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TELESCOPE November 245 Lake Michigan's well-known linesâ€"-the Goodrich, Graham & Mor- ton, Hart, Seymour and the like-~have been long gone. And its ports are no longer visited regularly by a cruise ship from other lakes. So it is hard still has a rich offering of sengersâ€"-and except for this will be 1966. Of But vices tourists. Spartan there are many criss-crossing Such car ferries have modern to realize regular overnight trips for pas- Georgian Bay's the Great Lakes system's the old passenger lines, Michigan Line and its modern Milwaukee Clipper car ferry lines upper Lake Michigan as as the C&O Fleet's upper passenger cabins that Lake Michigan Norgoma and Norisle, only such offering for only the Wisconsin and remain active. providing passenger ser- shortcuts for Badger and with staterooms. One of the long-departed passenger lines could have claimed as and more or less but Badger its heirs Clipper, Marquette Line. and moved over using the story of this line below. direct descendants and Spartan It began as a railroad-owned steamship line, to other owners car ferries exclusively. not only the as well. This was the Pere turned to tells when the railroad A Ludington historian BY JOHN DERLER In 1882 the Flint and Pete Mar- quette Railroad ordered two freight- and-passenger steamers from Detroit Dry Dock Company. The new wooden ships, F. & P. M. No. 1 and F. & P. M. No. 2, were placed in service the following year on Lake Michigan, running between the ports of Luding- ton, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wis- consin. The railroad had three more such ships built between 1887 and 1890. These were named F. & P. M. No. 3, F. & P. M. No. 4 and F. & P. M. No. 5. Then in 1895 the railroad decided to add to its fleet a car ferry sim- ilar 'to the new ones in the Ann Arbor Railroad fleet. A car ferry would save the time normally given to transferring freight from rail- road cars to ship at one shore and vice-versa at the opposite port. Thus was built Pere Marquette, the first steel car ferry for service on open waters, launched at West Bay City at the end of 1895. When Pere Marquette arrived at Ludington, the F. & P. M. No. 1 was sold. The remaining "Black Boats," so known because of their black hulls, had their names changed in 1901 to Pere Marquette 2, Pete Mar- quette 3, and so forth. They stayed on their old runs until 1902 when boats 2, 3 and 4 were sold to Mr. Gus Kitzinger of Manistee. The new line formed by this trans- action was officially known as the Manistee, Milwaukee and Ludington Steamship Company. However, the phrase, "Pere Marquette Line Steam- ers," was painted on the bows of eaCh ship, and the line came to be known by this name. In spite of the coming of the fer- ries, the steamers still had their heavy westbound cargoes of salt. And because the ferries were not designed for too many passengers, Kitzinger's ships still carried the bulk of the coastwise and 'cross lake passenger traffic. ILLUSDHUIONS ON ORHXHTE PAGE: Above: Pere Marquette 2 coming up- stream at Manistee. Photo courtesy of Manistee County Hist. Society. Below: Pere Marquette 4 sinking off Ludington in ice, March 7, 1920. The car ferries Pere Marquette 17 and Pete Marquette 18 (ii) are seen standing by. Photo courtesy of the Mason County Historical Society.