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Page 6 THE DISMANTLEMENT OF THE "CITY OF MIDLAND 41" by HOWARD H. PETERSON Slowly the great hull of the once beautiful carferry "City of Midland 41", formerly the flagship of the Pere Marquette Railway Company's Lake Michigan fleet, eroded under the relentless fire of the cutter's torch, an umbrella of molten red splatter cascaded to the decks below as the giant body lay unflinching to its tormentors bite intent upon ugly metamorphosis. No longer will small boys and old men get dreamy eyed as she passes on parade in the channels. The sad fact that the ship was being reduced to a working push barge did not leave a very satisfying taste even though there seemed no better alternative barring complete dismantlement on some foreign beach. So went the winter of '91-9% at muskegon's Mart dock ending the life of yet another lower-lake carferry. The 406' Midland, launched 18 September 1940, at that time the largest carferry in the world, was unceremoniously towed from Ludington into the Muskegon harbor late the night of 1 October 1997, to be cut down in preparation for a new life as a push barge. At the writing of this article the plan was to dismantle the boat at Muskegon and do the reconstruction at some other ship yard, possibly in Wisconsin. The new barge will be named P.M. 41, the original hull number when it was built at the Manitowoc Ship Building Company. I was soon down to the Mart dock, hard hat in hand, with the hope of getting aboard to take photographs to record the dismantlement. I introduced myself to Doug Melching of Melching, Inc., Demolition Dismantlement, the job contractor. CITY OF MIDLAND 41 layed up at Ludington - July 1986. Author's Collection