Edmund Fitzgerald anniversary

**Ragtoplover59** · November-16-09, 07:00 PM

Good job MikeM, I should of crossed referenced with birds eye myself. I see there is another rail barge two slips downriver. amazing the amount of history we can see with these images.

I was looking around Buffalo, NY's river front last week, and came across the Aquarama. of course she has been scrapped already. But still interesting to see her at another dock.

**BillyBBrew** · November-16-09, 07:17 PM

I didn't want to chime in because I'm not sure if I have the correct name or not, but I THINK it's the car float Windsor. I do know it is the one that was pushed by the tug Prescotant. The one further down in the Nicholson's South Slip is no longer there. It was one of the former NS car floats [[Manitowoc?) and was towed over the the Dean Marine Yard in LaSalle for scrapping last year.

**1KielsonDrive** · November-17-09, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by BillyBBrew

I didn't want to chime in because I'm not sure if I have the correct name or not, but I THINK it's the car float Windsor. I do know it is the one that was pushed by the tug Prescotant. The one further down in the Nicholson's South Slip is no longer there. It was one of the former NS car floats [[Manitowoc?) and was towed over the the Dean Marine Yard in LaSalle for scrapping last year.

Billy, are you talking about the one that sat, for years, where the Bob Lo Boats now sit? Was it a car float or a tanker?

**BillyBBrew** · November-17-09, 04:01 PM

No, I'm talking about in the South Slip, not the north slip. They had one of the former NS car floats there for about 15 years. I think that Paratex was the tanker that was on the north side of the north slip for a long time. It was gone by the time I was down here.

**Ray1936** · November-17-09, 04:27 PM

Um....to kinda return to the thread, today is Gordon Lightfoot's 71st birthday. Happy birthday, GL !

**BillyBBrew** · November-17-09, 06:30 PM

It wasn't the Paratex. It was the Panoil. The Paratex was a low profile ship designed for use around Chicago and the Erie Canal with it's many low bridges. The Panoil was moved in the early 1980's and scrapped by Nicholson in their South Slip.

**1KielsonDrive** · November-17-09, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by BillyBBrew

It wasn't the Paratex. It was the Panoil. The Paratex was a low profile ship designed for use around Chicago and the Erie Canal with it's many low bridges. The Panoil was moved in the early 1980's and scrapped by Nicholson in their South Slip.

See what happens when you get to be an Old Fart? Time just slips right by and all of a sudden it's 10 or 20 years later. It's no wonder you guys don't believe me. I'm in a time warp.

**the rock** · November-18-09, 06:29 AM

jjaba gives me credit for my knowledge of Great Lakes history, but I don't hold a candle to BillyBBrew and others who have previously posted on this thread.
The FITZ and other shipwrecks on the Lakes continue to hold a fascination for so many people.. And the Great Storm of 1913 "celebrates" its 96 year this month. About 20 ships went to the bottom, and I understand that a couple of them have still not been located. Where or where is the JAMES CARRUTHERS? But that's another story.

**BillyBBrew** · November-18-09, 04:01 PM

I'll have to look and see, but for some reason I thought they had located the Carruthers? The way the town of Goderich, ON came together and had the huge funeral around the town square and has a maintained gravesite in Maitland Cemetary for the 5 unknown sailors has always touched me. Thank you for the compliment Rock. Sometimes it's remembering, other times it's a matter of knowing which book to pick up to find info :-)

**the rock** · November-19-09, 10:20 AM

Your are most welcome, BBB. And see if you can get me an update on the ill-fated Carruthers. I thought she was the biggest and the newest when she went she went missing. Dave Trotter might have an update on her whereabouts.
Pat Labadie and I visited the Maitland Cemetery and the Storm of '13 grave marker one cold February when we were in Goderich going aboard the old whalebacks and taking pictures of the old Patterson/Algoma boats that were tied up in the harbor for the winter. Snow up to our thighs, but we found the marker and got a photo.That was the same time we brought back the name board from the old Algodoc that now hangs from the ceiling of the Dossin. Lucky we were not arrested at the boarder.

**jjaba** · November-19-09, 01:28 PM

Rock, it's "border." A boarder is a guy who sleeps on a kitchen door over two chairs, working at Ford-Highland Park, circa 1915.

As always, good report from The Rock, the source for words and physical evidence hanging in a museum. Anybody going to Canada in February on such a mission must be serious about it.

jjaba.

**1KielsonDrive** · November-19-09, 01:40 PM

I remember seeing the whaleback, Meteor, at rest in the Rouge River by the old Rosie's Bar in Delray. Next to West Jefferson and near Dearborn Street. I was very young, but ships were of great interest to me. My father, who indulged my interests [[thank you, dear dad) told me all about her. My dad also used to bicycle with me to the foot of Grand Boulevard to see the Westcott and Aquarama. We also boarded the Aquarama one time when my grandmother was cruising to [[I think) Cleveland and/or Buffalo. [[ I got to board her again many years later). A middle class grandma's dream cruise. And a little ship nut's dream, too.

**Supersport** · November-20-09, 03:16 PM

I bookmarked this page a few years back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zrFt...search=Detroit

Retroit · November-24-09, 06:01 PM

J.W. Wescott story tonight on PBS Ch. 56 at 9 p.m.

**MikeM** · November-25-09, 05:13 PM

http://www.grossepointenews.com/Arti...avyweight.html

**1KielsonDrive** · November-25-09, 09:42 PM

MikeM, thanks for the link. As I said earlier, Ramsay's book is well worth the read. It's strangely written, quite eccentric, but very interestiung and provacative. I received the latest issue of the River Rouge Historic Museum's newsletter, today. One of the news items reprinted from the 1940's, caught my eye. It was a meeting of The Down River Shipbuilder's Association at the Workingmen's Hall, corner of Walnut and Richter Streets in River Rouge. It was about a block from my house and a third of the distance to the GLEW. I had forgotten that apartment house had been a meeting hall in an earlier era. I believe my gramps owned it at some point in later years. It was a nice memory to recover.

**Rosa** · December-13-09, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by 1KielsonDrive

Here's the article resulting from my suggestion to Kim Heron at the Metro Times last year for inclusion in MT's, 'Best of ' issue. I also suggested the title. As usual, they got the location wrong. They said Ecorse, but it's River Rouge. That's after I emphasized Rouge to them. In MT's defense, they're not the only ones to get it wrong.

Part of the reason they probably got it wrong is the fact that when GLEW was built, the land the shipyard was on was in Ecorse. Later, I believe in the 1920s, the land became part of River Rouge and the name of the yard was changed from the Ecorse Yard to the River Rouge yard. I don't know why this land exchange happened between Ecorse and Rouge, but I'd love to know. So any boat built there until around 1925 or so was technically built in Ecorse.

**1KielsonDrive** · December-13-09, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Rosa

Part of the reason they probably got it wrong is the fact that when GLEW was built, the land the shipyard was on was in Ecorse. Later, I believe in the 1920s, the land became part of River Rouge and the name of the yard was changed from the Ecorse Yard to the River Rouge yard. I don't know why this land exchange happened between Ecorse and Rouge, but I'd love to know. So any boat built there until around 1925 or so was technically built in Ecorse.

Your basic story is correct. I'll add a little bit to it. The timeline is approximately right. River Rouge wanted the more desirable residential areas along Ironton Street southward toward Tecumseh Road, the main entrance to GLS. At the time the land where GLS now sits was swamp and marsh. A swap was arranged, giving River Rouge residentail areas and some land on the Detroit River. Little did Rouge and Ecorse know that the 'swamp' would become a huge, tax revenue producing complex within a few years. River Rouge certainly would love to have that one back. GLS eventually expanded to River Rouge, not to mention the National Steel, Hanna Blast Furnace Division in River Rouge on Zug Island.

**Rosa** · December-13-09, 11:23 PM

Thank you for the background info. I lived in Ecorse as a kid, so the history about both the boat and the shipyard have always interested me.

**1KielsonDrive** · December-14-09, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by Rosa

Thank you for the background info. I lived in Ecorse as a kid, so the history about both the boat and the shipyard have always interested me.

Or Intercourse, as we called it. What street? What years? Ecorse High or St. Francis? Or maybe Rouge School district? Rouge and Ecorse are practically one and the same, though we had a big rivalry in sports. A lot of my friends were Ecorsians who attended Rouge schools. I always loved Ecorse Greek Town - coffee houses, G&G Coney Island, Auburn Cafe, Armos' Market and Armos' Variety Store, the Mediterranean Grocery and Akropol Bar. Lot's of good times.