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NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8-86) Wisconsin Word Processing Format (Approved 3/87) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Schooner-barge PRETORIA Section 8 Page 8 Ashland County, WI Summary Paragraph Pretoria, a schooner-barge carrying a load of iron ore, sank off Outer Island in Lake Superior in a September 1905 storm. Schooner- barges, which first appeared on the Great Lakes in the 1860s, played an important role in the transportation of bulk materials during the final decades of the 19th and early decades of the 20th century. The final generation of Great Lakes schooner-barges, of which Pretoria is the only Wisconsin example, were massive vessels that contained many of the attributes of modern powered Great Lakes bulk carriers. Evaluated within the context of sailing vessels, as documented in the multiple property documentation Great Lakes Shipwrecks of Wisconsin, the Pretoria, is being nominated at the statewide level under criterion A, for its historical significance as the only example of the final generation Great Lakes schooner- barges in Wisconsin. As one of the last four wooden bulk carriers built on the Great Lakes, and the largest in terms of tonnage ever built, the schooner-barge Pretoria embodies some of the most sophisticated American wooden shipbuilding technology of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Retaining significant integrity of hull structure, engineering details, and material culture, the Pretoria is also being nominated under Criterion C as a representative example of the terminal stages of both schooner- barge and wooden bulk carrier construction on the Great Lakes, and under Criterion D for its potential to yield information on shipbuilding and engineering details. Vessel History On July 26, 1900 a thunderous splash cut through the sooty industrial air of West Bay City, Michigan. Captain James Davidson, lately the hero of the lumber industry and occasional thorn in the side of Great Lakes shipping moguls, had launched yet another of his oaken goliaths. The Pretoria, marine papers on both sides of the Atlantic announced, was the longest and largest capacity schooner ever built. While the marine reporters discussed how the ship was built, knowledgeable Great Lakes observers were asking themselves a much different question. Why did Davidson, with his thirty year career as a respected independent shipbuilder and successful shipping company owner, continue to build these outmoded and unwanted wooden behemoths? Steel, the other major Great Lakes