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Federal government sent a group of surveyors into Upper Michigan to chart the area. They noted the presence of iron ore, but they did nothing beyond mentioning it. The reports did bring to the region a man named Philo Everett who organized the eer Mining Company with a title to a square mil near Negaunee. His venture was not successful, but in 1849 a new company, the Marquette Iron Company, leased part of the property of the Jackson mine and on July 7, 1852, shipped six barrels of ore to New Castle, Pennsylvania. This is the first Verses shipment of iron ore down the Gres Other Scovel o on nthe Vermillion Range in Minnesota followed, but the real find came in 1890 when the Mesabi Range in Minnesota was discovered. This was the first discovery of soft iron ore. In of ore were epee ee auether y year ‘the figure rose to 600,t s. At the turn of the centui ". the steel duet was producing veh than 15 million tons of iron and some 11.4 million tons of steel annually. Carnegie in 1899, prior to the fleet for the roneporton of ore to the furnaces of his Carnegie Steel Company. Thus o Pittsburgh Steamship Compal ny took fort company immediately bought six ne steamers and a barge and let contracts for éonaietion of fi x ae another barge. These 1 steamers and tw parse became the eit a the fleet. The incorporation of eel in 1901 as a result of the merger Wye Ctene Steel C pany with some of the greatest steel producing firms of the time, left the new company woe- fully short of ship bottoms for the transporta- tion of ore. Orders went out to Pittsburgh Steamship Company to enlarge its ore-carrying, capacity—and fast. It was felt that, based on the tonnage capacities of bulk carriers at that time, the new fleet would have to number more than 100 shi Unparalleled in peacetime history was the gathering of this, they greatest ory cargo fleet in the world, in the e Great ne sail ¢ Hee ty = fs immense task. (0 find existing shins ce a iegal difficulties and record reams of tails, but each ship had to be fitted-out and readied ff service. According to Adm. Charles R. Khoury, a former president of the Pittsburgh Steamship Division, “The for cmon ot pas ittsburgh fleet in 1901 represented o the greatest short- term industrial sho] sopping ee in the history of this nation.’” In May, 1901, steps were taken to purchase the property and assets of five steamship lines. These were the Americal r, Mutual and Minnesota Steamship companies. By January, 1904, the a consisted of 71 its and 43 bars ory of the vated a sae shipping ortanication is ak of “firsts’ GOT, the largest ship on the Lakes was the sister ships of identical dimensions—the WILLIAM SOHN the ISAAC L. LWOOD, and JOHN W. GATES—but the HILL’s registered gross Sonate 3 276 tons, was greater than that of the The original fleet, also, Tncloded 12 of the iin underwater section of the hull square for stability, but with the stern tapered and the Ww i the water like a snout. These characteristics gave rise to the nicknames pigboats’” or “spoonbils All the ships in the early days were equipped with sectional wooden hatch covers that had to be taken off and put back on by ha From the ey) years to the present, the story be bie Pittsburgh Fleet is a a portinuous tia rovement and replacement, additio pe enlargements—; and ey as ni are built, the governing factors have been the limitations of terminal | ihe pier of the locks at Sault Ste. Mari an, and the depth of water in the beat nigan- ara larger vessels were built in 1905, with the length increased to 569 feet and beam to 56 feet—and the first of the fleet to have steel telescopic leaf hatch covers. Four 8-foot beam ships were built in 1906. These steamers, with an overall length of 601 feet and ‘one inch, were bait as “‘the first 600-footers on the Great Lé Fourteen more oa the 600-foot, 58-foot beam Pal res the fleet in the next few years, four in 1907, pie in ten four in 1910, and three in fe first 60-foot beam ships in the pea ea — ‘hee built in 1907 for the Weston Transit Company and purchased for the Pittsburgh fleet in 1911. The overall length of these ships, the Steamers GEORGE G. RAWFORD, WILLIAM J. FILBERT, and FRANCIS E. HOUSE, was 605 feet, 8 inches. From 1910 to 1917, nine ships were built of WILLIAM P. PALMER, in 1910 all Lake ships