Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 40, no. 7 (May 2008), p. 9

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. she was sold to the Crawford Transportation Company. In 1909, Andrew H. Crawford, of St. Joseph, Michigan, attempted to form a new steamer line to operate between Chicago, Illi­ nois, and Saugatuck, Michigan. He first chartered and then soon purchased the steamer H. W. WILLIAMS for this trade, and in 1910 he renamed her TENNESSEE. His 1909 season having been an apparent success, Crawford looked to acquire a second and larger ship, and thus pur­ chased ARUNDELL and took her to Lake Michigan. It has been said that Crawford intended to rename her (b) KENTUCKY, but that name change never took place. Running for Crawford, ARUNDELL still had a white hull and cabins. Her stack at first was all black but then became white with a black smokeband, and the legend 'Crawford Trans. Co. ' was lettered (apparently in black) on the promenade deck bulwark forward. By this time, the steamer sported a tall new mainmast stepped well abaft the funnel. She still car­ ried two lifeboats on each side of the hurricane deck. In Lake Michigan style of the peri­ od, an open bridge was built atop the monkey's island, with a wooden dodger around it and an awning overhead. The 1910 and 1911 seasons were suc­ cessful for ARUNDELL and her owner, but in August of 1911 Crawford an­ nounced that he was going to sell the ARUNDELL at the close of the season and replace her with a new steel steamer. He apparently had his heart set on owning a ship like the Chicago & South Haven Steamship Company's 1903-built, steel-hulled CITY OF SOUTH HAVEN, which generally was con­ sidered to be one of the best-design­ ed excursion vessels ever to operate on Lake Michigan. He did sell ARUNDELL, but the new ship never was built and on October 10, 1912, the Crawford Transportation Company filed for bankruptcy, a victim of the se­ vere downturn in Lake Michigan excur­ sion boat business following the TI­ TANIC disaster of April 15, 1912. ARUNDELL was sold after the close of her 1911 season to Gus Kitzinger, a veteran of Lake Michigan steamer operations, and he intended to place her on a run from Ludington to Manis­ tee and Frankfort. This was never to happen, however, for on Wednesday, October 18, 1911, at about 4: 00 a. m., while she was lying in winter quarters at the Red Dock in Douglas, Michigan (located above Saugatuck on the Kalamazoo River), ARUNDELL caught fire and her en­ tire wooden superstructure was destroyed. A report appearing in the "Commercial Record" stated: "Mr. Crawford is greatly pleased with the work of the Douglas fire department in saving the dock and warehouse. He says it hardly seems possible that the fire could be kept from spreading. He was in Detroit when the fire occurred but got back at four o'clock the next day. " Strangely, the press report did not mention anything about the steamer having been sold by Crawford before the fire! However, Gus Kitzinger sent his steamer PERE MARQUETTE 6 to Doug­ las to fetch ARUNDELL's hull and tow her to Manistee, but he was unable to get the burned ship pumped out and she was abandoned to the underwriters. The Red Dock, at which ARUNDELL was lying when she burned, had been built so that it exten­ ded out into Lake Kalamazoo (a widening of the Kalamazoo River). The dock was 250 feet long and a large red warehouse (we might guess it was painted red) was constructed on it. The original dock is long gone, but it is on this same site that the museum steamer KEEWATIN currently is moored. KEEWATIN certainly presents a more imposing sight there than either TENNESSEE or ARUNDELL, or even both together at the old Red Dock! What happened over the next few years, and where ARUNDELL's hull went, is not documented as far as we know. She apparently was re-enrolled in 1916 as a barge but was out of documenta- Zimmerman collection photo, Saugatuck/Douglas His­ torical society, shows TENNESSEE (left) and ARUN­ DELL at the Red Dock, Douglas.

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy