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with the schooner Ostrich at the height of a storm on Lake Michigan on October 28, 1892. Wreckage from both vessels washed ashore only 100 feet apart on High Island, but the entire crews of both vessels were lost, sixteen men on the Gilcher and six on the schooner. Because of the pressing demands for vessel contracts, the officers of the Cleveland Ship Building Company decided to expand their facilities in 1897. Accordingly, twenty acres were purchased on the east side of the Black River in Lorain, Ohio, between the Erie Viaduct and Nickle Plate Railroad bridge. John J. Strange, Sr., contractor in charge of building the dry dock, turned the first shovelful of dirt on the site of the new yards that same year. An extensive shipbuilding plant was constructed, employing over 1,200 men. All shipbuilding activities of the company's Cleveland yard were shifted to the Lorain plant. Thomas Bristow went to Lorain as yard superintendent where he remained until September, 1898. On April 13, 1898, the first bulk freighter built at the new Lorain yard - the Superior City - was launched. She was built at a cost of $255,000, and fittingly enough, Captain Ralph Lyons, a son of Winfield Scott Lyons (see Page 49), was on her bridge.8 The Superior City was followed in the next two years by nine other bulk freighters. The last freighters built at Lorain by the Cleveland Ship Building Company were the John W. Gates and James J. Hill, both in 1900. After American Ship Building Company acquired the property, two vessels were built at the Wheeler yard in Bay City, Michigan, and given yard numbers from Lorain. They were the Isaac L. Ellwood and William Edenborn, also built in 1900. Toledo was the only other Ohio lake town producing steel- hulled vessels at the turn of the century. This was in the yard of the Craig Ship Building Company, on the east side of the Maumee River, on Front Street. Captain John Craig was born in New York City on December 24, 1838. He served his apprenticeship as a ship carpenter in the New York shipyards. During the Civil War he was in charge of converting merchant vessels to gunboats for the Union Navy. He also helped to build the gunboat Winona. In 1866 Craig went to Gibraltar, Michigan, where he and W. L. Linn started the wooden shipbuilding firm of Linn and Craig. Between 1866 and 1881, this firm launched twenty-four schooners and propellers. In 1882 Craig moved to Trenton, Michigan, where he established the yard of John Craig and Son. Here he built sixteen vessels. However, he had difficulty in keeping a constant and reliable 95