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SS Chief Wawatam
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SS Chief Wawatam
Chief Wawatam (nicknamed the Chief) was a coal-fired steel ship in operation on the Great Lakes from 1911 to 1984. It was cut down into a barge by new owners in 1989, and scrapped in 2009.
For most of its working life, the vessel was based in St. Ignace, Michigan. It was named after a distinguished Ojibwa chief of the 1760s. In initial revenue service, the Chief Wawatam served as a train ferry, passenger ferry and icebreaker that operated year-round at the Straits of Mackinac between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, Michigan. During the winter months, it sometimes took many hours to cross the five-mile-wide Straits, and Chief Wawatam was fitted with complete passenger hospitality spaces.
Chief Wawatam's work began to change in the 1940s. Its role as an icebreaker stationed in the upper Great Lakes was supplanted in 1944 by USCGC Mackinaw, a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker. The ship's passenger traffic dropped off in the years following World War II. The remaining passenger service ended with the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 that connected the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan.
Chief Wawatam was then used exclusively as a railroad ferry shuttling freight cars across the Straits. It was taken out of service in 1985, and a 1989 sold to Purvis Marine, Ltd., of Sault Ste. Marie Ontario.
The two railroad docks that were used in Mackinaw City and in St. Ignace survive. USCGC Mackinaw, now a ship museum, is berthed at the railroad dock in Mackinaw City and a wooden statue of its namesake stands nearby at its harbor. The Wawatam Lighthouse guards the railroad dock at St. Ignace.
Chief Wawatam was designed by Great Lakes marine architect Frank E. Kirby. It was launched in Toledo, Ohio, by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company on 26 August 1911. It was a replacement for St. Ignace, a wooden vessel built in 1888. The new steel ship, at the time of construction, was said to have been the largest ice crusher in the world. It started servicing the Mackinac Transportation Company on 18 October 1911. The company was a joint venture of Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and Michigan Central Railroad. The three railroads crossed back and forth at the Straits of Mackinac.
Depending on their size, Chief Wawatam could carry 18 to 26 railroad cars, rolled onto rails bolted to the ship's deck. The vessel had similarly designed steam engines as the Titanic. After a post-1945 refit, it would have a steering gear taken from a World War II destroyer. The first part of Chief Wawatam's history is that while its main purpose was as a train service to carry railroad cars, it also carried regular passenger train cars, automobiles, military personnel, and people for cruising. The cruising passengers had a lounge with oak seats. The ship's name was often shortened to just the Chief in common usage.
Year-round train ferry service at the Straits of Mackinac was a significant challenge because of the heavy ice buildup experienced by these straits in winter. Chief Wawatam was designed to break ice with her bow propeller, which could both propel the boat and take water out from underneath the ice to allow it to be broken through by force of gravity from the weight of the ship. The ice-crushing railroad ferry was used in various instances to break open a channel for other freighters to pass through.
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SS Chief Wawatam
Chief Wawatam (nicknamed the Chief) was a coal-fired steel ship in operation on the Great Lakes from 1911 to 1984. It was cut down into a barge by new owners in 1989, and scrapped in 2009.
For most of its working life, the vessel was based in St. Ignace, Michigan. It was named after a distinguished Ojibwa chief of the 1760s. In initial revenue service, the Chief Wawatam served as a train ferry, passenger ferry and icebreaker that operated year-round at the Straits of Mackinac between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, Michigan. During the winter months, it sometimes took many hours to cross the five-mile-wide Straits, and Chief Wawatam was fitted with complete passenger hospitality spaces.
Chief Wawatam's work began to change in the 1940s. Its role as an icebreaker stationed in the upper Great Lakes was supplanted in 1944 by USCGC Mackinaw, a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker. The ship's passenger traffic dropped off in the years following World War II. The remaining passenger service ended with the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 that connected the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan.
Chief Wawatam was then used exclusively as a railroad ferry shuttling freight cars across the Straits. It was taken out of service in 1985, and a 1989 sold to Purvis Marine, Ltd., of Sault Ste. Marie Ontario.
The two railroad docks that were used in Mackinaw City and in St. Ignace survive. USCGC Mackinaw, now a ship museum, is berthed at the railroad dock in Mackinaw City and a wooden statue of its namesake stands nearby at its harbor. The Wawatam Lighthouse guards the railroad dock at St. Ignace.
Chief Wawatam was designed by Great Lakes marine architect Frank E. Kirby. It was launched in Toledo, Ohio, by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company on 26 August 1911. It was a replacement for St. Ignace, a wooden vessel built in 1888. The new steel ship, at the time of construction, was said to have been the largest ice crusher in the world. It started servicing the Mackinac Transportation Company on 18 October 1911. The company was a joint venture of Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and Michigan Central Railroad. The three railroads crossed back and forth at the Straits of Mackinac.
Depending on their size, Chief Wawatam could carry 18 to 26 railroad cars, rolled onto rails bolted to the ship's deck. The vessel had similarly designed steam engines as the Titanic. After a post-1945 refit, it would have a steering gear taken from a World War II destroyer. The first part of Chief Wawatam's history is that while its main purpose was as a train service to carry railroad cars, it also carried regular passenger train cars, automobiles, military personnel, and people for cruising. The cruising passengers had a lounge with oak seats. The ship's name was often shortened to just the Chief in common usage.
Year-round train ferry service at the Straits of Mackinac was a significant challenge because of the heavy ice buildup experienced by these straits in winter. Chief Wawatam was designed to break ice with her bow propeller, which could both propel the boat and take water out from underneath the ice to allow it to be broken through by force of gravity from the weight of the ship. The ice-crushing railroad ferry was used in various instances to break open a channel for other freighters to pass through.
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