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Schooners and Steam – Michigan’s Golden Age of Shipbuilding
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Apr 10, 2025
Explore Michigan’s shipbuilding legacy from 19th-century schooners to Great Lakes freighters. Learn how towns like St. Clair and Port Huron became shipbuilding hubs in “Schooners and Steam” on The End of the Road in Michigan podcast.
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this is The End of the Road in Michigan
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a podcast where we follow forgotten
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trails uncover lost voices and tell the
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stories of people and places once vital
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to Michigan's identity today we take a
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quiet walk along the St clair River past
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quiet docks and faded shipyards to
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remember the men the timber and the
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towns that built an empire of wooden
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halls and iron steamers this is the
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story of Michigan's ship building heyday
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and the river towns that once powered
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the Great Lakes in the 19th century
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Michigan didn't just lead the nation in
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lumber it turned that timber into ships
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along the St clare River from Alganac to
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Port Huron the sounds of hammers and
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saws once echoed across the water towns
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like Marine City and St clair were more
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than sleepy waterfront communities they
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were centers of ship building men carved
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entire schooner fleets from White Oak
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and Pine harvested just miles inland
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according to historical records over 350
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wooden vessels were built along the St
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clare in just a few decades these ships
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hauled everything from grain to copper
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and later passengers across the Great
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Lakes they were crafted by hand beam by
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beam by shipwrites who knew the wind
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water and weight of wood like few others
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long before sawmills or schooners the
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Great Lakes were traveled in silence in
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lightweight birch bark canoes of the
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Anosinab people later French voyagers
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rode batau across the inland seas these
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shallow draft boats hauled fur food and
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people along tight river corridors and
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open lake stretches alike but change
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came fast in 1679 French explorer Renee
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Robert Cavalier Sier de Lasal launched
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the Griffin the first Europeanstyle
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sailing ship built west of Niagara she
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left the Niagara River crossed Lake Erie
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and entered the pages of legend lasal
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filled her with furs from Lake Michigan
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but she vanished on her return voyage no
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wreckage was ever found to this day the
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Griffin is considered the holy grail of
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Great Lakes shipwrecks it wasn't until
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after the War of 1812 that ship building
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in Michigan truly began to scale in 1818
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the United States government ordered a
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revenue cutter built at Fort Gratchet
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they named her the Split Log a modest 34
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ft vessel with a broad beam and a deep
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purpose patrol the border and collect
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customs then came Captain Samuel Ward a
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pioneer with big ambitions in 1824 he
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built the St clare a forerunner of the
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cargo schooners that would eventually
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haul freight all the way to the Atlantic
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via the Eerie Canal though he was ahead
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of his time Ward laid the keel of a
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booming industry by the 1840s his
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shipyard was one of the most prolific on
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the lakes from 1845 to 1857 Ward's yards
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in St clair produced dozens of first
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class vessels many of them sidewheel
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steamers elegant powerful and efficient
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these steamers fed passengers and cargo
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between Detroit Port Hiron and beyond
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william Lee Jensen in his history of St
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clair County describes a time when the
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Ward Company dominated the local
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waterways he writes that competitors
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were seen as trespassers and Ward's
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agents sometimes denied rival travelers
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meals or even passage it was a golden
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age of rivalry and invention when a new
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hole shape a faster engine or a better
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propeller could make or break a season
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further north in the Sagena Valley
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another transformation was underway
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michigan's lumber boom created the need
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for durable efficient ships sawmills
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lined the banks of the Sagena River and
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shipyards emerged to meet demand by the
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1880s companies like West Bay City Ship
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Building and Defo Ship Building were
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turning out massive schooners to carry
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lumber to Chicago Cleveland and Buffalo
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the Great Lakes became a floating forest
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each ship built in Sagenov Bay was a
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promise that Michigan timber would fuel
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America's growth and as railroads pushed
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west ships carried the bones of cities
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eastward as wood gave way to iron
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Michigan adapted again in 1902 the Great
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Lakes engineering works opened in
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ecourse they built steel freighters
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bigger stronger and faster than anything
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before among their most famous vessels
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was the Edmund Fitzgerald launched in
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1958 1,000 ft long and designed for ore
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transport she was the pride of the lakes
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her loss in 1975 became a national
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tragedy and a haunting symbol of the
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power and peril of Great Lakes shipping
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glue closed in 1961 its final ship the
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Arthur B homer launched that same year
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it marked the end of large-scale ship
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building in Metro Detroit today the
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shipyards are mostly silent but their
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legacy lives on in freigherss still
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pllying the lakes in museums like the
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dosine great lakes museum on Bell Ale
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and in stories passed from fathers to
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sons who once worked the yards the
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thistle built in 1861 by Captain Ward in
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St claire was the region's first ship
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dedicated solely to freight she weighed
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just 112 tons but her influence was
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profound the forerunner of the 1,000 ft
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or boats we see today michigan didn't
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just build ships it built an identity
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one plank and one rivet at a time that's
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it for this episode of The End of the
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Road in Michigan from the decks of
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wooden schooners to the halls of iron
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giants the story of ship building in
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Michigan is one of resourcefulness
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ambition and local pride it's also a
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reminder that the rivers and lakes that
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shaped our state are still with us
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waiting for their stories to be told
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again if you enjoyed this episode please
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leave a review share it with a friend or
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find more stories at thumbwind.com until
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next time thanks for listening
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