"Big Boys": Schooner Days CXLIV (144)

Paying some attention to the largest sailing craft that navigated the Great Lakes

RECENT Schooner Days' stories about the Minnedosa, pride of Kingston, and the J. I. Case, monarch of Manitowoc, have brought forth a flood of comparisons and questions as to which was the largest schooner ever built on the lakes and what flag she flew.

That distinction seemingly belongs to the American David Dows, which was designed, built and sailed by Capt. Joseph L. Skellonden. She was launched from Bailey's shipyard at Toledo, Ohio, in 1881. She had five masts, and, having four square sails on the foremast, was often spoken of as a barque, or barquentine, but as she had a fore-and-aft foresail as well she was really a topsail schooner. She foundered off Whiting, Ind., on Thanksgiving Day, 1889, under the command of Capt. Thos. Roach. She was of the great length of 265 feet, which may have involved structural weakness. Her beam was 37 feet and the depth of her hold 18 feet. She registered 1,418.63 tons, and could carry almost 3,000 tons dead weight. She was the only five-master the Great Lakes ever saw.

Nelson's Victory, typical of the large battleships which fought at Trafalgar, was of 2,000 tons.

So far as this researcher's inquiries have gone the longest Canadian schooner launched on the lakes was the beautiful clipper-bowed Minnedosa, built at Kingston in 1890. By schooner we mean a completely rigged vessel, with the full complement of sails for the schooner rigs, including gafftopsails. This wipes out from competition many of the big boys which appear in the marine registers as "schooners," but were only tow-barges, partially schooner-rigged, but dependent upon tugs and steam-barges to get them anywhere if the wind was light or not right astern or on the quarter. The Minnedosa towed a lot, and was lost when she was in tow (of the steamer Fairmount, if we mistake not) but she was fully rigged, with gafftopsails, and could sail like a witch when she first came out. She had four masts then, and she was 245 feet long. Afterwards her rig was cut down, and she then became permanently a tow-barge.

The Annie M. Ash of Cleveland may have been longer than the Minnedosa. She had four masts, but it is not known whether she ever had topsails or sailed independently. She was usually towed. She measured 1,258 tons gross, by American measurement and that is the only dimension available. The American system was to measure the tonnage of the whole hull and deduct the space occupied for crews' quarters and machinery, leaving "tons nett." For example the Mabel Wilson, built at West Bay City two years before the Annie M. Ash, measured 1,224 tons gross and 1,185 nett. She was within 34 tons of the Ash's gross, and as she was just under 243 feet in length the Ash could not have been much longer than that; giving our Minnedosa a tight race.

The Mabel Wilson was almost 40 feet wide, the beamiest sailing carrier on the lakes. She was within an inch or two of being as deep as the Michigan of Detroit 16 feet 4 in the hold, the only two-decker built for the Great Lakes sail or tow trade. The Mabel Wilson had four masts, with short topmasts but no topsails set on them. She was a beauty once, but a hard-looking packet when last seen towing up the Chicago Creek, with three tugs keeping her red-oxide hull from bunting the bridge abutments.

Another fine four-poster was the Olive Jeannette, towed by the steamer L. R. Doty. The J. H. Rutter was also four-masted with topmasts but no topsails. She was sailed by the famous Sockless Jerry Simpson, who later made the U.S. Congress as a Populist candidate from Kansas. She dragged ashore on him in a great gale off Ludington, where she had anchored to get a shifted grain cargo re-trimmed. Sockless Jerry, with his crew and twenty trimmers, spent fifteen hours in the rigging in a zero temperature, on Nov. 1st, 1878. But all were rescued alive, and the Rutter, refloated, survived to go to the Atlantic coast twenty years later. She lasted until Oct 23, 1918, when she was sunk in collision with the steamer Texas in New York harbor. Another story is that she went down in tow off the Virginia Capes, but Capt Ed Carus, that old reliable, says New York harbor was where this tough old bird was done in.

This list which follows does not contain all the "big boys" of the lakes, in the days of sail, but it furnishes some comparisons. Many of these were out-and-out sailers, but some towed, with sails as auxiliary power. The F. A. Georger and Charles Foster were very lofty three-masters. The John Shaw was also very lofty; she foundered off Au Sable in November, 1894. The John Martin and Scotia, both of Cleveland, were lofty three-masters, as was the J. I. Case, with her fore-yard of record length— 105 feet The Lizzie A. Law, another tall three-master, was square rigged on the foremast.

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* Gross.

"AND LIKE A BLAZING STAR SHOWN FORTH THE LIGHT OF BUFFALO PIER"

BEHIND BUFFALO BREAKWATER FIFTY YEARS AGO - Immediately beyond the lighthouse likes the "DAVID DOWS"; the white steamer with four masts and funnels abreast is the "GLOBE."

THE DAVID DOWS, LONGEST SAILING VESSEL ON THE LAKES