SS Christopher Columbus

{{main|Whaleback}}

The history of the Columbus is linked with that of the whalebacks, an innovative but not widely accepted ship design of the late 1880s, and of their designer, Alexander McDougall. A Scottish immigrant, Great Lakes captain, inventor{{cite web

|url = http://www.abouthegreatlakes.com/whale.htm

|work = About the Great Lakes

|title = Remember the Whaleback Steamers

|access-date = August 18, 2007

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071005170240/http://www.abouthegreatlakes.com/whale.htm

|archive-date = October 5, 2007

}} and entrepreneur, McDougall developed the idea of the whaleback as a way to improve the ability of barges to follow a towing vessel in heavy seas. Whalebacks were characterized by distinctive hull shapes with rounded tops, lacking conventional vertical sides. Waves thus broke across their hulls with considerably less force than when striking a conventional hull. Water could also flow around the rounded turrets which resembled gun turrets on contemporary warships; the superstructure and deckhouses were mounted on these turrets.{{cite web | last = Duerkop | first = John | title = Some Marine Terminology | work = Research Resources | publisher = Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston |date=July 2007 | url = http://www.marmuseum.ca/duerkop.html | access-date = 2008-03-22 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080311063134/http://www.marmuseum.ca/duerkop.html | archive-date = 2008-03-11 }} (definition 65, Whaleback). The rounded contours of whalebacks gave them an unconventional appearance,

and McDougall's ship and barge designs were received with considerable skepticism, resistance, and derision. As they had porcine-looking snouts for bows, some observers called them "pig boats".{{cite book | last = Croil | first = James | title = Steam Navigation and Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United States | url = https://archive.org/details/cihm_02131 | publisher = Montreal News Company | location = Toronto | year = 1898 | oclc = 1082014 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cihm_02131/page/n406 362]–64 | isbn = 9780665021312 }} Google books has images of those pages in the chapter entitled [https://archive.org/details/steamnavigation00croigoog/page/n395 The Turret Steamship]. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.

After McDougall was unable to persuade existing shipbuilders to try his designs, he founded the American Steel Barge Company in Superior, Wisconsin in 1888, and built them himself. McDougall actively promoted his design and company by sending the SS Charles W. Wetmore to London, and starting another shipyard in Everett, Washington, which built the SS City of Everett.{{cite encyclopedia

|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7362

|encyclopedia=Washington State online history encyclopedia

|title=Charles W. Wetmore arrives

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} When the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, to be held in Chicago, Illinois, was in the planning stages, McDougall recognized another opportunity to publicize his design. The Columbus, conceived as an elaborate ferry, was intended to demonstrate that the whaleback design would work well in passenger service, and would be able to travel at high speed.{{cite web

|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/26792/data

|title=The Marine Record October 1, 1891

|work= Maritime History of the Great Lakes

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} The ship's name honored the explorer Christopher Columbus as did the World's Columbian Exposition itself, timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his first voyage to the New World.

Image:Christopher Columbus whaleback build.jpg

The World's Fair Steamship Company ordered the construction of the Columbus at an estimated cost of US$360,000. The job was undertaken at McDougall's American Steel Barge Company works in Superior, Wisconsin, starting in the fall of 1892.{{cite news |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-689511201 |title=Last of the Whalebacks |work=Sea Classics |year=2004 |last=Wilkens |first=Steven A. |access-date=November 9, 2007}}

The hull framing, which included nine bulkheads, was completed on September 13, 1892. The ship's propulsion mechanisms were next installed, consisting of a single four-bladed, {{convert|14|ft|m|0|adj=on}} diameter, {{convert|19|ft|m|0|adj=on}} pitch propeller, the two reciprocating triple-expansion steam engines (with three cylinders of {{convert|26|in|cm|0|adj=on}}, {{convert|42|in|cm|0|adj=on}} and {{convert|70|in|cm|0|adj=on}} diameters in a common frame with a {{convert|42|in|cm|0|adj=on}} stroke) manufactured by Samuel F. Hodge & Co. of Detroit, Michigan, and six steel tubular return Scotch boilers, ({{convert|11|ft|m|0|adj=on}} diameter by {{convert|12|ft|m|0|adj=on}} long), built by Cleveland Shipbuilding Company.{{cite web |url=http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/Page.asp?PageID=3245 |title=Green's Marine Directory of the Great Lakes |location=Cleveland |year=1916 |pages=248 |work=Maritime History of the Great Lakes |last=Green |first=Fred W. |access-date=August 18, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125180113/http://maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/Page.asp?PageID=3245 |archive-date=November 25, 2010 }}{{cite web

|url = http://www.steamboats.com/museum/engineroom6.html

|title = Scotch Boiler description

|work = History of the Steamboat

|access-date = October 16, 2007

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071028184548/http://www.steamboats.com/museum/engineroom6.html

|archive-date = October 28, 2007

}} The rounded hull top was then added, followed by the six turrets, which were substantially larger than those employed on freighter whalebacks. The ship was launched on December 3, 1892, after which two superstructure decks were mounted on the turrets along the centerline of her hull to afford access to her two internal decks, one in the turrets and one in the hull below.

She was fitted out over the remainder of late 1892 and early 1893. Electric lighting was used, and she was elegantly furnished. Her grand saloon and skylighted promenade deck contained several fountains and a large aquarium filled with trout and other fish of the lakes. The cabins and public spaces were fitted out with oak paneling, velvet carpets, etched glass windows, leather furniture and marble. Shops and restaurants were provided for the passengers.{{cite book

|url=http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/00114003.html

|chapter=Chapter XVIII. Transportation

|title=The Book of the Fair

|last=Bancroft

|first=Hubert Howe

|year=1893

|publisher=The Bancroft Company, Publishers

|edition=Cygne Noir

|oclc=01412680}}

{{multiple image

| align = left

| direction = horizontal

| header =

| header_align = left/right/center

| header_background =

| footer =

| footer_align = left/right/center

| footer_background =

| width =

| image1 = SS Christopher Columbus moored at Rush Street Bridge.jpg

| width1 = 120

| caption1 = Moored at Rush Street Bridge on Chicago River

| image2 = Christopher Columbus whaleback white at Racine.jpg

| width2 = 147

| caption2 = White livery

| image3 =

| width3 =

| caption3 =

| image4 =

| width4 =

| caption4 =

| image5 =

| width5 =

| caption5 =

}}

McDougall's American Steel Barge Company had committed in the contract that the Columbus would be built and delivered in three months, making her one of the fastest-built large ships of her time. The builders further promised rapid loading and unloading, predicting that the vessel would be able to embark 5,000 passengers in five minutes, and disembark the same passengers in even less time. The Columbus was specified to be able run the {{convert|6|mi|km|0}} from the dock downtown to the fairgrounds at Jackson Park and 64th Street in 20 minutes.{{cite book

|url=http://columbus.iit.edu/dreamcity/00034087.html

|chapter=The Whaleback Steamship

|title=The Dream City: a portfolio of photographic views of the World's Columbian Exposition

|others=intr. by Halsey C. Ives

|location=St. Louis, Missouri

|publisher=N. D. Thompson Publishing Co.

|year=1893

|oclc= 2276578}}

McDougall set up another holding company, the Columbian Whaleback Steamship Company of Duluth, Minnesota, to own and operate the Columbus. She was commissioned on May 13, 1893. Her first captain was John McArthur, who had captained other whalebacks for McDougall's firms, starting with the first powered whaleback, the Colgate Hoyt, built in 1890. McDougall was quoted as having said to McArthur, "There is your steamboat; take her down to Chicago and make a success of her."

Image:Christopher Columbus whaleback pass.jpg]]

McArthur did just that. Painted in all white livery, the Columbus made multiple round trips per day, sailing along the Lake Michigan shoreline from the Randolph Street/Van Buren Street dock to the Jackson Park site of the World's Columbian Exposition's Beaux arts "White City" exposition fairgrounds. A contemporary souvenir booklet called her "the greatest marine wonder of its time", and another publication dubbed her the "Queen of the Lakes".{{cite journal |title=Queen of the Lakes: Trip of the New Whaleback Propeller Christopher Columbus From Superior to Chicago....The Finest Excursion Steamer in America

|journal=Seaboard

|volume=5

|pages=608–610

|date=May 25, 1893}} She had an estimated capacity of 4,000–5,000 passengers on her four decks, but it was reported that she carried 7,000 on her maiden voyage.{{cite web

|title = Other Famous Whalebacks

|publisher = Superior Public Museums

|url = http://www.superiorpublicmuseums.org/ssmeteor/Newother.htm

|access-date = March 25, 2008

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110722120533/http://www.superiorpublicmuseums.org/ssmeteor/Newother.htm

|archive-date = July 22, 2011

}} The Goodrich Transit Line steamer Virginia (later the USS Blue Ridge) is said to have raced against her.{{cite web

|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/lcc-19.htm

|title=LCC 19 Blue Ridge – SP 2432 section

|work=globalsecurity.org forces and ships information

|access-date=October 15, 2007}}

The Columbus carried between 1.7 and 2.0 million passengers (sources differ) during the exposition, with only one fatality, a crew member.{{cite web

|url=http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/Documents/HGL2/default.asp?ID=s748

|title=Marine Captain's Biographies, Volume II - Captain J. McArthur

|work=Maritime History of the Great Lakes

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} In recognition of that success, the commissioners of the exposition presented Captain McArthur with a gold watch engraved with a representation of the ship. McArthur went on to captain other whalebacks including the {{SS|Frank Rockefeller||2}}, which became the {{SS|Meteor|1896|6}}, the only whaleback surviving today.

Image:Christopher Columbus advertisement 1c.jpg

After the exposition ended the Columbus entered passenger service, and an additional deck (third superstructure, fifth total) was added during the 1899–1900 winter season. Despite the Columbus' success at the exposition, and McDougall's promotional efforts, the whaleback design never caught on. By 1900, the last whalebacks had been built in Superior: the Alexander McDougall in 1899 (the last powered ship), and the John Smeaton, the last whaleback barge. The American Steel Barge Company was sold to the American Ship Building Company, becoming their Superior Works, and switched to more conventional laker designs.{{cite web

|url = http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/amshipsuperior.htm

|title = The American Ship Building Company (Superior WI) record of ships built

|work = Maritime Business Strategies, LLC aka Coltoncompany.com

|access-date = February 5, 2008

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080531154448/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/amshipsuperior.htm

|archive-date = May 31, 2008

}}

In 1899 the Columbus was leased to and operated by the Goodrich Transit Line,{{cite web|url=http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/Documents/HGL2/default.asp?ID=s443

|title=Marine Captains Biographies Vol 2 - Captain A. E. Goodrich entry

|work=Maritime History of the Great Lakes

|access-date=October 16, 2007}}{{cite book

|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/63654/page/158

|title=Blue Book of American Shipping: Marine and Naval Directory of the United States

|year=1903

|location=Cleveland, Ohio

|publisher=Marine Review Publishing Co.

|page=160

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} Listing shows the Columbus as "owned or managed by" Goodrich.{{cite book|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/63654/page/410

|title=Blue Book of American Shipping: Marine and Naval Directory of the United States

|year=1903

|location=Cleveland, Ohio

|publisher=Marine Review Publishing Co.

|page=412

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} Image of the Columbus in Goodrich livery.{{cite book

|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/63654/page/424

|title=Blue Book of American Shipping: Marine and Naval Directory of the United States

|year=1903

|location=Cleveland, Ohio

|publisher=Marine Review Publishing Co.

|page=426

|access-date=August 18, 2007}} This advertisement features the same image as above.

whose steamer Virginia had been a perennial racing rival.{{cite news

|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/07/05/106918872.pdf

|title=Ministers in a Steamboat Race.; It Was on Lake Michigan and They Rejoiced Greatly to Win.

|work=The New York Times

|date=July 5, 1896

|access-date=October 15, 2007}} Tells of another racing exploit in 1896. She changed hands in 1905 to the Milwaukee & Chicago Transportation company – possibly a Goodrich holding company – and again in 1909 to Goodrich Transit Line. Her livery was at some point between 1906 and 1909 changed to a black hull with yellow accents, and she was placed in service on the route between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Columbus remained with the Goodrich line for several years. Although she was used for excursions elsewhere around the Great Lakes, her regular schedule was a daily trip to Milwaukee, leaving Chicago mid-morning, sailing to Milwaukee for a two-hour stopover, and then returning (see advertisement right).{{cite web

|url=http://www.chiptin.com/schlitz/history3.htm

|title=Excerpts from "Bucket Boy" by Ernest L. Meyer, 1947

|work=Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co.: A Chronological History 1881-1907

|access-date=October 19, 2007

|url-status=usurped

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807020921/http://www.chiptin.com/schlitz/history3.htm

|archive-date=August 7, 2007

}} She made daily round-trip excursions from the Goodrich docks at the Rush Street Bridge.{{cite book|title=Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis|url=https://archive.org/details/chicagogrowthofm0000maye|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Chicago Press|author=Mayer, Harold M. and Richard C. Wade|year=1969|page=[https://archive.org/details/chicagogrowthofm0000maye/page/273 273]}}

Columbus had at least three accidents. In June 1895 she suffered an explosion caused by a steam pipe becoming disconnected while she was underway.{{cite news

|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/06/24/106064245.pdf

|title=Thirteen Were Injured

|work=The New York Times

|date=June 24, 1895

|access-date=October 15, 2007

}} Accounts differ, but some claim that this happened during a race with her rival, Virginia.{{cite web|url=http://www.daileyint.com/hmdpc/2005/06/public-transportation-and-sport-dont.html |title=Public Transportation and Sport Don't Mix - Especially with Steamboats |access-date=October 15, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915104530/http://www.daileyint.com/hmdpc/2005/06/public-transportation-and-sport-dont.html |archive-date=September 15, 2007 }} This blog cites The Washington Post [https://web.archive.org/web/20121025083006/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/279391492.html?dids=279391492:279391492&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jun+24,+1895&author=&pub=The+Washington&edition=&startpage=1&desc=BURST+A+STEAM+VALVE archive] of the story. In July 1905, she collided with the schooner Ralph Campbell in the Chicago River.{{cite web

|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/54700/data

|title=Vessel Extracts: Campbell, Ralph

|publisher=The Buffalo Evening News

|date=July 25, 1905

|access-date=February 6, 2008}} On June 30, 1917, she was involved in her most serious accident, a collision with a water tower. The collision happened in Milwaukee while she was being maneuvered by tugs away from her dock. The Milwaukee River current caught her, spinning her sideways, and her bow sheared off two legs of the Yahr-Lang Drug Company's water tower, toppling it and flooding Columbus' decks with about {{convert|25000|USgal|L}}. The collision killed 16 passengers and severely damaged her pilot house, putting her out of service for the rest of the year.{{cite web

|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=4685

|title=Damaged "Christopher Columbus" Cruise Vessel

|work=Wisconsin Historical Society site

|date=December 2003

|access-date=October 19, 2007}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.eureka4you.com/watertowers/Stories.htm#Ship

|title=Ship hits water tower. (Milwaukee 1917)

|work=Tower Accidents and other stories

|access-date=October 19, 2007

}} Note, the site gives "unknown" for the attribution, but partially the same text is found at [http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/6-04.htm boatnerd.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805120508/http://www.boatnerd.com/news/archive/6-04.htm |date=2007-08-05 }} and gives "Great Lakes Ships We Remember" as a possible source.

Image:Christopher Columbus stability test.jpg

The Columbus was one of the first ships to be fitted with an on-board radio, installed by 1909, when she was allocated the call letters "KC".{{cite book

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101068315736;view=1up;seq=5

|author=Navy Department, Bureau of Equipment

|title=List of Wireless Telegraph Stations of the World

|location= Washington, D.C.

|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office

|date=September 1, 1908

|access-date=October 15, 2007}} The 1908 edition does not show her having assigned call letters so the inference is that she did not have one then. Columbus and the SS Chicago used radio to help coordinate the rescue of over 200 passengers from the Goodrich liner City of Racine when the Racine was disabled off Waukegan, Illinois, in Lake Michigan.{{Cite journal

| title = Marine Disasters

| journal = The Sea Breeze

| volume = XXI

| issue = 4

| pages = 65

| publisher = Boston Seamans Friend Society

| date = July 1909

| url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnquyg;view=1up;seq=151

| access-date = March 4, 2018}}

In 1915, the SS Eastland capsized while docked in the Chicago River, with the loss of 844 lives. Officials subsequently ordered many passenger ships to undergo stability testing, which the Columbus passed easily. Even with 7,500 sandbags (simulating passengers) piled on one side, and tugboats pulling in that direction, she listed only 12 degrees.{{cite news

|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/08/06/100171847.pdf

|title=Redfield Halts Eastland Inquiry

|work=The New York Times

|date=August 6, 1915

|access-date=October 19, 2007

}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.marmuseum.ca/duerkop.html

|title= Some Marine Terminology – by John Duerkop

|work=Research Resources – Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston|access-date=October 19, 2007

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108205516/http://www.marmuseum.ca/duerkop.html

|archive-date=November 8, 2007}} "Even with tugs trying to pull her over she hardly heeled"; quote attributed to Ships and Sailing May 1952. Columbus was featured at the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago in 1932–33.

{{clear}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| image1 = Christopher Columbus whaleback Milw Broadway bridgedock.jpg

| width1 = 150

| alt1 =

| caption1 = Passing under a lift bridge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1909

| image2 = Christopher Columbus whaleback GoodrichDock.jpg

| width2 = 150

| alt2 =

| caption2 = Stern view at the Goodrich docks, Chicago, Illinois

| footer =

}}

The Columbus was taken out of service in 1933, and changed hands twice during the Great Depression, in 1933 and again in 1934. She was scrapped in 1936 at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

File:McDougall Anchor 1893.jpg

SS Christopher Columbus carried 1.7–2 million passengers in her first year alone,{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6cWRxU9go4C&q=%22ss+christopher+columbus%22&pg=PA146

|page=146

|title=The World's Columbian Exposition: A Centennial Bibliographic Guide

|access-date=October 15, 2007

|location=Westport, Connecticut

|publisher=Greenwood Press

|year=1996

|last=Bertuca

|first=David J.

|author2=Hartman, Donald K. |author3=Neumeister, Susan M.

|isbn=978-0-313-26644-7

|oclc=28962073}} and is estimated to have carried more passengers than any other vessel on the Great Lakes. She was one of the most photographed passenger ships on the lakes, and souvenir postcards of her are still widely available. One of her anchors, the design of which was patented by McDougall on February 3, 1891,{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US445816

|title=Anchor Alexander McDougall

|work=Google Patents page

|access-date=October 16, 2007}} is displayed at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.{{cite web

|url = http://collections.marinersmuseum.org/default.asp?IDCFile=DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=30528

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130415080655/http://collections.marinersmuseum.org/default.asp?IDCFile=DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=30528

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = April 15, 2013

|title = McDougall Anchor Object Description page

|work = Mariners' Museum website, Collections section

|access-date = October 16, 2007

}}

{{Clear}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://images.wisconsinhistory.org/700099990010/9999000635-l.jpg Image] of water tank accident damage (June 30, 1917) from the [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/ Wisconsin Historical Society] site.

{{featured article}}

{{DISPLAYTITLE:SS Christopher Columbus}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christopher Columbus}}

Category:1892 ships

Category:Great Lakes ships

Category:World's Columbian Exposition

Category:Passenger ships of the United States

Category:Whaleback ships

Category:Ships built in Superior, Wisconsin

Category:Passenger ships of the Great Lakes