Garland (Ferry), 1 Mar 1880

"The New Passenger Ferry. The new passenger ferry building for the Horns is to be a model of her kind, and is sure of being very popular this summer with excursionists. Her cabins are being finished in black walnut, with handsome trimmings much like Pullman palace cars, and the cabin ceilings will be frescoed in beautiful patterns. A certain firm in the city is to put on some extra touches to the extent of several hundred dollars, so that she will literally shine with gilt and nickel plating. Her name has already been chosen, and will be known in a week or two. she is to be provided with gas tanks, and that light will therefore be used to the exclusion of any other unless the electric light should prove available soon."
      Detroit Free Press
      March 19, 1880 p.8

"The Name of the New Ferry. It has been understood for some days that Captain Jack Horn has named the new ferry. This much he told a Free Press reporter who was making inquiries in that direction without much success. He also said that the colors had been ordered, and that a prominent firm in this city was to give the new boat some extra decorations in the line particularly or nickel plating. But further comment than this Capt. Horn would not commit himself except--a notable exception taken in connection with nickel plating--to concede that the new ferry's name would have seven letters in it. With these three aids a Free Press reporter solved the problem. The prominent firm is undoubted The Michigan Stove Company, which would furnish unlimited nickel plating in consideration of having the new boat named after a well-known stove. Hence it follows logically that the name of the new passenger ferry building for the Horns is the GARLAND."
      Detroit Free Press
      March 24, 1880 p. 8


The Ferryboat GARLAND (US 85619), 107.2'x 29.4' x 11.7'. Built at Detroit in 1880. Boasted of electric lighting, and "Unsurpassed by any for speed, safety, and comfort" in her advertising (TELESCOPE, Vol. 10, No. 2, Feb., 1961) a fact not too well borne out in her record.
The ferry GARLAND did become the first Great Lakes steamer to be lighted by electricity. But GARLAND tarnished her name tragically when but two months in service. While carrying an excursion party of the Detroit Stove Works on July 22, 1880, she ran down and sank the steam yacht MAMIE which was carrying a party or altar boys from Detroit’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Seventeen passengers of MAMIE were drowned. Captain Horn lost his GARLAND soon afterward to a Canadian court which auctioned her off to satisfy an unpaid coal bill. For many years GARLAND served the Detroit and Windsor Ferry Company, and under the name of CITY OF SARNIA she plied between Port Huron and Sarnia late in her career. (TELESCOPE, Vol. 10, No. 11, November 1961, pp. 214-215)