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Page 94 In open water of Lake Erie, The GREATER BUFFALO exceeded 22 mph. run in six hours and forty-one minutes. Each succeeding new D & C steamers thereafter reduced the time until 1889, when the new CITY OF DETROIT cut the RICE's time by a full hour. Twentieth century D & C sidewheelers changed to private owners' trials wholly in Lake Erie waters, running 133-1/4 miles from Southeast Shoal to Long Point. On that course in 1908, the new CITY OF DETROIT III averaged 21.05 mph on the same run. GREATER BUFFALO was said to exceed 22 mph on her trials there in late 1924. TASHMOO, CITY OF ERIE and all these D & C sidewheelers (except the RICE) were designed by the Detroit naval architect Frank E. Kirby and finished in the shipyard at the foot of Orleans Street here. (COLUMBIA and STE. CLAIRE were Kirby designs too.) Kirby also collaborated in designing the largest Hudson River Day Line steamers, and his last four Lake Erie night boats were the largest sidewheelers in the world. Among the proudest of his ships was his namesake, the excursion steamer FRANK E. KIRBY of 1890. Her owners, the Ashley & Dustin Line, called her the "Flyer of the Lakes", and often kept the traditional broom on her mast as a badge of supremacy, "sweeping" the opposition. Dan Bowen credits her with a record of two hours and fifty-four minutes on her sixty-mile run from Detroit to Put-in-Bay. When TASHMOO raced CITY OF ERIE, the KIRBY tagged right along beside them, carrying cheering spectators from Detroit. There was a new crop of Kirby steamers to tempt FRANK E. KIRBY as rivals in 1902, the year after the big race. The White Star Line had its new GREYHOUND, slightly smaller than TASHMOO. But GREYHOUND started her day down in Toledo, reaching Detroit and Buffalo long after the KIRBY was on her way to Put-in-Bay, Cedar Point and Sandusky. (TASHMOO, herself, ran upriver from Detroit, out of reach of the KIRBY) There was a pair named EASTERN STATES and WESTERN STATES, reviving overnight service between Detroit and Buffalo after a lapse of decades. But each spent her day at Detroit idle, and left for Buffalo in early evening before the KIRBY returned home to tie up for the night. That left one possible new challenger, the new Bob-Lo steamer COLUMBIA. She started her morning run to Bob-Lo from Bates Street wharf about the same time that the KIRBY sailed in the same direction from the foot of First Street. Occasional brushes between the two rivals were inconclusive. The KIRBY won sometimes, Photo from Dossin Museum Collection