Paddle steamer Greater Detroit: Being lost to a world that was looking for speed and convenience. Apr 18, 2017 Ian Harvey
In November 2016, three divers working for the Great Lakes Maritime Institute dove twenty feet under the chilly waters of the Detroit River. Their goal was to attach cables that would raise the 6,000-pound anchor that once belonged to the regal side-paddle steamer named the Greater Detroit.
The Greater Detroit was created by one of the best naval architects working in the Great Lakes region, Frank E. Kirby. In 1922, he designed a side-paddle steamship and took the plans to the Detroit & Cleveland Steamboat Line. They ordered two of these ships to be built.
The Greater Detroit and her twin sister, the Greater Buffalo, were 536 feet long and had a beam width of 96 feet; when they were built, they were the largest side-wheel paddle steamers in the world. They were powered by the mightiest steam engines in the world at that time; the three-cylinder engines drove them through the water at 21 knots.
The Greater Detroits fleet mate- S.S. Greater Buffalo
These extremely expensive ladies of the Great Lakes were the most modern and luxurious form of travel for passengers journeying between Detroit and Cleveland and Buffalo in the East, or between Detroit and the Straits of Mackinac in the north during the spring, summer, and fall.
Boarding in the late afternoon, usually around 5:30 pm, there was plenty of time for the 2,127 passengers to enjoy sundowners, a sumptuous dinner, and a good night’s sleep in one of the 625 staterooms before arriving refreshed at their destination. Passengers could also elect to have their motor vehicles transported on the deck, where the ships each had room for 103 cars. The steel-hulled Greater Detroit was launched on September 15, 1923, in Lorain, Ohio by the American Ship Building Company.
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Poster Comment:
When Jimmy Stewart was riding on a train out west, the Conductor said to him, "Three times Ambassador to the Court of King James. We will get this old tar bucket up to 30 mph. Nothing is too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance."