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Jan + Feb, 1981 Page 3 THOSE CLASSY CLASSIC CARFERRIES by PAULG. WIENING It takes awhile to appreciate the design of the Great Lakes carferries. Carferries, because of the nature of their business, have never been exactly beautiful. Even from the begin- ning, the ferries were never gracefully curved or arched, even when they were still built of wood. When Ann Arbor Railroad's Ann Arbor 1 was first introduced to Lake Michigan in 1892, she was a virtual floating box. Car- ferries designed for crosslake traffic had to have wide spaces internally to allow them to carry railroad cars. Because the car deck had to be almost perfectly flat there was not much room for design esthetics. Carferry design improved somewhat from the days of the first Ann Arbor boats, but even up into the 1900's their design remained rather bland. Actually, this did not really matter, since from the beginning, they were designed as work boats and had tough time tables to meet in carrying trains across the wild waters of Lake Michigan. The first of the distinctive design of the Lake Michigan carferry was introduced in 1896, when the Pere Marquette Railroad launched the Pere Marquette. Designed by marine architect Robert Logan, this vessel became a floating blueprint for other carferry companies to follow. Logan improved the design in later years, adding more cabins and more style, but the basic plan remained rather bland. With the introduction of the proven crosslake carferry, carferry operations were begun primarily on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. The biggest business and longest lived was the Lake Michigan trade. Three operators com- peted for business in routes that zigzagged the Lake. Ann Arbor had the worst weather routes, operating out of Frankfort, Michigan into Kewaunee and Manitowoc, Wisconsin as well as Manistique and Menomonie, Michi-