Marine Historical Society of Detroit

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Marine Historical Society of Detroit

Dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Great Lakes shipping past and present for future gene James M. Schoonmaker and William G.

The Marine Historical Society of Detroit, a non-profit organization founded in 1944, provides a focal point for individuals and organizations interested in and concerned with the history of the Great Lakes and its maritime heritage. Membership includes our monthly publication The Detroit Marine Historian, which offers a variety of articles exploring Great Lakes shipping past and present. Features

include Great Lakes Ships to be Remembered, a look at Marine News from 100 Years Ago, and The Log, a digest of current news concerning Great Lakes shipping. Membership also includes an annual, full-color calendar featuring superb, often rare, photos of Great Lakes ships of the past. In keeping with the Society’s objective to further interest and preservation of Great Lakes history, we have published several quality books, including three volumes of Great Lakes Ships We Remember, two volumes of Ahoy & Farewell, GLEW (an illustrated history of the Great Lakes Engineering Works shipyard) and The Nicholson Fleets and Their Captains. Many of the photographs used in these publications are not available elsewhere. In keeping with the Society’s objective
to further interest and preservation of Great Lakes history, we have also provided financial support to worthy projects around the Great Lakes, among them the Lightship Huron museum, the Col. Mather museum ships, the Great Lakes Maritime Institute’s William Clay Ford pilothouse and Edmund Fitzgerald anchor-raising projects. The society has also given scholarship support to The Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Traverse City. Our archival collection has been donated to The Historical Collections of the Great Lakes at Bowling Green, Ohio. The MHSD has members in the United States, Canada and around the world. We would be pleased to have you join us.

06/24/2026

The William H. Daniels. Unidentified location in one of the pre-Seaway Canadian canals (per comments, Lock 19, Cornwall Canal, Cornwall, ON). Unknown date and photographer. Peter VanderLinden collection/MHSD.

06/23/2026

The tug William W. Stender after being purchased by Hannah Inland Waterways Corp. Photo taken July 1977, Mission Point, St. Marys River, John Coulter photo/MHSD.

The tug would be renamed Mary Page Hannah yet that year.

06/22/2026

Wheat King, 1961. Location not identified. Robert Zeleznik photo/MHSD.

Port Colborne is a guess on the location.

06/21/2026

The USS Tautog (SS-199) docked at Milwaukee January 1, 1958. Jim Bartke collection/MHSD.

Built by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, CT in 1939-40, the submarine was credited with sinking 26 enemy vessels during World War II. From 1947-1959 the vessel served as a stationary training vessel on the Great Lakes (at Milwaukee). Sold for scrap in late 1959.

06/18/2026

The McKee Sons seen in Toledo in 1997, after conversion to a barge. It is being pushed by the tug Olive L. Moore. Jim Hoffman photo/MHSD.

06/17/2026

Pringle Barge Line's (owned by Oglebay Norton) tug S.M. Dean tows the barge Maida near Ecorse in the Detroit River, 1961. Gordon Bugbee photo/MHSD.

06/13/2026

Chief Wawatam drydocked, Sturgeon Bay. Undated photo but probably 1977 or 1983. Wendell Wilke photo/MHSD.

$Temporary repairs to the port side of the Algowood after the hull buckled and fractured while loading stone at Bruce Min...$

06/12/2026

Temporary repairs to the port side of the Algowood after the hull buckled and fractured while loading stone at Bruce Mines, June 1, 2000. Skip Meier photo/MHSD.

The temporary repairs were made onsite and the vessel re-floated after the hull fractured and the vessel settled to the bottom at the dock in Bruce Mines. A portion of the hull was later replaced at the shipyard in Port Weller.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's Marine Investigation Report for the incident can be download or viewed at this link:
https://www.bst.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/marine/2000/m00c0026/m00c0026.html

06/10/2026

The bunkering tanker William H. Bennett in Duluth 1974. John Vournakis photo/MHSD.

06/09/2026

Bessemer Streamship's steamer John Ericsson and barge Alexander Holley upbound in the first Poe Lock, Sault Ste. Marie, circa 1900. Edward Morris collection/MHSD.

The building adjacent to the rapids (above the Ericsson's stack) was a state fish hatchery. Weitzel Lock is to the left.

Address

Detroit, MI

Website

http://mhsd.org/

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