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Page 3 The Surprising Legacy of Chester by Alan Mann When the name "CHESTER" appeared on a Great Lakes marine website inquiry, this writer took due notice identifying the name as a Ford Motor Co. vessel that called on the port of Wallaceburg (Ont.) during the 1930's. Somewhat puzzled why this rather obscure vessel name from the past appeared, the reaction was mild compared to the surprise when Mike Brown (who posted the inquiry and lived just nine miles away in Port Lambton, Ont.) was told this same CHESTER brought in super phosphate to the Canadian Fertilizer Plant in Wallaceburg during the years 1935 and 1936. Mike Brown's interest in CHESTER? He operated a lifeboat turned steamboat surprisingly discovered by his grandfather. The vessel had been converted as a look alike to Humphrey Bogart's "AFRICAN QUEEN" in the well known 1951 Hollywood film. Proof of the CHESTER connection was a brass nameplate fastened to the vessel's hull, giving the builder as Great Lakes Engineering Works, Detroit. Armed with this information, Mike Brown was hot on the trail for more facts about his vessel named "SMOKEY". As a student at the University of Windsor in criminology, this was an apt opportunity for 19 year old Mike Brown to utilize and develop research detective skills. First a search at the university library, followed by trips to the Dossin Museum and Henry Ford Research Center where information was uncovered. CHESTER and a sistership EDGEWATER (which also had called on the port of Wallaceburg) were canal vessels with telescoping pilot houses and stacks, allowing them to pass under low bridges on the New York State canal system. This writer's curiosity had been challenged a few years earlier, puzzled why Ford company vessels, normally on iron ore runs to River Rouge furnaces, would call into a rather remote Canadian port of Wallaceburg, carrying a cargo obviously non-allied to Ford production. It was not until the book Ford Fleet, (1923-1989) by Clare J. Snider and Michael W.R. Davis, came out in 1994 that this particular mystery was solved. The Ford marine fleet was hit by the economic depression during the "Dirty 30's" and in an attempt to keep as many vessels as possible operating (and accordingly sailors earning a paycheck) the company would take on any shipping contracts available. This accounted for the CHESTER and EDGEWATER hauling super phosphate to Wallaceburg during the mid 1930's. CHESTER - Photo from Dossin Great Lakes Museum Collection