Milwaukee Clipper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Milwaukee Clipper is a passenger ship that once sailed under two configurations and on two sides of the Great Lakes. Her story begins December 22, 1904 in Cleveland, Ohio at the shipyards of the American Shipbuilding Company. Named the Juniata when launched, she was built for the Anchor Line, the marine division of the famous Pennsylvania Railroad. The ship is 361 feet in length, 45 feet in beam, a depth of 28 feet with a gross tonnage of 4333 tons. It carried 350 passengers in staterooms at 18 knots. As originally built, it had a riveted steel hull and a wooden superstructure. For the Pennsylvania Railroad, she carried passengers and package freight between Duluth, Minnesota and Buffalo, New York until 1915. That year, legislation was passed that required railroads to divest themselves of their marine divisions. As a result, the Juniata was sold to the Great Lakes Transit Corporation which was formed from all divested railroad marine divisions on the lakes. Under this flag, she carried passengers along her old routes. She steamed another 20 seasons for this company until entering layup in 1937 due to changes in fire safety laws which prohibited ships with wooden superstructures due to the burning of the SS Morro Castle off Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1934. She layed idle in Buffalo until being sold in 1940 for use as a cross-lake steamer on Lake Michigan. The Juniata had her boilers upgraded to run on fuel oil, but retains her original quadruple expansion steam engine. The old cabins were removed and replaced by a modern "fire-proof" steel structure and capacity for carrying 120 automobiles added. Along with this, she got a new name: Milwaukee Clipper. Under this name she steamed between Muskegeon and Milwaukee for 30 seasons. By 1970, she outlived her usefulness and spent the next 30 years being passed among different owners. In the late 1970s, the ship was renamed S/S Clipper and served as a maritime museum and convention facility at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. In December, 1983, the Milwaukee Clipper was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in May, 1989 it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The next year, it was moved to Hammond, Indiana She was sold on December 2, 1997 for use as a museum in Muskegon, Michigan. Currently, the "Milwaukee Clipper" is tied up to the old Grand Trunk Ferry dock undergoing restoration. The ship is open for tours except during the winter.
The Clipper is the oldest steamship in use on the Great Lakes, and the second oldest non-ocean liner in use in America.
