Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 28, no. 6 (March 1996), p. 7

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7. Ship of the Month - cont'd. canaba by falling into the hold of his steamer, the CALEDONIA. One is a Cle veland woman, and the other is Mrs. J. N. Nicholson, of 848 Main St. of this city (Buffalo). Mrs. Laura Hart, mother of the Buffalo Mrs. Nicholson, said last night there was no doubt the Cleveland woman was the captain's former wife, from whom he was divorced several years ago, and that there is no doubt that her daughter, the Buffalo claimant to the captain's body, was his only w i f e ." The 1907 season was the last in which CALEDONIA operated as a steamer for the Corrigan interests. The following winter, her engine was taken out and placed in the POLYNESIA. The 1908 Great Lakes Register (Bureau Veritas) showed CALEDONIA as a sailing vessel (schooner-barge) without power, her ow ner still James Corrigan, but this is the only register in which we have been able to find CALEDONIA listed as an unpowered boat. Our November feature gave details of the fore-and-aft compound engine that was placed later in CALEDONIA, but we did not know when it had been built or by whom, nor did we know what vessel had used it before CALEDONIA received it. We are pleased that we now have this information. The engine which, as we noted previously, had cylinders of 24 and 44 inches diameter and a stroke of 42 inches, was built in 1883 by Samuel F. Hodge & Company, of Detroit. It produced only 500 Indicated Horsepower at 82 revolutions per minute. CALE DONIA retained the same boilers she had carried previously, as these were not moved over with the old engine to POLYNESIA. CALEDONIA'S "new" engine came from the steamer KITTIE M. FORBES (U.S. 14413), 209. 0 x 35. 0 x 22. 0, 968 Gross Tons and 775 Net, which had been launched on May 5, 1883, by F. W. Wheeler & Company at West Bay City, Michigan. She was Wheeler's Hull 16, and she was built for Capt. William Forbes, of Port Huron. Rebuilt in 1884 (she originally was only 195. 0 x 34. 9 x 14. 1, 792 Gross), she was acquired in 1888 by Colin McLachlan, of Port Huron, and our 1899 Great Lakes Register shows her owner as the McLachlan Transportation Company. By 1902, she was operated by John J. Boland, of Buffalo. On Wednesday, May 21, 1902, the KITTIE M. FORBES caught fire whilst she was in the St. Clair Flats area, opposite the Star Island House. The damage to the FORBES was severe, but she was salvaged by Capt. H. W. Baker, of Detroit, in July of 1902, and the wreck was taken up to Algonac, Michigan. The FORBES reportedly was sold to Pfohl & Company, of Buffalo, but eventually it was decided not to repair the ship, and the engine was removed from the wreck. What was the connection between KITTIE M. FORBES and the CALEDONIA that the Hodge-built engine should have gone from the one steamer to the other? The answer is that the engineless CALEDONIA had been acquired in March of 1908 by John J. Boland, who also had owned the FORBES at the time that she burned. Boland formed the Caledonia Steamship Company, to which CALEDONIA was regis tered when she was enrolled (no. 68) at Buffalo on April 8th, 1908. So now we know that CALEDONIA did not lie around for any extended period without an engine, and this is why only one register ever showed her as an unpowered vessel. (We should also note that our Boland fleet records, under the listing for the FORBES, did in fact show that her engine had gone over to the CALEDONIA, but for some reason, we had no corresponding entry for the CALEDONIA, and this is why we missed the origin of the engine in our ori ginal feature. We now are pleased to have confirmation of the transfer from other sources. ) The ITALIA, another engineless, former Corrigan steamer, was acquired by Boland along with the CALEDONIA and she, also, was re-engined and registered to the Caledonia Steamship Company. The the had Bay. CALEDONIA received mention in the press during 1909. On September 20th, "Buffalo Evening News" reported that a member of the crew of CALEDONIA been drowned on September 18th, while the steamer was crossing Saginaw No details of the incident were given.

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