Volunteers Seek $1M to Preserve Historic Great Lakes Car Ferry

 

Efforts are underway to raise $1 million to help save a historic Great Lakes car ferry that is moored in Northern Michigan and whose preservation is under threat due to significant hull corrosion.

The Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee says it’s hoping to raise the funds that will be used for the long term preservation of S.S. City of Milwaukee, a 1930-built steam-powered railroad car ferry that was instrumental in Michigan’s industrial revolution.

With a $1 million budget that will cover preparation, towing, shipyard services, and contingency for cost overruns, the aim is to have City of Milwaukee dry docked at the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for critical works. The project will mark the first time that the National Historic Landmark ship will be out of the water in 45 years.

The City of Milwaukee was the last of six sister ships designed in the 1920s and built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding company out of Wisconsin. She was launched in 1931 to replace SS Milwaukee, which sank with all hands in October 1929 during a gale.

The ship had an illustrious career and is known as one of Michigan’s most important surviving links to the Great Lakes’ industrial and transportation history. She remains as the last unmodified traditional Great Lakes railroad car ferry in existence, making her the most complete surviving example of the once-critical industry.

For decades, City of Milwaukee and other ships like her were a critical extension of Michigan’s rail system, carrying entire freight trains, automobiles, and passengers across Lake Michigan and supporting manufacturing, agriculture, travel, and jobs in communities throughout the state. The steel-hulled ship had a carrying capacity of 30 to 32 fully loaded rail cars.

When the Grand Trunk Western Railroad ended car ferry operations in 1978, the importance of the industry was so clear that the State of Michigan purchased the City of Milwaukee and leased her to the Ann Arbor Railroad until 1981 in an effort to keep the car ferry system alive and protect a transportation network that was vital to the state’s economy.

Retired in 1982, City of Milwaukee is today preserved in Manistee, Michigan, where she serves as a museum ship, attracting thousands of visitors annually. The society responsible for the ship’s preservation says that like all historic ships, the City of Milwaukee requires care to survive. Currently, much of the ship’s steel hull lies below the waterline and cannot be fully inspected or repaired while afloat, which makes a trip to dry dock critical to allow the vessel to be lifted out of the water for preservation works.

While in dry dock, the underwater hull will be power-washed and sandblasted, all sea chests and underwater openings will be sealed, the propellers will be removed and stern tubes sealed, and the hull will receive two coats of a marine epoxy coating with an estimated service life of 25 years or more.

“Significant progress has been made to preserve the ship; however, securing the long-term integrity of her hull is the next and most critical step,” said The Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee in a statement.

The society added that once the project is finished, City of Milwaukee will return to her current home in Manistee where she will continue attracting visitors, offering overnight stays and special events.