You can take tours, including the engine room, of the former carferry City of Milwaukee museum ship, docked in Manistee about 20 miles north of Ludington.
In other news, she's getting towed to Sturgeon Bay for her Coast Guard mandated 5 year survey at Bay Shipbuilding sometime this month. Probably already there, actually.
That won't please the naysayer or two that were insistent that she was doomed and that Lake Michigan Carferry was broke, but that quarter of a million dollar or so reinvestment into her will make her good to go for another five years (I think that's just about the going rate for a drydocking, hull survey, repairs, and a paint job these days).
54light15Some friends of mine were on the Badger last summer, they said you're not allowed into the engine room. A shame. They let people into the engine room of the SS John Brown about ten years ago when it came to Toronto as a port stop on it's way to Ohio for some hull repairs.
Not too surprising given that she's a working ship rather than a museum ship. I think during the annual Boatnerd cruise though that they give engine room and pilothouse tours.
54light15Reciprocating engine, not sure if it's a Skinner.
Liberty ships had traditional triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, not Skinner Unaflows.
That allowed the shipyard to build them itself, conserving steam turbines, uniflows (Skinner Unaflows were common engines for medium size warships like escort carriers where speed wasn't crucial), and diesels for other installations.
And it also allowed many sailors that had stopped sailing during the depression years to jump right back in where they had left off.
Some friends of mine were on the Badger last summer, they said you're not allowed into the engine room. A shame. They let people into the engine room of the SS John Brown about ten years ago when it came to Toronto as a port stop on it's way to Ohio for some hull repairs. Reciprocating engine, not sure if it's a Skinner. You couldn't go down the lower level of the engine room, only a gallery deck around the upper part of the cylinders. So, there's that one and another Liberty ship on the west coast, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.
Some former coal burners remain active on the Great Lakes. The SS Herbert C. Jackson for instance, all set to be repowered this coming winter layup and the final steamship in the Interlakes fleet, was launched in 1958 as a coal burner and wasn't converted to oil firing until the winter 1974-75 layup.
But the Badger is not only the last active coal burner of any type in commercial service on the Lakes, she's easily the last steamship left in regular passenger service on the Great Lakes.
Toronto has the sidewheeler Trillium in service for their ferry fleet with her original triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, but she's usually reserved for special occasions. Otherwise, she sits as a backup vessel rather than as part of the daily operating fleet. Her boilers were converted to oil firing many years ago.
The Badger's pair of Skinner Unaflows are likely the last of their kind aboard any type of vessel (Other than what's left of the parts donors aboard her sistership, the SS Spartan). The SS James Norris with her 5 cylinder Skinner Unaflow was retired after the 2011 season and subsequently scrapped by new owner Algoma Central Marine rather than proceed with a diesel repowering project that Upper Lakes Shipping had already purchased an engine for.
And the 1906 built St. Marys Challenger, powered by a 4 cylinder Unaflow after being repowered in 1950, was barged during the winter 2013/2014 layup and is now pushed by a tug that connects via an articulated connection system in a notch at her stern.
The only possible survivor that I'm aware of that made it to the 2000's is the Casa Grande class dock landing ship ROCS Chung Cheng. Launched in 1945 as the USS Comstock, she was sold to Taiwan with her pair of Skinner Unaflows intact.
Details on if she kept her powerplant in Taiwanese service or was repowered have never been clear and some reports state that she was retired back around 2012. Her current status is unknown to me.
She represent the last of the modern coal burning steamships that were so prevelant during the 40's, 50's and 60's. Growing up on the western end of lake Erie, it was very common to look out and see the out lines of the upbound or down bound steamers and see the tale tell line of black smoke following the ship. Its good to have the old badger around. Not lot of smoke now a days, but the same smells and aromas.
Cheers
Is the Badger the last coal-burning steam (piston! -- compounded uniflow engines) power in regular passenger service?
I guess the steam power plant is hidden away, and it doesn't make chuffing and snorting sounds owing to a condensing cycle, and people on the dock don't get to see pistons and siderods moving. But it is the last of its kind.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Article from Hagerty Magazine about the former C&O Car Ferry SS Badger and its trip between Manitowac, WI and Ludington, MI with a group of vintage Cobra sports cars.
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/Articles/2015/11/09/Snakes-On-The-Water
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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