Where are the Boblo boats this summer?

[renf]

The Boblo boats are National Historic Landmarks. Where are they at present? Is the Columbia still undergoing a renovation in Ecorse? Has the Ste Claire been moved to a port in New York state? Thank you.

[Wingnatic]

Actually I believe the Columbia was the one that went to NY for renovations to become a water taxi in NY Harbor and the Ste. Clair [[the smallest of the 2) had changed hands a few times and is currently being renovated [[very slowly through volunteers ) in the area somewhere . At one time I believe it was docked in Toledo or Cleveland , not sure . But the owner at that time lost the Ste. Clair in a divorce . I met his ex aboard the Detroit Princess during the Detroit Memories Reunion in 2006 along with Rockin Robin Seymour if that name rings a bell lol She has since sold the boat and I believe an area doctor bought it .
Apparently the Detroit Memories link isn't allowed here ? so just add a dot com at the end and check out Bob-Lo boats area , not sure if its current info or not

[1KielsonDrive]

As far as I know, neither is undergoing renovation. They are, or were as of a couple of months ago, sitting at the foot of Great Lakes Avenue in River Rouge, in the Nicholson Terminal slip, rotting away. I'll photo them sometime soon, if someone from DY doesn't beat me too them. I generally ride or walk down there whenever I'm in Rouge, just to gaze at them and re-live memories.

[Ltdave]

according to the site www.bobloboat.com restoration is on going on the Ste. Clair in Ecorse...

check it out...

[1KielsonDrive]

according to the site www.bobloboat.com restoration is on going on the Ste. Clair in Ecorse...

check it out...

Thanks for the link. I believe the website is 'massaging' the facts. Not that I blame them. I was on the St. Claire a few years ago when it was supposedly undergoing renovations. Not to discount any work done by the faithful and loyal believers, it wasn't a renovation by any serious definition. I haven't been on board since then, but have visited her many times. If there is in fact any ongoing renovations, they aren't visible from the exterior. I hope I'm wrong, but suspect I'm right. Skipper's Rule #1 is in effect here.

[Zacha341]

Hmm, yes, true restoration of a vessel that old takes tons of money and some level of dry docking at some point. Those boats are still in the water rotting from the keel up! It's a wonder they are still afloat.

Thanks for the link. I believe the website is 'massaging' the facts. Not that I blame them. I was on the St. Claire a few years ago when it was supposedly undergoing renovations. Not to discount any work done by the faithful and loyal believers, it wasn't a renovation by any serious definition. I haven't been on board since then, but have visited her many times. If there is in fact any ongoing renovations, they aren't visible from the exterior. I hope I'm wrong, but suspect I'm right. Skipper's Rule #1 is in effect here.

[Whitehouse]

A fairly dated shot of Bing maps birdeye. I believe this is the Columbia, still in the white covering, which has since been torn to pieces by the elements.


That ship on the other end of this shot is also interesting. Who knows something about that one? Seems to be from the same era.

Is there nothing possible like a work/learing project? It's been done over here in the Netherlands. Not by restoring an old ship, but in our case building a new, period accurately ship. Here are some fine examples.

Batavia.
A ship with one aspect with Titanic in common. This one also sunk on it's first trip. But it lasted a little longer than that Cunard liner. It crashed on rock along the shores of [[then unknown) Australia.

A replica was build was started in 1985, which lasted till 1995. This hip is accurate in all aspects. Thwy even used tools and methods used in the 17th century. In theory she can sail under her own power but you need a massive ammount of personnel on board that need to be well trained. During the 2000 Olympics in Australia she was shipped there by barge and, for once only, she actually sailed under her own power.
Here she is under sail. Sadly a fire ripped trough the wharf some time ago. The rigging and the sails were lost in that fire, the ship however as well as the Zeven Provincien [[see below) were never in danger.

Look at this stunning beauty!!

Batavia.

Currently the same wharf is woring on a new project. The next vessel to be build is the flagship of Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon De Ruyter. That ship was 50 meters long and had a complement of over 400 sailors!! This ship is slightly smaller than the Batavia but there's one major difference. The Batavia was a tradeship whereas the Zeven Provinciën was a true warship.

In Rotterdam there's a similar project going on, which is recreating "De Delft". This was also a warship, with 50 cannons, and served the navy for 14 years. This ship is not from the same era is "De Zeven Provinciën [[there's a gap of about 100 years) but the techniques did not differ that much and the appearance was also similar.

"De Delft".


When you visit Amsterdam, there's no doubt your retina will be faced with The "Amsterdam"
It was build on the same wharf as the replicas of the Batavia and Zeven Provinciën.


"The Amsterdam". Three xxx, the crest of the city of Amsterdam, how fitting!

There is another Amsterdam. This was also a schooling project but in this case it was a reconstruction of a clipper. As I have reached the four-picture-per-post limit, here's the link.

[Stosh]

They have been working on the ships all winter, mostly on the upper deck, mostly cosmetic repairs to the area around the front of the ship. I guess that's more important than structural repairs to them, but who am I to judge, it's not my ship.

That being said, these ships were a dime a dozen in the era they were built. Really, they were people haulers, and designed to serve a purpose for a finite length of time. I can't see them ever being seaworthy again, without serious cost.

[Whitehouse]

That being said, these ships were a dime a dozen in the era they were built. Really, they were people haulers, and designed to serve a purpose for a finite length of time. I can't see them ever being seaworthy again, without serious cost.

Same goes for those ships I posted above. In the 16th and 17th century the average building period per ship was three or four months. That Batavia replica took 10 years... In total over a period of 200 years, 1500 ships like this were constructed!! None of them survived. The orignal Batavia was raised and is now housed in a museum in Freemantle, Australia.
The original Amsterdam sunk on it's maiden voyage near Hastings, England. It's still laying there in the mud but it's the best preserved ship of that era.




Until 2009!!!
Swedish archeologists made a spectacular discovery in the Baltic sea. Since the temperature is so low at the bottom of the sea, decay is very low. A 17th century Dutch merchant vessel was found. They dubbed it the Lion's wreck, since there was a lion figure on the rudder. Check out this spectacular footage!! Even the masts are still standing upright. Now you finally know how Jack Sparrow felt when he saw the Flying Dutchman for the first time!

Thr lion's wreck.

The same archeological team discovered a first such ship in 2007. There's a videolink. here.

There is one notable replica which I didn't mention. This was a replica of the biggest VOC retour ship that ever was, the Prins Willim. This replica was commissioned by the Osaka Holland village [[which has since closed). It was build in Makkum, Friesland. This replica differs from the others because it was not a period accurate ship. The core was a metal hull, wood covered. But the exterior was awesome. I've seen it many times.

Prins Willim in full glory.

Recreating this ship was pretty easy. A year after the original ship was completed, a replica ship was made to scale. This ship is in the possession of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. And here it is.






This ship was in use as a restaurant. Sadly a short circuit caused a devastating fire and all that remained was a scarred carcass above the waterline.


The sad remains of the same ship.


Here is footage of the fire. It's very sad to see this ship being eaten away by the fire and especially after one minute and 12 seconds into this clip, when the rigging comes down.
There is an effort underway to see if the ship can be restored again.

[BillyBBrew]

The smaller boat in the upper part of the photo Whitehouse posted is the yacht Helene.

[Whitehouse]

The smaller boat in the upper part of the photo Whitehouse posted is the yacht Helene.

Looks like a sad story as well...

In this 2005 picture she still looks fine and dandy, but here she is in 2009 and it's pretty clear her paint is peeling. This ship is also in dire need of some TLC.

In this 2008 shot she's in drydock.

[[Pics from Boatnerd.com)

Statistics.

[FlyByDon]

http://www.aerialpics.com/photo-of-month.html

[BillyBBrew]

Whitehouse,

The Helene suffered an electrical fire around 2004. In the 2005 pic, if you look closely, you can see her wheelhouse being rebuilt. She ran a short while after that and then sank during the winter at her dock. She was raised and nothing was really done to her and then a year or so later, she sank again. I'm not sure what her future holds, but at least she's still around. She's a beautiful boat. She was built in 1927 at Defoe Boat and Motor Works in Bay City for Charlie Sorenson. The info that you passed along from U of D has alot of inaccuracies in it. There may have been name changes I'm not aware of, but as far as I know, she's always been the Helene. Here is her info from the Center for Archival Collections database at BGSU.

NationalityU.S. Official Number226316 RigMotor Yacht Dimensions and TonnageVessel Length:96.75 feet.Gross Tonnage:104.00 Vessel Width:16.66 feetNet Tonnage:70.00 Vessel Depth:7.66 feetHull Material:Steel Masts: Hull Number:00121 Item Number: 003983 Image Size: 38321 bytes Vessel HistoryBuilder Defoe Boat and Motor Works Bay City, MI 1927 Ownership ChangesDateRegistryOfficial #Charles E. Sorensen
Detroit, MI U.S. 1927- 1936 U.S. 226316 Robert S. Brown
Clearwater, FL U.S. 1936- 1941 U.S. 226316 Queens Tire and Supply Corp.
Long Island, NY U.S. 1941- 1943 U.S. 226316 U.S. Government
Washington, DC U.S. 1943- 1946 U.S. 226316 G.W. Ford Yacht Agency
New York, NY U.S. 1946- 1949 U.S. 226316 Robert C. Renolde
Detroit, MI U.S. 1949- 1962 U.S. 226316 Ruth L. Renolde
Detroit, MI U.S. 1962- 1964 U.S. 226316 C.M. Verbiest and Associates, Inc.
Detroit, MI U.S. 1964 U.S. 226316 Vessel Name ChangesDateRegistryOfficial #No Name changes recorded RebuildsTonnage change, 1975 [[99 gross - 67 net).HistoryNo Vessel History AvailableDispositionNo Disposition Information Available

[Magnatomicflux]

Hi everyone,

This my first post here and probably one of a few because quite frankly with the amount of knowlage you all have and the pictures and info you post simply astounds me, i really won't have much to contribute. Maybe on Windsor related stuff, but not really the D.

Anyhow, i saw this post and had to send a photo i found on Boatnerd. I beleive it was Zacha341 who said they need some level of drydocking, and it sounded like no one knew for sure if either had been. So here's Columbia anyhow at Nicholson Shipyard. The file was saved as a date of 08-22-04.

I really do hope Ste Claire gets back to work though, the river just seems wrong without those two beauties. Those aerial shots sure do seem like progress is being made un the upper decks though.. And thanks for the info on the Helene, I've always wondered who she is. If I only had the money......

Like i said, I won't comment much, but it's nice to know I have access to some pretty knowlagable people.
Found you guys thru Internationalmetropolis and AIW.

[Sstashmoo]

The St Claire was hauled out and some of the plating replaced, it's been nearly ten years ago though. The same time the engine was removed. Anyone have any idea of it's whereabouts? Was it reinstalled? If that gets lost, forget the restoration.

I'm all for one or both of these boats be restored, just seems the efforts have been not enough and a bit misguided. These boats need to be hauled, sand blasted, assessed and recoated, keel to gunwale, then start worrying about railing and so forth. They are a both a little long in the tooth for simple patch up and reuse.

These boats could be restored and there is a viable business opportunity for at least one to earn her keep. It could involve some land based activity, highlighting Detroit's rich maritime history. Possibly a traditional boat building school, on the water, involving area youth. These don't cost much to run and the projects can be sold to fund it. Imagine a charter, one of the Boblo boats, with stops at Belle Isle and loop around Bois blanc, ending with a stop at the Detroit Drydock Shipwrights school and museum? I'd pay 40 to spend an afternoon that way.

[1KielsonDrive]

Here are a few 2005 shots of Helene at NTD. As Billybrew alluded to, she was undergoing some work due to a fire in the pilot house. The wheel house is covered with a tarp in these photos. She looks to be in pretty good condition at that time.