A Lake Michigan Maritime Marginalia Bonus
The South American in her original configuration, with one funnel, from a V. O. Mammon Company color post card. While in lay-up at Holland, Michigan, on 12 September 1924, she burned to the waterline. Taken back to her builder's yard at Ecorse, Michigan, she was completely rebuilt, with a second dummy funnel added, housing miscellaneous electrical equipment. William Lafferty Collection.
Each issue of Lake Michigan Maritime Marginalia includes a "bonus," some type of material related to Lake Michigan's maritime heritage that I think readers will find of interest, but that generally has nothing to do with the issue's subject. In this number we continue with the vessel that graces our title page, the South American. Of the Chicago, Duluth and Georgian Bay Transit Company's two near-sisters, North American and South American, it was the former that, until 1962, made Chicago its base of operations, generally leaving Saturdays during the first half of the season on cruises to Duluth and later in
the season to Buffalo. In 1963 the CDGBTCo. sold the North American, effectively ending the history of Chicago crosslake passenger boat service. The South American infrequently called at Chicago, maintaining a route between Buffalo and Duluth, although occasionally she would appear at Chicago for special cruises. One such cruise, in May 1963, turned out to be her last visit ever to Chicago, part of a cruise to Holland, Michigan, for its annual tulip festival, then on to Sturgeon Bay, returning to Chicago early Monday morning, as announced in the advertisement (left) that ran in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, 21 April 1963 (William Lafferty Collection). Word spread that this would be the vessel's final appearance at Chicago, since the Georgian Bay Line had decided to commit the vessel to her seven-day cruises calling at Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and Duluth, as well as two special trips to Montreal. Thus, that Friday evening, 17 May 1963, marked the very last time that a lake passenger boat would sail with passengers from Chicago, a sad event that would have been considered absurd less than a half-century earlier when dozens of passenger steamers regularly called at Chicago. As shown below, the occasion even made the newspapers.
The South American departs Chicago for the last time, shown in this clipping from the Chicago Tribune, 18 May 1963. The tug at the right appears to be the Gopher State 270690 [a Harbor Ace, c Betty Gale, d Hannah D. Hannah]. My suspicion is that this photograph actually shows the South American arriving Friday morning, rather than leaving Friday evening, since I don't recall a tug in the river as she left. William Lafferty Collection.
My father, brother, and I took the family's 1960 Impala station wagon (cream over copper) down the Congress Park Expressway (now the Eisenhower) to the Michigan Avenue bridge, where we were able to board the South American just prior to her final departure, and I took the following photographs, not bad for a guy two weeks shy of his eighth grade graduation.
Above is the South American as she boarded her passengers for the evening's run to Holland, docked at the CDGBTCo. wharf at the foot of the Michigan Avenue bridge. ©William Lafferty photograph.
Below, the South American leaves the locks at the mouth of the Chicago River for the penultimate time. ©William Lafferty photograph.
Below, a 1957 brochure describing the itineraries of the "Sister Queens of the Great Lakes;" personally, I think $149.50 is reasonable for a week-long cruise on one of these boats, including all meals and an outside cabin. The CDGBTCo. offered discounted railroad tickets to make connections with the vessels easier. William Lafferty Collection.
For the definitive story concerning the North American and South American, see Mr. Fred Ahlborn's website, Queens of the Great Lakes.
That's it for this issue of Lake Michigan Maritime Marginalia. Tune in next time, and remember the words of the Georgian Bay Line's mascot:
©William Lafferty, 1999
