McDougall's Great Lakes Whalebacks

McDougall's Great Lakes Whalebacks PDF Author: Neel R. Zoss
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738551432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
During the last years of the 19th century, the Duluth Harbor, situated between the sister cities of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, was the birthplace of a bold and innovative and decidedly odd-looking class of Great Lakes barges and steamships known as whalebacks. Capt. Alexander McDougall and his American Steel Barge Company built the curved-decked, snout-nosed whalebacks on the shores of the harbor, first at Duluth's Rice's Point and later in Howard's Pocket at Superior. The vessels were a radical departure, in design, form, and construction, from the standard shipbuilding concepts of the era but proved themselves more than capable as a number of the boats sailed the Great Lakes and the seaboards of America until the 1960s. All the whalebacks are gone now--either scrapped or sunk--with one exception. After sailing the lakes for more than 70 years, the last whaleback, the SS Meteor, returned home to Superior in 1972 and is now continuing its service as a magnificent maritime museum on Barker's Island.

McDougall's Great Lakes Whalebacks

McDougall's Great Lakes Whalebacks PDF Author: Neel R. Zoss
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738551432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
During the last years of the 19th century, the Duluth Harbor, situated between the sister cities of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, was the birthplace of a bold and innovative and decidedly odd-looking class of Great Lakes barges and steamships known as whalebacks. Capt. Alexander McDougall and his American Steel Barge Company built the curved-decked, snout-nosed whalebacks on the shores of the harbor, first at Duluth's Rice's Point and later in Howard's Pocket at Superior. The vessels were a radical departure, in design, form, and construction, from the standard shipbuilding concepts of the era but proved themselves more than capable as a number of the boats sailed the Great Lakes and the seaboards of America until the 1960s. All the whalebacks are gone now--either scrapped or sunk--with one exception. After sailing the lakes for more than 70 years, the last whaleback, the SS Meteor, returned home to Superior in 1972 and is now continuing its service as a magnificent maritime museum on Barker's Island.

Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company

Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company PDF Author: C. Roger Pellett
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814344771
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
A history of the American Steel Barge Company and the vessels that it built and operated. The whaleback ship reflected the experiences of its inventor, Captain Alexander McDougall, who decided in the 1880s that he could build an improved and easily towed barge cheaply by using the relatively unskilled labor force available in his adopted hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. Captain McDougall’s dream resulted in the creation of the American Steel Barge Company. From 1888 to 1898, the American Steel Barge Company built and operated a fleet of forty-four barges and steamships on the Great Lakes and in international trade. These new ships were considered revolutionary by some and nautical curiosities by others. Built from what was then a high tech material (steel) and powered by state-of-the-art steam machinery, their creation in the remote north was a sign of industrial accomplishment. In Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company, Roger C. Pellett explains that the construction of these ships and the industrial infrastructure required to build them was financed by a syndicate that included some of the major players active in the Golden Age of American capitalism. The American Steel Barge Company operated profitably from 1889 through 1892, each year adding new vessels to its growing fleet. By 1893, it had run out of cash. The cash crisis worsened with the onset of the Panic of 1893, which plunged the country into a depression that mostly halted the ship-building industry. Only one shareholder, John D. Rockefeller, was willing and able to invest in the company to keep it afloat, and by doing so he gained control. When prosperity returned in 1896, the interest in huge iron ore deposits on the Mesabe Range required larger, more efficient vessels. In an attempt to meet this need, the company built another vessel that incorporated many whaleback features but included a conventional Great Lakes steamship bow. Although this new steamship compared favorably with vessels of conventional design, it was the last vessel of whaleback design to be built. Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company objectively examines the design of these ships using the original design drawings, notes the successes and failures of the company’s business strategy, and highlights the men at the operating level that attempted to make this strategy work. Readers interested in the maritime history of the Great Lakes and the industries that developed around them will find this book fascinating.

Tin Stackers

Tin Stackers PDF Author: Al Miller
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814328323
Category : Shipping
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Tin Stackers tells its story of the role of the U.S. Steel Corporation's largest commercial fleet.

Enterprising Images

Enterprising Images PDF Author: John Vincent Jezierski
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814324516
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The story of the most prolific African American photographers in North America. From its beginnings in York, Pennsylvania, in 1847, until the death of Wallace L. Goodridge in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1922, the Goodridge Brothers Studio was the most significant and enduring African American photographic establishment in North America. In Enterprising Images, John Vincent Jezierski tells the story of one of America's first families of photography, documenting the history of the Goodridge studio for three-quarters of a century. The existence of more than one thousand Goodridge photographs in all formats and the family's professional and personal activism enrich the portrait that emerges of this extraordinary family. Weaving photographic and regional history with the narrative of a family whose lives paralleled the social and political happenings of the country, Jezierski provides the reader with a complex family biography for those interested in regional and African American, as well as photographic, history.

Classic Ships of the Great Lakes

Classic Ships of the Great Lakes PDF Author: Robert Campbell
Publisher: Thunder Bay Press Michigan
ISBN: 9781933272504
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Robert Campbell's Classic Ships of the Great Lakes presents a visually stunning array of historical and present-day inland shipping including passenger ships, whaleback, bulk carriers, self-unloaders, cement carriers, oil tankers, car ferries, super ships, and more.

The Leland Report

The Leland Report PDF Author: Jim Burnham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997312607
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
15 Years of the best photography from the creators of LelandReport.com, a photo-a-day diary from Leelanau County, Michigan

Lake Michigan Passenger Steamers

Lake Michigan Passenger Steamers PDF Author: George Woodman Hilton
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804742405
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
This is the definitive account of the rise, fall, and extinction of steam passenger transportation on Lake Michigan from its origin in the late 1840s to the demise of the last steamers in 1970.

Ships of the Great Lakes

Ships of the Great Lakes PDF Author: James P. Barry
Publisher: Thunder Bay Press Michigan
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
From the Indian canoe to the largest ships, this fascinating book carries the reader through three centuries of marine growth and adventure on the Great Lakes. A classic long out of print, the volume is now available in this revised and expanded edition, which portrays the sweep of history on the Great Lakes through story and illustration. The fur trade, naval battles, the rise and fall of the great passenger ships, and the development of huge cargo carriers are portrayed in vivid detail. The history of the Great Lakes is seen through the eyes of the courageous men who sailed the Lakes as well as through the sharp eyes of travelers such as Margaret Fuller and Charles Dickens. The text, historic drawings and photos portray every vessel and event of importance in 300 years of ships and men on the Great Lakes.

The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region

The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region PDF Author: Kathryn Bishop Eckert
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814328071
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Eckert stresses the importance of the building materials as she explores the architectural history of a region whose builders wanted to reflect the local landscape.

Looking Beyond Race

Looking Beyond Race PDF Author: Otis Milton Smith
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814329399
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
In Looking Beyond Race, Otis Milton Smith recounts his life as an African American who overcame poverty and prejudice to become a successful politician, and eventual president of General Motors. In Looking Beyond Race, Otis Milton Smith (1922-94) recounts his life as an African American who overcame poverty and prejudice to become a successful politician, going on to become the first black vice president and general counsel of General Motors. Born in the slums of Memphis, Tennessee, Smith was the illegitimate son of a black domestic worker and her prominent white employer. Although he identified with his mother's blackness, he inherited his father's white complexion. This left him open to racism from whites, who resented his African American heritage, and blacks, who resented his skin color. Throughout his life, Smith worked with and met many prominent Americans. He knew boxer Joe Louis, future general Daniel "Chappie" James, future Detroit mayor Coleman Young, and the nation's first African American general, B. O. Davis Jr. Through politics he knew Michigan's prominent politicians and was appointed by Governor John Swainson to the Michigan Supreme Court, making him the first black man since Reconstruction to sit on any supreme court in the nation. Smith also knew nationally known figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Estes Kevfauver, and presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Through his civil rights work, he met A. P. Tureaud, Roy Wilkins, and Benjamin Hooks, and he worked closely with Vernon Jordan. Looking Beyond Race provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of America's largest corporation. Smith was an early advocate of the increased cooperation between business and government that was so necessary for business negotiating the complexities of a global economy. In 1983 he retired as general counsel for the corporation, having been the company's first black officer. This memoir, which Smith dictated during the three years before his death in 1994, is a compelling tale that ends with the inspirational story of Smith's reconciliation with his white relatives who still live in the South. In this highly readable memoir, Looking Beyond Race provides a moving tale that will appeal to readers interested in African American history, politics, labor relations, business, and Michigan history.