Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 24, no. 4 (January 1992), p. 13

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13. Ship of the Month - cont'd. Another member, John H. Wilterding, Jr., the author of the 1969 booklet McDougall's Dream - The American W h a l e b a c k , has written to provide us with a print of the Liverpool photo of CHARLES W. WETMORE, which in 1990 appeared in the British magazine, "Sea Breezes". The photo comes from a Mr. P. J. O'Neill, who received it from a friend whose grandfather had taken the photo in 1891. We are extremely grateful to John Wilterding for loaning the photo to us. Unfortunately, it arrived just one day too late to be included in the photopage for this month's issue, but it most certainly will appear as a follow-up item in our next issue. The photo is interesting in that not only is it a great view taken from the port quarter, with much cabin detail, but it also shows the long line of Liverpudlians waiting to pay their shilling each and go aboard the strange American pigboat. There is something else very interesting about this photo. In our own collection, we have several photos which came to us identified as the WETMORE, all supposedly taken in the lakes before she shot the rapids. The trouble has been that we have had reason to doubt that it was, in fact, the WETMORE that was pictured. One reason for this was that the stern view of the WETMORE in the Soo Locks, used in the November issue, clearly shows tha the stanchions on the upper deck of the steamer's after cabin were painted brown, at least on the starboard side, whereas the other photos showed white stanchions. We thought it unlikely that these stanchions would have been brown at the Soo, but white before the ship reached Kingston. Can we be certain, however? The most surprising thing about the Liverpool photo is that it shows the WETMORE's upper deck stanchions, at least on the port side, to be white! Was the trim on the WETMORE's after cabins changed en route? Or, through some whim of the painters, were the stanchions on the starboard side brown while those on the port side were white? We'll review those other photos again, and if we are half-way satisfied with the identification, we may run one next issue to compare with the Liverpool photo. We are most grateful, indeed, to all of those who responded to the first segment of our whaleback feature. If any other members can provide additional information about theCOLBY, the WETMORE or the barge 110, we would be pleased to hear from them. * * * * * A VERY SPECIAL OFFER In both segments of this whaleback feature, we have made mention of a booklet entitled McDougall's Dream - The American W h a l e b a c k . This is a 72page softcover, in approximately by 8 1 / 2 format, with illustrations, which was produced in 1969 by John H. Wilterding, Jr. The book not only discusses the development of the whaleback design, complete with illustrations of some of McDougall's original patent drawings, but also contains a detailed history of each of the many whalebacks, complete with all ownership/registry changes. Although there are a few unfortunate "typos" in the text, the book is a "must" piece for the library of any serious lake shipping historian. The print run of McDougall's Dream was only 1, 000 copies. The author, however, advises us that he has a very limited number of copies still available, and he is making them available to T. M. H . S. members for the price of $15. 00 U . S. Funds, which includes postage. Interested parties may address Mr. John H. Wilterding, Jr., 1529 Clark Street, Algoma, Wisconsin 54201, U . S. A. * * * * *

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