Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Telescope, v. 40, n. 4 (July - August 1992), p. 88

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Page 88 Headwaters Steamship Company, Cleveland, and renamed Harry W. Croft. The new owners were a subsidiary of The Stewart Furnace Company, and were managed by H.H. Brown & Company. Stewart Furnace assumed direct ownership and management of its four vessels in 1926, but sold them in 1929 to the Youngstown Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, managed by Pickands Mather & Company. Late that same year, PM's Interlake Steamship Company bought the Youngstown steamers. Interlake had coal-fired water tube boilers installed in the Croft in 1952. At that time her after cabins were rebuilt in the manner of several of the owners' other units, with two rather large, but separate, houses on the boat deck, and a new, larger stack casing. These changes increased her gross tonnage to 6379 and net to 4976. The Croft was withdrawn from operation in July, 1960, and laid up at Erie, where she remained for nine years. In 1969, she was included in the same series of transactions as the J.E. Upson, and also arrived at Santander in the fall, but in a separate tow. A lexis W. Thompson (US 205106) April 4, 1908. West Bay City; West Bay City Shipbuilding (625). 524'0" x 55'0" x 30'2" (504.0 x 55.0 x 26.7) 6436 GT;4670NT. Capacity 10,000 long tons; 10,600 short tons. Engine and boilers same as Sylvania. The Thompson went into operation in July for William H. Becker's Valley Steamship Company, of Cleveland. In 1921, she was renamed W.H. Becker. The Valley Steamship Company was restyled the Becker Steamship Company in August, 1922, with W.D. Becker as manager. In 1930, the company was forced into liquidation, and its four remaining vessels were sold to the Midland Steamship Company, which was formed at that time and became the Midland Steamship Line, Inc., in 1933. In the latter year, it renamed the Becker the EdwardN. Saunders, Jr. (ii). Midland sold the Saunders during the summer of 1955 to Browning's River Steamship Company, which rechristened her the Ernest R. Johnson. In August of 1959, Browning Lines sold her to the Omega Lake Ship Company, Inc. which was one of several subsidiaries of the Continental Grain Company that bought older steamers in those years to hold storage grain at Buffalo. The Johnson was redocumented as a barge, although the only change to her propulsion was the removal of her propeller. Her gross tonnage was changed to 6426, and her net to 6272. Continental Grain sold its fleet of storage hulls in June, 1962, to Marine Salvage. The Johnson was resold to The Steel Company of Canada for scrapping, and was towed into Hamilton on the 12th of September. William H. Wolf (US 205180). April 18,1908, Lorain: American Shipbuilding (360). 524'0" x 54'0" x 30'21/4" (504.0 x 54.0 x 30.0) 6281 GT; 4767 NT. Engine and boiler same as E.D. Carter. The Wolf was commissioned on June 6th by the Gartland Steamship Company, which was owned and operated by the Chicago insurance and vessel firm, D. Sullivan & Company. She remained in the Gartland fleet for her entire fifty-six years of service. She sustained $20,000 in damages when she grounded on a shoal at Devil's Island, in the Apostles Group in western Lake Superior, on August 5,1920. In 1954, she was rebuilt, with a new Texas cabin and pilothouse, and her tonnages were changed to 6439 gross and 4812 net. Early in 1963, Gartland requested bids for the conversion of the Wolf and two other 524-footers, the Sullivan Brothers (a. Joseph Wood) and the Henry R. Platt, Jr. (a. G.A. Tomlinson), to unmanned barges, similar to Wilson Marine's Wiltranco I. The Wilson operation, however, was not a success, and Gartland dropped its plans. They laid the Wolf up at Toledo at the close of the 1963 season, and sold her two years later to Hudson Waterways, to be traded for reserve fleet tonnage. The Department of Commerce sold her on June 20,1966 to Transeastem Associates, of New York. After two further sales, to Marine Salvage and then to Stelco, she arrived at Hamilton in tow on October 27,1967, and was broken up. LaBelle (US 206189). March 27,1909, Lorain: American Shipbuilding (367). 524'0" x 54'0" x 30'21/ 4" (504.0 x 54.0 x 30.0) 6407 GT; 4876 NT. Engine and boilers same as Sylvania. The LaBelle loaded her first cargo in May. She was owned by The LaBelle Steamship Company, an independent Cleveland firm which was operated as part of the fleet of M.A. Hanna & Company. The LaBelle was sold in March of 1953 to The Kinsman Transit Company, whose manager at that time was Henry G. Steinbrenner. Her cargo hold was rebuilt that spring, and she was given a new Texas and pilothouse (6477 GT, 4910 NT). Kinsman operated the LaBelle through 1961, but sold her in July of the next year to Luria Brothers & Company, Inc. They resold her to Italian breakers, probably A.R.D.E.M. of Genoa, and she cleared Toronto in tow in September, 1962, on her way to

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