest city in Mason County. The population was 7,655 at the 2020 census.
The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
SS Milwaukee was a train ferry that served on Lake Michigan. It was launched in 1902 and sank with all hands off Milwaukee on October 22, 1929. Fifty-two men were lost with the vessel.
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Eber Brock Ward was an American industrialist, iron and steel manufacturer, and shipbuilder.
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SS Spartan is a railroad car ferry on Lake Michigan owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from 1952 through 1979. It alternated routes from Ludington, Michigan, to Milwaukee, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
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The MV Kaye E. Barker is a self-discharging lake freighter owned and operated by the Interlake Steamship Company. She was originally built as the Edward B. Greene, and was later renamed Benson Ford before being sold to Interlake and named the Barker. It primarily hauls hematite pellets, stone, and coal across the North American Great Lakes.
SS Pere Marquette 18 was a steel-hulled Great Lakes train ferry that served on Lake Michigan from her construction in 1902 to her sinking in 1910.
Interlake Maritime Services is an American shipping firm that was created in December 2020 after Interlake Steamship Company purchased the assets of Pere Marquette Shipping Company and Lake Michigan Car Ferry Company, including the car ferry SS Badger, MT Undaunted, ATB Pere Marquette 41, SS Spartan, and MG Winfield Scott (LT-805). Its corporate headquarters is located in Middleburg Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, with additional regional offices in Duluth, Minnesota, and Ludington, Michigan.
The Pere Marquette, which was the widest steamer on the Great Lakes, was the first steel carferry in the world.
Fifty five years ago, on Feb 19, 1897, there steamed out of Ludington's harbor the first steel carferry in the world, departing on her maiden voyage.
Media related to Pere Marquette (ship, 1897) at Wikimedia Commons