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The Detroit > <a) Marine Historian Journal of Marine Historical Society of Detroit Volume 29, No.9 May, 1976 Rev.E.J.Dowling,S.J., Interim Edito: 4001 W. MeNichols Road, Detroit, Mich.48221 Ink Drawing ee aa TRANSIT COMPANY 1883-1915 This railroad line carried package freight from Lake Ontario to Lake Michigan (& occasionally to Lake Superior) for better than thirty years prior to World War I. Over the years the line went by various names, the best remembered being Ogdensburg Transit Company and Rutland Tran- sit Co. Connections at Ogdensburg were made successively with the Og- dens burg & Lake Champlain Ry., the Central Vermont Ry. and finally the Rutland Railway. Seventeen canal sized package freighters are known to have sailed in this fleet. We suspect others were chartered when needed. Express service was maintained, with a four day running time between Ogdensburg and Chicago. Cargoes westbound consisted of eatern manufact- ured goods and Vermont marble. Grain was often carried eastbound.Since the ships involved had to negotiate the Welland Canal, they were of approximate canal dimensions, i.e.c. 240 ft in length. This fleet was described briefly in DMH.,Vol.3,No.1, and is repeated by request. The following list is in alphabetical order. ARLINGTON, steel canaller, built at Wyandotte in 1910 by Detroit S.B.Co. wv for the fleet. Sold in 1915 to Mystic Steamship Co., Boston. Sailed in the coastal coal tradeuntil abandoned in 1943. WILLIAM J.AVERELL, wooden canaller, built at Detroit in 1884 by Detroit Dry Dock Co. Sold Canadian in 1916 and renamed OATLAND. Reported to have been dismantled about 1930. (Cont'd.,next page)