Village Squire, 1980-07, Page 12"Ladies
of the Lake"
Passenger ships on the Great Lakes
were once a popular sight.
BY ALICE GIBB
They were, until the late 1960's, the
grand "ladies of the lakes", elegant white
liners which sailed down the Detroit and
St. Clair Rivers with pennants flying, their
decks lined with passengers waving to
envious onlookers on the shore.
Those "ladies" were the grand "floating
hotels", the passenger ships which were
such a popular sight on the Great Lakes
until little more than a decade ago. Then as
public tastes evolved, the luxury ships fell
prey to the changing times.
The first passenger ships on the lakes
were far from elegant --rather, they were
rough sailing vessels with only crude
passenger accommodations. The men were
crammed in one cabin and the women on
board in another , sleeping on uncomfort-
able bunks built along the walls. The
sleeping quarters were heated with
dangerous wood burning stoves and the
food on board was anything but memor-
able. Since weather forecasting was mostly
a matter of luck, the early passenger ships
lacked any dependable sailing schedule.
Thier passengers, rather than members of
the leisured class, were often men and
women who braved the lakes only out of
necessity.
One of the first real ladies on the Great
Lakes was the S.S. Michigan, launched in
Detroit in 1833 to ply a route from that city
to Buffalo.
BUILT OF WOOD
Like many of the early passenger
steamers, she was built of wood found in
the area and likely carried sails to back up
her steam power. The Michigan escaped
the tragedies which would plague so many
of the Great Lakes passenger carriers, but
she couldn't escape obsolescence. By 1847,
more sophisticated public tastes spelled an
end to the S.S. Michigan's career as a
passenger steamer.
Another memorable early liner was the
2,000 ton Western World, built in Buffalo
and launched as "the crowning glory of the
shipbuilder's art." The boat was 348 feet
in length, with a draft of 14 feet and a hull
made of white oak and decks of white pine.
In its day, the ship was considered nothing
less than a "floating palace" with
hand -carved woodwork in salons. dining
PO. 10 VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1980
rooms and the 300 staterooms. But the
floating palace also required a "royal"
budget and after only a few years on the
lakes, her owners sold her to be
dismantled.
The Western World's fate was shared by
three more of the lakes most popular ladies
- the India, China and Japan, owned by the
Pennsylvania Railroad and known as the
Anchor Line.
The ships, built by wealthy Philadephia
banker Jay Cooke, were operated by the
railway to carry passengers from Buffalo to
Duluth. The sister ships, nicknamed "the
triplets" were unique for their day. They
not only had iron hulls, but were the first
ships on the lakes with iron propellers.
Their distinctive low green hulls were
topped by spotless white wooden upper
decks - spotless because they were
meticulously scrubbed at the end of each
trip.
The ships, launched in the 1870's,
carried up to 150 passengers, offered the
luxury of running water, even if it was cold,
and had black walnut and maple panelling
with carved trim throughout the cabins and
salons. The staterooms were lit with the
soft glow of oil lamps.
A TRIUMPH
The S.S. Japan was considered such a
triumph of the shipbuilder's art that the
Russian Grand Duke Alexis toured the ship
to see just how an elegant passenger liner
should be outfitted.
W nile these liners usually carried
American passengers, Canadians also soon
discovered the joys of sailing in such
luxurious surroundings.
The White Star Line of Detroit operated
a fleet of five white excursion boats,
including their popular flag ship the S.S.
Tashmoo, as well as the City of Toledo, the
Greyhound, the Owana and the Waketa.
The Tashmoo and City of Toledo ran
between Detroit and Port Huron and
many Ontario residents earned their first
"sea legs" on excursions up the brilliant
blue St. Clair River.
The "sonorous whistle" of the Tashmoo
was a familiar sound along the river and
Tashmoo souvenirs are still found in many
antique shops along the lakes.
Unfortunately, the Tashmoo's fate was a
common one for Great Lakes excursion
boats.
In 1936, 1400 merrymakers were dancing
on board the ship or strolling along the
decks when the Tashmoo hit a loose rock in
the channel of the Detroit River. The •
captain wisely headed his ship directly for
Amherstburg, on the Canadian shore,
while the o!chestra, in true shiploie
tradition, played on. But the Tashmoo's
tale had a happy ending - passengers were
landed safely while the ship sank in 15 feet
d water. Later the boat was sold for scrap
but the Tashmoo's bell still has an
honoured place in the Henry Ford Museum
in Dearborn, Michigan.
Our American neighbours certainly
weren't the only shipbuilders who could
produce luxury liners and one of the
best -loved boats on the lakes was the
Canadian -made S.S. United Empire, feat-
ured on the short-lived Canadian four
dollar bill.
OLD BETSEY
The Empire, affectionately nicknamed
"Old Betsey", was one of the last great
wooden passenger ships, launched from
Sarnia in 1882, made of oak from nearby
forests. Many a Sarnia and Point Edward
teenager earned his first pay cheque
sailing on the ship's summer excursions.
The boat's captain was a Scotsman, John
McNabb, who had the enviable reputation
as a master who'd never lost a crew
member or passenger. This was a
reputation hard to match in the days before
instrument navigation, when the captain
had to read the stars and make his own
weather judgments before setting out
from port.
London historian Dr. Fred Landon sailed
on the "Betsey" when he was a young
man, and recalled years later how the ship,
as was the custom in those times, carried
both passengers and freight to the
Lakehead.
"We occasionally had horses aboard,
but they had to be tied crosswise, not
longitudinally, to prevent them from
swaying with the vessel." Dr. Landon also
wrote that in rough seas, the ship would
groan loudly and it wasn't uncommon to
see cutlery sliding off dining room tables as
the ship rolled.
The Beatty family line, owners of the
United Empire, became the Northern
Navigation Company in 1900 and three of
the Great Lakes most popular passenger
ships were born - the Hamonic, Huronic
and finally, the "Queen of the Inland
Lakes", the S.S. Noronic.
The Hamonic. was launched from the
Collingwood shipyards in 1908, and
onlookers held their breath as she slid into
the water, waiting to see if the ship would
ride true. Ride true she did, and the
Hamonic was soon outfitted in splendid
Edwardian style to carry 475 passengers,
3500 tons of freight, a complete orchestra
and glassed -in observation rooms. The