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TELESCOPE Page 3 Cementus Huronica..... THE HURON FLEET RICHARD GEBHART When the Huron Cement Company purchased the steamer Samuel Mitch- elitine 1913 hen wleamate "success was by no means assured. Since the founding of the company by John B. Ford and Sanford T. Crapo, in 1907, the transportation of their product had developed in a hit-and-miss man- ner, mostly the result of trial and error. At the outset, the finished pro- duct was poured into cloth sacks and loaded aboard package freighters. With holds full of Huron sacks, and whatever other cargo could be must- ered, the package freighters would shuttle the bagged eement to its destination. It worked, but it was time consuming, costly, and certain- ly not efficient. Mijn UCU eae Whatwronte Ciliimike te grinding mill was completed, and a new problem in handling presented itself. Hot clinker poured into the holds of wooden steamers brought on the immediate and obvious danger of fire aboard ship. (The raw ingredi- ents of clinker are limestone and shale. Approximately 630 pounds of these; 80% limestone, are required for one barrel of clinker. Placed in rotary klins and heated to white-hot temperatures for an hour and a half, the limestone and shale become hard blank klinker. Mixed with the re- tarding substance, gypsum, and pul- verized together, the resulting mix is Portland cement. ) The company had a good product, and one in demand, but these unend- ing distribution problems must have had a discouraging effect upon those faced with them. Delivery of the first self-unloading steamer Wyan- dottie did lvithe to. ltghtenmsche weight of their problems. Mr. Ford intended her for limestone and coal movement, but there must have been a hope she would haul clinker, too. She wouldn't! Her scraper-type un- loading system was not suited for the cantankerous clinker. So, steam barges, often pulling a string of barges, continued the cement and clinker movement. Even the first loss of a Huron cargo took place in these trying years. On April 29, 1909 the steamer Russia, bound for Duluth from Alpena was ravaged in a gale on Lake Huron and foundered near Detour. Fortun- ately no lives were lost, but the Russia took with her several tons of mixed freight... including, 107000 sacks: of Huron Cement. It was thus the founders finally decided upon shipping, at least for the present, just the finished prod- uct and, looking to this, the Samuel Mitchell was purchased from the Jackson Transit Company in November of 1915. She was taken to Marine