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206 Telescope Launch of the Barge MARSALA at Chicago, 1901 Photo Courtesy D. G. Brace THE BIG SPLASH By Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S.J. The MARSALA was one of the later barges built for the Minnesota Steamship Company. She was built by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company and launched in April 1900, as their Hull #39. Her dimensions were 1+36 x 50 x 24.5. She had a gross tonnage of 5039 and 4667 net. Her deadweight capacity was about 8,000 tons. She sailed with her first owners for but one season, passing into the fleet of Pittsburgh Steamship Company in 1901. She was a "Silver Stacker until 1939, when Hutchinson bought her and operated her in the Buckeye Steamship Company until early 1957. when she was sold to the River and Gulf Transfer Company of Madisonville, Kentucky. Shortly thereafter, she left the Lakes via the Illinois Waterway. She is now owned by the Southern Railway & Steel Co., of Jacksonville, Florida. The steel barge is one of the most interesting types of Great Lakes vessels. Built in large numbers between 1895 euid 1902 - in a transition period before the advent of the large bulk freighters, they were thought to be the ultimate in efficient bulk cargo carrying. The familiar combination of a freight steamship towing a barge or consort was soon rendered obsolete by the rapid increase in the size of the steamers in the early years of the 20th Century. Below is the MARSALA with her original three big spars and sails.