The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

DON'T BLOW YOUR STACK, BUT THESE WERE DUMMIES! Rev. Peter Van der Linden Captain John Leonard's pet theory is that ships would look better without smoke | stacks! This prompted your editor to find out what has and has not been done about smokestacks on ships in the past. At one point in the history and development of ships, the more smokestacks a vessel had, the better it looked (at least to the tourists who boarded the stately liners both on the oceans and even on the lakes). One stack was really not sufficient for the huge transatlantic liners of bygone days. But not all the smokestacks were for real! The TITANIC, a four stacker, had a dummy -- the fourth in line. Smokestacks at that time were absolutely necessary to carry the smoke from the furnaces safely and conveniently out of the way. They had to be tall enough to have the necessary draft. There had to be one for every furnace room. But the more stacks, the more stately and status these vessels had. o the owners obligingly added sufficient stacks to make the ships look better. The trend to more stacks spread to the Great Lakes. Among the more well known vessels which had "Dummies" were the favorites, the NORTH and SOUTH AMERICAN, which both entered service with one stack and had another added to "enhance . their appearance". These dummies were not at all necessary but they did add stature to the vessel. S.S. NORTH AMERICAN Our story is rather brief since ENTERING DULUTH-sUPERIOR W@ could think of only six passenger HARBOR ships that had extra smoke stacks added. Can you name any more? We know about AQUARAMA and MILWAUKEE CLIPPER whose main stacks were really dummies, but what others? @ How about the UNITED STATES? NORTH AMERICAN - US 211076; built in 1913 at Ecorse, Michigan by the Great Lakes Engineering Works (Hull #107) 259.0 x 47.1 x 18.3; 2,317 gt. Foundered off Nantuckett, Massachusetts September 15, 1967 while under tow to Norfolk, Virginia. NORTH AMERICAN got her second stack in 1925 SOUTH AMERICAN - US 21244; built in 1914 at Ecorse, Michigan by the Great Lakes Engineering Works (Hull #133) 290.6 x 47.1 x 18.3; 2,662 gt. On East Coast awaiting new owners. UNITED STATES - US 206330 - Steel Built in 1909 at Manitowoc, Wis- consin by the Manitowoc SB Co. (Hull #28) 193 x 41 x 16; 1,374 gt. Lengthened to 247 feet in 1917 and second stack added. Sold Canadian in 1927. Burned at Sarnia March 8, 1928. Re- built 1929 and made pkg. ftr. and renamed BATISCAN (C154476). Scrapped at Sorel in 1944, SOUTH AMERICAN - Second stack in 1923