Great Lakes Engineering Works

The Great Lakes Engineering Works is a shipbuilding company with a shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan. It is most notable for its construction of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

History

In 1902, the Riverside Iron Works was taken over by the Great Lakes Engineering Works (GLEW). The President and General Manager, Antonio C. Pessano, had great plans for the future of the company and began with the building of a second shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan. [Arthur M. Woodford, This is Detroit: 1701-2001, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001), 83.] The GLEW again expanded in 1905 when it acquired the Columbia Iron Works in St. Clair, Michigan and again in 1912 when operations began at their Ashtabula shipyard in Ohio. [Great Lakes Engineering Works, accessed September 15, 2007, available at http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/prewwii/shipyards/inland/greatlakes.htm.] These GLEW shipyards helped Pressano realize his goal for the company. From the launching of Hull #1 (Fontana) out of Ecorse, this immense shipbuilding enterprise would be accredited for the construction of famous ships like the Str. Wyandotte, Str. William C. Atwater and the Edmund Fitzgerald. [A comprehensive list of ships manufactured at the Great Lakes Engineering Works can be viewed at http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/prewwii/shipyards/inland/greatlakes.htm.] Also to its credit, the GLEW created opportunity for other companies and played a large wartime role during the company’s fifty-eight year span(closed1960-61).

When the Great Lakes Engineering Works set up business on the Detroit River, it created a lot of local excitement. Eighty-five acres along the front of the river was consumed by the plant with river frontage of convert|1400|ft|m|-1. [“Bird’s-Eye View of the Plants of the Great Lakes Engineering Works,” Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, 9 June 1903.] Economically, the company began with a capital of $1.5 million and a $500,000 bond issue. [“100 years ago,” The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, 1 January 2003, pg. R.8.] Due to the company’s success, three years later, fifty percent of the tonnage of all ships built in the Great Lakes area was attributed to Detroit. [Woodford, 83.] Many shipping companies hoped that the skilled craftsmanship of the GLEW would help establish their firm as a major contender within the Great Lakes Shipping Industry. [Mark L. Thompson, Queen of the Lakes, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), 117.] The Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company of Milwaukee contracted the GLEW to build the first ‘super freighter’ thus putting them on the map. Other orders of the same magnitude ensued which benefited the local economy. Hugh MrcElroy, general superintendent of the GLEW stated that these contracts presented 1,300 new jobs and thereby tripling the company’s workforce. [Cathy Covert, “Weekly Columns,” Historical Review, Sunday 11 February, 2007 Issue.] William Penn Snyder, president of Shenango Furnace Company (Sharpsville, Pennsylvania) felt that the incorporation of GLEW ships would clearly change his smaller (by comparison) iron and steel industry into a leading competitor. Just as Snyder had hoped, the record breaking freighter, Shenango, did expand the company dramatically. This relationship between the two companies led to the contract of more ships whereby even Elizabeth Russel, daughter of John Russel, vice president and treasurer of GLEW had the honour of christening the Willian P. Snyder. [Thompson, Queen of the Lakes, 117, 121, 123.] Although the Snyder did not set records, the GLEW would become renowned via other vessels.

Construction achievements

The GLEW set other records and earned long-time standing recognition as a leading innovator in shipbuilding technology. In 1908, the Str. Wyandotte was launched from the Ecorse site. This convert|364|ft|m|0|abbr=on. steel hulled self-unloaded has been seen as the prototype for the modern day self-unloader. [Thompson, Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), 43.] Again technology advanced and the newer ships of 1911 based their design on the Str. Wyandotte but were incorporated with grander features. The GLEW designed and built seven new ships of “full canal dimensions and rather deep draft,” thereby forging the way for bigger and better products and production and pushed technology further. [Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S.J., The Lakers of World War I, ( Detroit: The University of Detroit Press, 1967), 3.]

Unveiling a new technical era,1925 marked the year that birthed “the first ship with full-size hatches [that] have single-piece steel hatch covers.” [Thompson, Queen of the Lakes, 129.] This ship, Str. William C. Atwater was constructed at the River Rouge site (formerly Ecorse) at the request of Wilson Transit and as machinery advanced, so did the size of the vessels. While Atwater rested at convert|604|ft|m|0|abbr=on, plans for the largest ore carrier to manoeuvre the Lakes would be made in 1957.

Initially Hull # 301, the Edmund Fitzgerald was convert|729|ft|m|0|abbr=on with a “carrying capacity of approximately convert|26800|LT|ST t|-2|lk=on of iron ore.” [Covert, 11 February, 2007 Issue.] As the new ‘Queen of the Lakes’ was launched into the lake Saturday June 7, 1958 from GLEW’s Ecorse shipyard, Mrs. Edmund Fitzgerald had the privilege of breaking the champagne bottle on Fitzgerald’s bow. Along with the wide spread media coverage, 15,000 people showed up to witness the event that marked the first new ‘maximum seaway-size’ freighter on the Lakes. [Covert, 11 February, 2007 Issue. and Thompson, Queen of the Lakes, 164.] The Edmund Fitzgerald, although most famous because it was immortalized in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Canadian singer, song-writer Gordon Lightfoot, was not the only ship unable to retire gracefully (lost November 10, 1975). Many vessels saw their untimely end during the war years.

War

The war years not only saw the construction but also the destruction of several vessels. During World War I, some ships built by the GLEW met an unnatural end. Hull # 99, Bayamon (Ecorse yard), commissioned by Ocean Freight Cargo Ship in 1912, for example was sunk by German torpedo 4/28/17 near Scotland. As well, Hull #156, Edith J Osgood/Gratangen (Ashtabula), commissioned by Corona Coal Cargo Ship in 1916 was sunk by German sub 1917, and Hull #162, P. L. M. No. 4 (Ecorse) commissioned by the French Govt Cargo Ship in 1916 was torpedoed and sunk in English Channel 12/27/17. [Great Lakes Engineering Works, accessed September 15, 2007, available at http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/prewwii/shipyards/inland/greatlakes.htm.] However, the construction during wartime enabled the GLEW to bring economic prosperity to the Detroit area.

In 1941, the Naval Appropriations Bill subjected Great Lakes shipyards to government contracts that expensed almost ninety million dollars. The GLEW was responsible for twenty-one new ore carriers commissioned by the Pittsburgh Steamship Company and the U.S. Maritime Commission. [“Up and Down the Great Lakes,” Marine Engineering and Shipping Review (MESR), February, 1941, 49.] As the year came to an end, Great Lakes shipyards were operating at full capacity yet, more military orders from Washington came in. To keep up with demand, the shipbuilders were forced to expand and create new ways to heighten production levels, thus, the larger, deeper vessels emerged. Some of these too, like the Covedale (hull # 219 from GLEW Ecorse) commissioned by US Shipping Board Cargo Ship May 19th , torpedoed by Germans 6/17/41, became casualties of war. The supply and demands were met but when peace came, the over-abundance of shipbuilding orders decreased and so to did the local economies of the once booming, small Great Lakes ports. Fundamentally, the role of delivering bulk commodities could not change for GLEW’s vessels and therefore they were valued whether at war or at peace. It was the decrease in shipbuilding orders that troubled the local economy and marked the end of an era. [George J. Joachim, Iron Fleet: The Great Lakes in World War II, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994), 29,36,109.]

Decline

The Great Lakes Engineering Works’ fifty-eight year history of shipbuilding saw the end to their own epoch. Foreign ships started to handle much of the bulk ore and were producing cost-cheap ships therefore, the America steamship companies began dealing abroad. On April 30, 1961 stockholders of the GLEW agreed to dissolve the shipbuilding giant and the property was then sold to the Great Lakes Steel Corp. [“It’s the End of an Era,” The Detroit Free Press, Sunday 30 April, 1961.]

References

Bibliography

“Bird’s-Eye View of the Plants of the Great Lakes Engineering Works.” Detroit Free Press. Tuesday 9 June 1903.

Covert, Cathy. “Weekly Columns.” Historical Review. Sunday 11 February, 2007 Issue.

Dowling, Rev. Edward J. The Lakers of World War I. Detroit: The University of Detroit Press, 1967.

Great Lakes Engineering Works, accessed September 15, 2007, available at http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/prewwii/shipyards/inland/greatlakes.htm.

“It’s the End of an Era.” The Detroit Free Press. Sunday 30 April, 1961.

Joachim, George J. Iron Fleet: The Great Lakes in World War II. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Thompson, Mark L. Queen of the Lakes. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Thompson, Mark L. Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

“Up and Down the Great Lakes.” Marine Engineering and Shipping Review (MESR). February, 1941.

Woodford, Arthur M. This is Detroit: 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001.

“100 years ago,” The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, 1 January 2003, pg. R.8.