Lake Michigan Maritime Marginalia:  Volume 1, Number 1 

        If the Material Service was not exactly revolutionary in its overall concept, it certainly was in at least one aspect of its design:   The Material Service would be the first self-unloading vessel intended for operation on inland waterways, and would use Leathem Smith’s tunnel-scraper system of self-unloading.   Rather than conveyor belts beneath the holds that had become the Great Lakes’ standard for self-unloader operation since the conversion of the Hennepin  86016 [ a George H. Dyer, Sr.] into the world’s first self-unloader over a quarter-century before, Smith’s tunnel-scraper system used, in essence, dragline scrapers pulled through tunnels into which the cargo descended through the sides of the cargo compartments. The advantages of this system included less initial cost in both conversions and new-builds, a lower center-of-gravity for conversions, and, perhaps most important, the ability to handle a number of non-free flowing cargoes, like cement or wet sand, ill-suited to belt conveyor systems that depended upon the regulated, free-flowing of cargo onto their belts.   The installation on the Material Service consisted of one 4-yard Sauerman Brothers scraper in each of two tunnels beneath the vessel’s eight 30’ x 10’ cargo holds, four holds per side over each tunnel.   The cargo would be introduced into the tunnels and dragged along the length of the tunnels until deposited in a hopper where an incline conveyor delivered the material to a 90-foot belt conveyor unloading boom.   The unloading boom was supported by a collapsible hinged A-frame that could be lowered to the deck when the vessel was underway, to afford clearance under bridges.   Smith, Putnam, and Material Service questioned whether there would be initially enough rock shipped from the Ales plant to keep the vessel fully employed in that service, so a 15-inch Amsco sand dredging pump and flume were installed, allowing her to pump 1500 yards of sand from the Wisconsin and Indiana shoals for delivery to Material Service yards.   Smith had earlier patented dewatering boxes that he installed on his sandsucker conversions like the Bay State   76933 [a  Joseph L. Colby] and Andaste 106929, allowing sandsuckers to load drier and, therefore, more sand, and more safely.   The Material Service used a variation of this system, whereby the sand was pumped into a small-scale version of these boxes, located along the vessel’s starboard side ahead of the afterisland, and, after most water was removed through gravity in the boxes, the sand was deposited on the incline conveyor and onto the boom conveyor, set upon the deck, where a travelling tripper hopper distributed the sand into the vessel’s holds.    Ashore, the Material Service Corporation renovated its waterfront yards by building tunnels beneath the areas where the Material Service would unload;    trucks would enter the tunnels and be loaded, by gravity, from the piles of boat-delivered material atop the tunnels, speeding up truck loading considerably.

The Material Service Prior to Launching

        Construction on the Material Service , Smith’s Hull Number 253, continued throughout the winter of 1928-1929. Along with the conversion to a scraper self-unloader of the Tomlinson Fleet Corporation laker Sierra 203757 and the rebuilding of the Chicago excursion boat Skater 116330, this activity at the Leathem D. Smith Dock Company that winter provided Sturgeon Bay with over two hundred desperately needed jobs in a region where most work was to be had during the warmer months in agriculture, shipping, and tourism .   Smith scheduled the launching of the vessel for Wednesday, 6 March 1929, a day that turned out to be particularly nasty for such an event.   A large contingent from Chicago, including officials of the Material Service Corporation, Illinois State Senator John Dailey, and a number of local newspaper reporters, photographers, and newsreel cameramen, journeyed by rail to Sturgeon Bay by way of Green Bay to attend the event  [see A Lake Michigan Maritime Marginalia Bonus, following this article, for a poetic description of these Chicagoans’ fight against the elements to leave Sturgeon Bay following the launching].   The morning of the launching, the weather was rainy and cold, and ice formed on the ways:   As Mesdames Irving Crown and Leathem Smith jointly christened the vessel, the Material Service refused to budge.  Hers was to be a side-launching into the slip south of her building berth, but falling temperatures and ice prevented the hull from moving. The assembled dignitaries, media personnel, shipyard workers, and onlookers adjourned for lunch and, later that afternoon, with the assistance from a steam whirley on the south side of the building slip, the Material Service entered the waters of Sturgeon Bay.

The Material Service Shortly after her Launching, 6 March 1929

Figure 9.  The Material Service hits the water;  the wintry conditions are obvious in this rare photograph.  The christening party is seen at the lower right, this just a number of seconds after her launching.  The steam whirley that assisted the vessel on her second attempt to reach the water can be seen in the left-center of the photograph.  The tug assisting,  off the post stern quarter of the Material Service, is Smith's Leathem D. Smith 218159 [a USLH Poe Reef].  To the left is the Sierra:  Her funnel is removed since she was also undergoing reboilering at the yard.   Behind the Material Service is the Valley Camp Coal Company steamer John McCartney Kennedy  200346 [a P. P. Miller, b Collier, d R. E. Moody], converted to a scraper-type self-unloader at the Smith yard four years before, and at that time wintering at the yard while receiving various auxiliary equipment salvaged from her fleetmate, the Michael J. Bartelme  77170 [a John J. McWilliams, b Central West] that had stranded 3 October 1928 on the southeast point of Cana Island while heading into Death's Door Passage, not far from Sturgeon Bay.  The Smith firm engaged in her abortive refloating.  Her remains are still there.  William Lafferty Collection.

The Material Service during her Unloading Trials, 18 May 1929

Figure 10.  Testing her self-unloading equipment by unloading onto the dock where she was built after loading her  test cargo at the Dolomite, Inc., stone quarry dock,  the Material Service  reveals her exceedingly low profile.  That this equipment operated flawlessly should be no surprise, since by the spring of 1929 the Smith yard had installed ten Smith Patented Tunnel Scraper self-unloaders on various vessels, while four other yards in the United States and Canada had installed another four.  William Lafferty Collection.

        Over the next two months, the employees of the Leathem D. Smith Dock Company raced to complete the Material Service so her entry into service would correspond with the opening in May of the Paul Ales plant.   On 15 April 1929, the shipyard submitted her master builder’s certificate to the Milwaukee Customs Office in the name of Fred J. Peterson (who would soon after leave Smith’s employ to resurrect the Peterson Boat Works and build it into Peterson Builders, Inc.), and the vessel was awarded American registry official number 228371.   On 18 May 1929, the Material Service underwent trials, including tests of her self-unloading equipment.   Unfortunately, while approaching the former Smith quarry dock to load stone for the unloading trials, she was unable to reverse to slow headway, resulting in around $1000 damage to her starboard bow  (Smith had sold his quarry to Cleveland's Dolomite, Inc., in 1927, intending to  concentrate upon his shipyard activities).   This incident delayed her delivery to Chicago, but on 25 May 1929 the innovative craft entered the Chicago River on her initial trip to Lockport to begin service for the Material Service Corporation.

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©William Lafferty, 1998