SS Lansdowne
{{For|the American Gleaves-class destroyer|USS Lansdowne (DD-486)}}
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|+Steamer Lansdowne {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=SSLansdowne1904.jpg |Ship caption=Steamer Lansdowne crossing the Detroit River in 1905 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship name= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Detroit Dry Dock Company Wyandotte Shipyard |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=66 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1884 |Ship completed= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=1884–1956 |Ship out of service= |Ship identification={{IMO|5203451}} |Ship fate=Scrapped 2009 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type=Railroad car ferry |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement= |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship sail plan= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Sidewheeler |Ship speed= |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
SS Lansdowne was a railroad car ferry built in 1884 by the Wyandotte Shipyard of the Detroit Dry Dock Company. It was used as a steamer from 1884 until 1970 between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River. At the time of its construction it was the longest ship on the Great Lakes at {{convert|312|ft}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.boblosteamers.com/kirby.html |title=Frank E. Kirby |website=A Tribute to the Bob-Lo Steamers |date=1990 |accessdate=2010-07-06 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419215148/http://www.boblosteamers.com/kirby.html |archivedate=2010-04-19 |url-status=live}} It was a sidewheeler, and at the time of its retirement it was the last sidewheeler serving on the Great Lakes, although in 1975 the sidewheel ferry Trillium returned to active service at Toronto after many years in layup.{{cite web |url=http://michpics.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/lansdowne-of-windsor-a-detroit-river-ferry-boat/ |title=Lansdowne of Windsor, a Detroit River ferry boat
|website=Michigan in Pictures |date=12 March 2007}} Lansdowne was captained by Nick Saad from 1942 to 1969 until his retirement, when he was relieved by his son James Saad-Miller. Capt. Jim Miller was last to man her under her own power, when she blew the cylinder head of the port engine coming out of Detroit Slip on midnight watch in 1970. The engines were from an even older paddle steamer, Michigan, built in 1878. Lansdowne was thereafter used as a barge, pushed by a towboat, until her final retirement.
In 1981 Lansdowne was converted by Specialty Restaurants Corporation of Anaheim, California, to a floating restaurant and was moored just east of Hart Plaza in Downtown Detroit. A pair of Milwaukee Road "Skytop Lounge" railcars were brought onto part of its deck while the remainder was occupied by additional restaurant structure including a below-deck banquet hall. Patrons had a front-row view of the Detroit street circuit that hosted the Formula One United States Grand Prix East.{{cite web |first=Casino |last=Jones |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjman/2728195039/ |title=Detroit Grand Prix 1987- Course and Lansdowne at Riverfront|website=Flickr |date=3 August 2008}} The restaurant in Detroit shut down in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
In 1999 Lansdowne was towed to Erie, Pennsylvania, where much of its superstructure was removed and the Skytop Lounge cars were stripped to bare shells with the intent of making it a riverfront restaurant in Erie. It sank at its moorings on 25 December 2005 and the City of Erie issued an order that it be removed by 1 March.{{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-140893426.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104082446/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-140893426.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 November 2012 |first=Sarah |last=Hofius |title=Lansdowne's time running out |newspaper=Erie Times-News |date=15 January 2006 }}
On 16 July 2006 it was removed from Erie and towed to an industrial part of the Buffalo River in Buffalo, New York.{{cite web |url=http://yourerie.com/fulltext?nxd_id=533 |title=Lansdowne Ready To Leave Erie |website=Your Erie |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718143543/http://yourerie.com/fulltext?nxd_id=533 |archivedate=2011-07-18}} On 30 January 2008 it again took on water during a storm at its moorings in Buffalo and began to list.{{cite news |url=http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=54939 |title=Storm Aftermath Raises Questions About Old Relic |work=WGRZ |date=2 February 2008 |accessdate=2010-07-06}}{{dead link |date=August 2013}} Specialty Restaurants' owner died in 2008 and whatever remaining initiative there was to restore Lansdowne died along with him. With pressure from Buffalo politicians to remove the "eyesore" from its shores, the Skytop Lounge cars were cut off their trucks and shipped to a railroad museum in Montevideo, Minnesota, and the rest of the vessel was broken up for salvage in April 2009.{{cite journal |url=http://www.northstar-nrhs.org/news/2009/NorthstarNewsV40N7/NorthstarNewsV40N7a.pdf#page=2 |format=pdf |title=Skytop hulks bound for museum |journal=Northstar News |volume=40 |number=7 |date=July 2009 |publisher=Northstar Railway Historical Society |pages=3–4}}