Last One Built-Another Candidate: Schooner Days MXLIII (1043)

by C. H. J. Snider

MENTION of the Helen MacLeod II as the last Great Lakes built schooner now afloat recalls the experience of the discoverer of this important item in the Detroit Historical Commission's collection for the marine museum of the lakes at Belle Isle.

The Helen MacLeod was bought in 1950 in Bayfield, Ont., by John F. Miller, of Grosse Pointe, Mich. Her owner, Louis MacLeod, had built her at Bayfield in 1925. She is not Mr. Miller's first practical effort in Great Lakes nautical research. Three years ago he told Schooner Days about another commercial schooner, built later than the Helen MacLeod.

"I have wanted to write you before this about the schooner Dolphin I bought from a Mrs. Curtis of South Haven, Mich., in 1929," he said. "If there were any built after her I think you would be the best informed sailor to know of them.

"Dolphin was built in 1928 to haul fruit and produce from South Haven to Chicago. (South Haven is 77 miles northeast across Lake Michigan from Chicago.) Her sails were ordered from Carpenter of Chicago, but Capt. Curtis, died before they were delivered. During a spring flood on the Black River at South Haven, Capt. Curtis was called but of a sick bed to moor the Dolphin, which had floated off the bank in the flood. He fell into the river in the effort, and from the shock and exposure died shortly after this self launching of the little craft.

THE VANISHING MAC

"I was making a survey along the Michigan shore, looking for a mackinaw boat I was anxious to get before the type was gone. I never got the mackinaw. Saw two in Charlevoix, one owned by Mr. Wilson, of Chicago, the other by a man in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Wilson's boat was not to be bought; the other boat was too ripe to rebuild. So I took the Dolphin, which was different both in form of hull and of rig, but representative of the simplest fore-and-aft schooners which have sailed the lakes since sail began. She had two gaff-and-boom sails, and a jib on a projecting bowsprit; no topmasts, but the mainmast, taller than the foremast, permitted a maintopmast staysail. When I got her she had a little trunk cabin abaft the mainmast, with windows in the sides and binnacle port and companion slide in the after end. Bulwarks a foot high, ran all 'round, capped with monkey-rails forward and aft, as in a big schooner.

"She was only 35 feet over all, her stem and stern were almost plumb (but her rudder was not outboard), so she was full bodied for the whole length of her. She was 13 feet beam, and drew 4 ft. 6 inches. She had stout timbers. Her frames were sawn frames and she was planked with two-by-fours—lots of wood in her.

"Not needing her cargo hold, I put a small cabin house over the main hatch, which gave full headroom, and I changed her rig to a marconi, to get rid of the gaffs. This left the foresail only about half the original size, but the reduction in area was compensated by the four-sided fisherman staysail. I sailed her around the Michigan peninsula, from South Haven to Detroit in a week's time with the help of a motor which I had installed in her.

"I sailed her till 1932, and sold her to a custom body designer of the Ford Motor Co., a Mr. Gregory, who sold her to a Detroit sailor. A few years ago Mr. Gregory told me that the last he knew of the Dolphin was that she was wrecked on the Canadian shore of Lake St. Clair, near Stony Point, Ontario. If she is still on the bank and could be salved, I would like to know, for she was stoutly built. Put me on your list for the book 'Schooner Days.'

AS IT WAS IN BEGINNING

Mr. Miller is on the waiting list, and it is hoped that his patience will be rewarded this year. His Dolphin would have been an acquisition for the marine museum. In all features except one she followed the pattern set by the very first British schooners on the lakes - the pair built at Oswego in 1755 and depicted by the French commander Labroquerie in his well-known "Carte du Lac Ontario" in 1757. These, little vessels were built up higher aft to provide quarters for the officers but they were shaped and rigged like the Dolphin when Mr. Miller acquired her. The last working schooner built on the Great Lakes was net very different in design and dimensions from the very first.

"DOLPHIN OF SOUTHHAVEN"

AS BUILT in 1928, and as re-rigged and sailed 1929-1932.