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TELESCOPE SHIPS THE CRAIGS BUILT United States John Craig was born in New York, 'cross-channel steamers, which the December 24, 1838. He served his apprenticeship as a ship carpenter there. During the Civil War he was in charge of converting merchant vessels into gunboats for the Navy. He helped build the Gunboat Winona, In 1866, he went to Gibralter, Michigan, where he and W. L. Linn started a shipyard, known as Linn & Craig. In 1882, after a falling-out with Linn, Craig moved to Trenton where he established business as John Craig & Son. Due to labor trou- ble they moved to Toledo, Ohio, in 1889, to what had been known as Birmingham, on Front Street, East Toledo. Here they established the Craig Ship Building Company, with John Craig as President. George L. Craig was Vice President, and John F, Craig served as Secretary as well as Manager. George was born in New York in 1864 and served his apprenticeship under his father in Gibralter, then for three additional years under Frank E. Kirby at Detroit. The younger son, John F., was born at Gibralter in 1868 and worked at the yard there and at Trenton. He studied shipbuilding on the Clyde and brought back plans of English Craigs used for their passenger boats. On November 20, 1905, they sold the yard to the Toledo Ship Building Company. Later, after the yard had been sold, George Craig built the 'sidewheeler CHIPPEWA, at Toledo, the MACKINAC at Ferrysburg; looked after the building of the UNITED STATES at Manitowoc, and built the Ciry oF Grand Raprips for the American Ship Building Company at Cleveland. All of his plans and drafting were done at a rented office in Toledo. Ho The steamer United States was a typical three-decked, single screw, Great Lakes passenger vessel. She measured in at 204-feet overall with a 193-foot keel; 41-foot beam, 16 foot depth, and 1,374 gross tons. Built by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1909 as Hull Number 28 under the supervision of George L. Craig, she was launched at 2:00 PM, February second, of that year, with appropriate fanfare and ceremony. Her sponsor was Miss Blanche Boehm of St. Louis, who represented the Mississippi Valley, and christened the ship United States. On govern- Author's Note: Undoubtedly there are some errors and omissions. There could be no proge ress with marine history without error. My thanks to Robert E. Lee for his effort in taking some of these out of this story. I would like to thank the following people for their help: Mike Berzinsky; Martin J. Butler; David T. Glick; John J. Guba; C. P. Labad- ie; Arthur H. Lewis; Daniel J. McCormick; Captain D. J. McGarity; Edward N. Middleton; C. Bradford Mitchell; Donald Ringwald; George Vargo; Richard J. Wright. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the following agencies and institutions: Canada Steamship Lines; Dossin Great Lakes Museum; Grand Haven Library; Hancock Library; Manitowoc Library; Mil- waukee Library; New Bedford Library; The Mariners' Museum; The Standard Times, New Bed- ford; The Steamship Historical Society of America and The Toledo-Lucas County Library.