Notes From The Field 2000

The City of Glasgow

The City of Glasgow served as the flagship of Capt. Charles Hutchinson’s Pioneer Steamship Company. For several seasons she was under the command of Capt. Charles E. Benham and towed the barge Abyssinia in the coal, grain, and iron ore trade.

While moored at Green Bay on December 3, 1907, the City of Glasgow caught fire, and the blaze spread too rapidly to be controlled. As she burned, the vessel blew across the harbor and sank between Grassy Island Light and Long Tail Point. She laid there until the coming spring, completely blocking the entrance and exit of the harbor. The channel had to be dredged to allow the passage of vessels in and out of the bay.

In 1908, the Leathem and Smith Company purchased the City of Glasgow and removed the steamer from the harbor mouth. Divers Isabell and Pearl Purdy assisted in the salvage. Fifteen feet under water, Isabell fastened spikes into inch-thick planks to repair the burned stern. Pumps were brought to Green Bay by rail and hauled over the ice to the wreck. Platforms for the pumps were erected, siphons were put in place, and the ship was pumped out.

The week of May 17, 1908, storms destroyed this repair work, pulling the planks over the heads of the spikes. The one-inch planks were then replaced with two-inch planks, and washers were placed under the heads of the spikes.

On May 28, the City of Glasgow was raised from the bottom of the channel and towed to the Leathem and Smith yards at Sturgeon Bay. Examination of her hull showed that she was burned below the waterline the entire length. The engine of the burned steamer was removed along with the boilers, the shaft, and the wheel. The engine was later sold for $3,000.

In the fall of 1909, Leathem and Smith converted the City of Glasgow into a barge for hauling crushed stone to lower lake ports and returning with coal. One hundred twenty feet of the aft end of the ship was removed, leaving a vessel about 180 feet long and 41 feet in beam. Pockets were also added in the hold to fit her with an unloading device.

Shortly after she was rebuilt and sent to sea again, the City of Glasgow was teamed with the converted schooner Adriatic (also built by Davidson and now resting nearby in Sturgeon Bay) as a consort of the big tug John Hunsader. Loading at the Leathem & Smith quarry in Sturgeon Bay, the two consorts carried various types of stone to Lake Michigan ports for building and filling.

On October 6, 1917, the Hunsader had the City of Glasgow and the Adriatic in tow about two miles out from the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal when the tow line broke. The two barges dropped their anchors, but a heavy south wind blew them aground north of the canal at Lilly Bay. The crew of the Glasgow, Charles Wilman and Tom Torstenson, were rescued with great difficulty. The wind picked up that night, and it was impossible to get near enough to the Adriatic to free her crew of six. After daylight the crew was rescued, and the Adriatic was freed within two weeks. However, the City of Glasgow had been driven too far from deep water to be pulled out with existing lines, and a new line would have cost more than the barge was worth. The owners decided to salvage the ship’s machinery and leave the hull to the elements.

Straits of Mackinac
The Straits of Mackinac was originally built for the Michigan State Highway Department in 1928 to ferry automobiles between the state’s upper and lower peninsulas. The 196-foot steel vessel ran between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace until the Mackinaw Bridge opened in 1957. The Straits Transit Co. bought the ship in 1959 and used it to transport passengers and cargo to Mackinaw Island. In 1968 the Peterson Builders of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., bought the aging ferry, partially dismantled it, and used it as a floating storage warehouse. In 1996 the ship was sold to a private investor who moved it to the Kewaunee harbor, about 30 miles south of Sturgeon Bay, where it has been moored ever since.

The Straits of Mackinac

The vessel originally had two decks for carrying automobiles. Elevators at the Mackinaw City and St. Ignace docks lifted vehicles to the upper deck. Both elevators were shut down after a woman was killed during the loading or unloading of vehicles. In later years the second deck was removed just a few feet forward of the pilot house, leaving the entire bow section of the main deck open to the weather. The vessel’s original 1100-horsepower, coal-fired, triple-expansion steam engine remains intact.

Over the years several groups have proposed sinking the historical ferry to preserve it for future generations and to create a new recreational dive site. The Neptune’s Nimrods Dive Club of Green Bay is leading an effort to sink the vessel in Lake Michigan between Algoma and Kewaunee. The "Sink the Straights" project will be reviewed by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corp of Engineers, and the United States Coast Guard. If the vessel is not scuttled, it will probably be used for scrap metal.

Housing one of the last intact steam engines of its kind, and offering a glimpse back to a time when Americans depended on their waterways for transportation even more than they do today, the Straits of Mackinac will be studied by our team to help determine eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources include:

• DOOR COUNTY ADVOCATE
• WILD GALES AND TATTERED SAILS, Paul J. Creviere, Jr. , 1997.
• SHIPS AND SHIPWRECKS IN DOOR COUNTY, WISCONSIN, VOL. TWO, Arthur C. & Lucy F. Frederickson, 1963.