The Axe Falls On 107 Years Of Service: ST. MARY’S CHALLENGER
Last Sunday, November 11, 2013, saw the final sailing of the ST MARY’S CHALLENGER (ex WILLIAM P. SNYDER, ELTON HOYT II, ALEX D. CHISHOLM, MEDUSA CHALLENGER, SOUTHDOWN CHALLENGER). According to Richard Weiss, who sent me these pictures of her (taken in 1999), along with the details in this article, the self-unloading cement carrier will be cut down to a barge over the winter.
Built as a traditional Great Lakes bulk carrier (hull #17) by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse (Detroit), MI in 1906. WILLIAM P. SNYDER was launched February 7, 1906 for Shenango Steamship & Transportation Co. (subsidiary of Shenango Furnace Co.), Cleveland, OH.
In Richard Weiss’ words:
“To my knowledge she was the longest running ship still in commercial service. I saw her many times but not so much over the last decade, as her normal sailing became the run from the little resort town of Charlevoix, Michigan to South Chicago. It is hard to think that after a career spanning over 100 years she will be largely gone. True, she was re-engined and her superstructures re-built in 1966 at the ripe old age of 60, so she was not exactly original but most ships built when she was re-engined have long since vanished. The number of years this ship was in service are difficult to grasp but it is safe to say her sailings were witnessed by generations of enthusiasts, both in her as-built configuration as the bulk freighter WILLIAM P. SNYDER and after conversion to carry cement. Think about it this way — if you were in your teens when most people find their fascination with ships when the CHALLENGER was new you would have been born around 1890. When the ship was completed, the brand new MAURETANIA was the fastest and largest ship in the world and the TITANIC was not even on the drawing board. The MAURETANIA has been gone for nearly 80 years and the CHALLENGER sails on. The first moving assembly line, that of the Ford Model T, was still two years away, few people owned automobiles and there were even fewer airplanes. Detroit at the time had more millionaires than any other city. Commercial airlines would not be developed for many years; the jet aircraft was decades away and there is probably not a single person at the ship’s launching that would have thought man would ever land on the moon. Teddy Roosevelt was president. Two world wars and many years after, the ship is still doing what she was designed to do, but as of Sunday she will be powered no more. Her stern will be cut off over the winter and the forward superstructure will be removed. A tug will be shoved into a notch where her stern used to be and nobody will care about the ship or her history when she reemerges as a barge next spring.”
Mr Weiss took these photographs from a friend’s boat on August 28, 1999, when the ship was named SOUTHDOWN CHALLENGER. They would often spend the day sailing up and down the St Clair river. These pictures were taken mostly near St Clair with one of the buoy tender SUNDEW passing her near Marysville.
Special thanks to Richard Weiss, George Wharton and “Doug”.
(external site) See George Wharton’s: Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature — St. Marys Challenger
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I chased the Challenger from Chicago to Charlevoix and back to Chicago with her final cargo as a powered steamer. Although the ship’s original triple-expansion engine had been replaced in 1950, the “new” engine was a four-cylinder Skinner Unaflow, and to my knowledge, that last load will be the very last revenue bulk cargo ever carried by a reciprocating-engine steamship anywhere in the world. The carferry Badger is now the last active Unaflow-powered vessel on the Lakes, and the handful of steam freighters that remain in service are all turbines. As I’m sure all of us who love old ships know only too well, it was an honor to be able to witness that little piece of history, but incredibly sad to say goodbye to yet another fine old vessel. The title of oldest powered laker in active service now passes to the 1942-built Alpena, another former ore carrier turned cement hauler.
This week it was also announced that the Canadian steam bulk carrier Algoma Quebecois (1963) has been sold for scrap, leaving her twin sister the Algoma Montrealais as the last remaining steamer on the Canadian side. The Quebecois is expected to be towed from Toronto to Port Colborne, Ontario for scrapping any day now.
When I was a kid growing up in Manitowoc,WI I remember her when she was the Medusa Challenger – was late to school in the morning because of the bridges being up as she went up the Manitowoc River – this was back around ’79-’82.
Great story. I’ve always found Lakers to be interesting ships, mainly due to their unique design (deckhouse over the bow and at the stern) and the nearly vertical cutwater of the prow.
There are some fine modern-day photos of her at http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/stmaryschallenger.htm
Very sad, clearly the end of an era. Evidently the issues were that her engines would only be legal for a maximum of another 12 years due to new environmental regulations, but there was a concern that the stern would need a costly replating just to stay in service through 2018. Two expensive rebuilding jobs needing done within a few years of each other, and it would still be an over century old hull, so I guess economics had to get in the way.
I guess this leaves the fish factory Independence as the only pre-WWII commercial ship still in active service under the US flag. I don’t believe J.A.W. Iglehart or Victory I have moved in years, and probably never will again except for the final tow to the scrap yard.
This historic vessel shares the same fate that has been the norm for decades and more with ships than any person could possibly realize: MONEY
It is money that eventually dooms them all, regardless of love or love lost on the ships.
Money for everything, and to keep them up to par and for safety.
When the money becomes dearer as the years go on, the decision to spend more of it to extend the sailing span is no longer how much, it is more like, why? Can this venerable ship compete today?
Use as a barge, that may be as good as it gets, at least some form of this Great Laker will be around, and the few that will know of her past sailing life will share her story to the few that care or have even to slightest modicum of interest.
I sailed on her under the name “Medusa Challenger” 1973 – Ken you are right on – its all about MONEY
I discovered ST. MARY’S CHALLENGER late in her career, on June 27, 2013, while in my upper-floor room at the Best Western Lakefront Hotel in Manitowoc. I had the window open (no screen!) and was scoping out my shot of the S.S. BADGER for that evening and had two cameras ready. Suddenly, ST. MARY’S CHALLENGER entered the harbor and headed past the hotel and up the Manitowoc River. Being able to photograph two historic lake boats in one day, both still performing the job they were built to do, was a memorable experience.
Money issues being what they are, it’s unfortunate that she couldn’t be converted into a museum or something similar. That’s a hell of a lot of history to be forgotten under the scrapper’s torch.
I sailed on the Elton Hoyt II back in the summer of 1974 – back when college kids could get a job as a deckhand or wiper for the summer, as opposed to going through the union hall when job openings on the ore carriers were more scarce. Great memories.
Scott Austin
Great article, is there a listing of the men who worked the lakers, my dad worked on one back in the 1940s or early 50″s. His ship was one of three used to build Ontario Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He had told me the name of his ship but I can’t remember it, any help would be appreciated. Cheers