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Telescope 165 byA. Michael Woolson The Old Ironsides of the Great Lakes by A. Michael Woolson of the Great Lakes During the early months of 181*3, the few people living along the raw roads that pushed north through the forests from Pittsburgh were amazed by the sight of oxen teams hauling heavy, curved iron plates, and beams up toward Erie, At the foot of French Street in Erie, the townspeople watched as the beams were set up into a heavy skeleton, and the long curved plates were fitted over them lap-strake fashion. As the weeks went by, the form of a ship's hull rose on the ways, the sleekness in her lines bespeaking a purpose other than cargo carrying. This was to be the first iron ship in the U.S. Navy, the paddlewheel gunboat U.S.S. MICHIGAN. It seems like the Great Lakes would be a rather remote station for the Navy to build a revolutionary ship like this,but in reality the MICHIGAN was a product of the basic views of that time both about naval construction and international affairs. It was only thirty winters before,in 1813, that Commodore Perry and Noah Brown had built their wooden fleet on Presque Isle, within sight of the French Street ways. In the intervening years, the fresh winds of the advent of steam, the screw propeller, the beginnings of shells and rifled ordnance, and iron construction and armor, had begun to sweep away the fog of Naval Doctrine that had changed little In essence over hundreds of years. To be sure, these ideas were all new and generally untested, and viewed with scepticism by all but a few. The use of iron in construction of ships had been attacked for many reasons, from the simple doubt In many minds that it would float at all,being heavier than water, to the more practical difficulties with magnetic compasses in an iron hull and the difficulty in keeping the bottom clean, since copper plating could not be applied over iron due to the electrolytic effect in salt water. A particularly important reason for feeling iron was unsuitable for warships was the series of tests conducted by the British Admiralty In l8lj.O. At this time, a small Iron ship was set up as a target on land and the effects of the naval gunnery then in use was studied. The effects even of The U.S.S. MICHIGAN after she had become the WOLVERINE. She is well remembered by a great many old timers of the Detroit River area, where this shot was taken. Pesha Photo