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

- 242 - Telescope Ward Line failure, and ultimately the Ward Line was revived, only to fail again by 1893. Of these schemes, in the spring of 1880 the CITY OF CLEVELAND proposal seemed closest to realisation. Yet, at the end of March of 1880 the owners capitulated and agreed to place CITY OF CLEVELAND in the Lake Superior Transit Company pool on a run between Cleveland and Detroit and Portage Lake, upon Keweenaw Point in Lake Superior. While on this run, on Sept. 1, 1881, she became the first ship to transit the new Weitzel Lock at Sault Ste. Marie. If we may digress still further, the seeds of the CITY OF CLEVELAND enterprise really favored the Mackinac route all the time. James McMillan and John S. Newberry, who held substantial interests in the Detroit and Cleveland Line, were also promoting the Detroit, Marquette and Mackinac Railroad. Building of this railroad began in summer of 1880, linking the iron mines of Marquette to the Straits c£ Mackinac, across which lay other railroads of the lower peninsula. This railroad would tie Michigan's upper peninsula commerce more closely to that of Detroit, especially in the winter time when lake travel ceased. In her first season CITY OF CLEVELAND began making stops at Mackinac on her way to Portage Lake, to the displeasure of the existing lines whose ships were hopelessly outclassed by her. In 1881 McMillan and Newberry interests put their foot more firmly on the Mackinac threshold by gaining control of the Star Line, then running from Detroit to Port Austin at the tip of Michigan's thumb. Thereupon, the Star Line steamers KEWEENAW and SAGINAW extended their services to Mackinac. In 1882 McMillan and Newberry disposed of their Star Line holdings and withdrew CITY OF CLEVELAND from the Lake Superior pool. CITY OF CLEVELAND now formed a line from Detroit to Mackinac Island and St. Ignace and way ports, with two round trips a week. Service was doubled in 1883 by adding the new iron steamer CITY OF MACKINAC. In 1882 the Mackinac route was very overcrowded. The People's Line steamers PEARL, KEWEENAW and NASHUA each made weekly sailings to Mackinac from Detroit, as did the steamers ATLANTIC and FLORA of Grummond's Mackinac Line. But the D & C Coast Line to Mackinac was permanently established; and it survived until the First World War. * * * But let us return to our story. Awaiting her trial trip, CITY OF CLEVELAND lay at the Orleans Street wharf of the Detroit Dry Dock Company on the evening of May 13, 1880. Her engine had been started to assure its being in good working order, and her wheels revolved slowly without moving the ship. These paddle wheels attracted much attention, for they were unlike any the Lakes had seen before. They were known as "feathering" wheels, and prevailed among sidewheelers in later years. Each bucket was pivotally mounted upon the frame of the wheel, and was guided in such a way that it would enter and leave the water nearly vertically. This action gave more push to the water and wasted less energy in splashing than did the rigidly-mounted buckets of "radial" paddle wheels then in use. Furthermore, because the buckets hung limply upon the frame, and because they did not slap the water roughly when they hit it, feathering wheels gave less vibration to the rest of the ship. And most important, as