Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 22, no. 6 (March 1990), p. 5

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5. Ship of the Month - cont'd. 12'0". All four of the boilers were manufactured in 1907 by the Marine Boi ler Works, of Toledo, Ohio. The MITCHELL and the DAVOCK were steamers built for business. They were so lidly constructed with heavy steel plating, and they had very little deck sheer. The stems were straight, and each ship had a counter stern. There was a full forecastle and a flush quarterdeck. A closed rail ran back for most of the length of the forecastle head, and there was an open rail down the spar deck, which gave way to a closed steel taffrail around the stern. The anchors were carried from hawseholes set almost at the stem, one full plate width below the forecastle. O n the forecastle head of each steamer was set a rather large texas cabin, which had a broadly rounded front with seven large windows. The texas con tained the master's office and accommodation, but the size of the struc ture would tend to indicate that it probably contained comfortable guest quarters as well, and perhaps an owner's suite. Atop the texas was placed the pilothouse, a large structure with five big windows in its slightly curved front and a rather prominent gap with no window just at the corners There was no sunvisor over the windows. An open navigation bridge was lo cated on the monkey's island, atop the pilothouse. To provide shelter from the elements, a prominent closed rail ran around the front of the bridge deck, ahead of the pilothouse, and also around the open bridge on the monkey's island. Awnings were frequently stretched out over the forecastle head and over the navigation bridge in sunny and hot weather. The tall, heavy and well-raked foremast rose up out of the texas cabin in each steamer, and each also had a prominent steering pole forward. In the steering poles lay perhaps the only noticeable difference between the pro files of the vessels. The MITCHELL had a fixed, upright pole on which was set a large, colourfully painted ball for decoration and for visibility. The DAVOCK, on the other hand, carried a spearpole which was hinged and usually was carried at about a 45-degree angle to the deck. It also had several pieces of decoration on it to aid the wheelsman. The after cabin was a large deckhouse with windows (not portholes) set in to it. The bunker hatch was at the far forward end of the boat deck, atop the boilerhouse portion of the cabin, and there was no rail, either closed or open, around the hatch. The heavy stack, of only moderate height, was nicely raked to match the masts, and was surrounded by a group of large ventilator cowls. The main mast was stepped just abaft the stack. The life boats, one on each side of the cabin roof, were worked from straight (ra ther than radial) davits which were rocked outward to drop the boats. The JOHN MITCHELL was built for the Cornell Steamship Company, which was managed by C. W. Elphicke (Elphicke & Company), of Chicago, Illinois, and she remained under this same operation for the whole of her short life. She appears to have had a black hull, while her cabins were white. Some photographs of Elphicke steamers seem to show an all-black stack (perhaps due to the lack of sensitivity to certain colour intensities by photogra phic plates of the day). On the other hand, some views, and notably those of JOHN MITCHELL, do show a stack with a black top and a lighter bottom. The lower portion of the stack might, perhaps, have been a dark buff, but we are anything but certain about the actual colouring. The steamer was named for the famous Captain John Mitchell, who was Cana dian by birth but who lived most of his life in Cleveland. He was a high ly respected vessel owner and operator, and he even designed some of the ships that were built for his fleet. There appear to have been certain bu siness connections between the respective shipping interests of Elphicke and Mitchell, thus accounting for the fact that Elphicke named this part i cular steamer for Mitchell. The Captain remained active in the shipping industry until his retirement in 1918, and he died at Cleveland on April 1 5 , 1 9 2 0 , in his seventieth year.

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