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Marine keview December, 19277 Carferry Wabash—Largest Vessel of her Type on the Great Lakes Wabash—Largest Lake Carferry Is Designed for Severe Service By A. H. Jansson » | HE Ann Arbor railroad crosses the State of Michigan, from Toledo on Lake Eric at the northern border of Ohio, approxi- mately in a straight line, diagonally to the lake port of Frankfort on Lake Michigan. On the opposite or west shore of Lake Michigan lie the important industrial agricultural and mining sections of Wisconsin and upper Michigan. In former days this large body of water which is from 60 to 90 miles across at this point, pre- sented a serious barrier to through transporta- tion. But the development in the design of car- ferries, in capacity, seaworthiness and general efficiency, since the first two small wooden fer- ries were placed in commission late in 1892, has been so remarkable that today transferring cars from rail to water shortens the haul by hundreds of miles and greatly reduces transportation cost. As shown on the accompanying map the four points served, from Frankfort, the east shore Lake Michigan terminal, by the Ann Arbor rail- road, with its system of carferries, and the dis- tances from this terminal are, Manistique, Mich., 92 miles; Menominee, Mich., 79 miles; Kewaunee, Wis., 63 miles; and Manitowoc, Wis., 79 miles. The regular fleet of the Ann Arbor railroad con- sists of five all-steel carferries with comfortable modern passenger accommodations. It will be noted from the accompanying table of particulars of these vessels that the last one of the group, ANN ARBOR No. 7 was completed early in 1925. Traffic has increased steadily. The total car movement east and west loaded and empty cars between the ports given above grew from 32,297 in 1910 to 80,272 in 1925. Though the figures are not available at this writing for the entire year 1926 the first two months of that year indi- cated a growth similar to that of 1925 over 1924 when 69,038 cars were transported. It is also interesting to note that the capacity of the en- tire fleet for all trips made in 1925 was 94,864 cars, so that 84.6 per cent of maximum capacity was used. While the average number of cars per trip was 22.3 the average full capacity for eaz ferry was about 26.3. This shows how nearly up to capacity the Ann Arbor fleet operated during 1925 after the addition of its latest vessel, the ANN ARBOR No. 7. When the Wabash railroad actively took over the management of the Ann Arbor line it was quickly recognized by J. E. Taussig, president of both roads that it would be necessary for conservatively anticipated growth to provide further equipment. We thus come to the placing of the order for MARINE REVIEW—December, 1927 - : 11