330 of WW I-era ships were built for U.S. government.

Have you heard of "the Lakers?"

A number of "lakers" are seen in an aerial postcard
view of the shipyards at Manitowoc, Wis.

No, not the ones from Glen Lake High School, but steamers that once transited the Manitou Passage and all parts of the globe as well.

It's not unlikely you've heard of the World War II "Liberty Ships."

Or of the larger, also mass produced, "Victory Ships" also built during the same conflict.

But first there were the Lakers, built for the United States Shipping Board for service on the high seas during World War I.

Men and supplies had to be shipped across the broad Atlantic Ocean on an unprecedented scale and the board, which was established in 1916, saw to it that the projected need for ships was met.

“There is scarcely a port in the world,” marine historian Father Edward J. Dowling, S.J., once wrote, “which did not see a Laker or two sometime” in the half-century following their construction.

Unlike the larger Liberty and Victory ships, built at or near the seacoasts, the Lakers were built at Great Lakes Shipyards, and a ship’s length (unless “bulkheaded”) was limited to 260 feet, and their draft, to 14 feet, by the Welland Canal and old St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Francisco Morozan seen at South Manitou Island
four years after grounding, had the apprearance of a
typical "Laker."

Although the Welland Canal, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario, was greatly enlarged in the 1930s, the Seaway still limited the size of ships, effectively excluding the Liberty and Victory ships, which might otherwise also have been built at Great Lakes shipyards during World War II.

In all, about 330 Lakers were constructed for the U.S. Government. The ships varied in detail, but were usually of a “three island” design. This meant a raised forecastle and stern, with cabins, machinery and pilothouse amidships. They were almost invariably coal burning steamers equipped with reciprocating triple expansion engines. A notable exception was the construction of two ships powered by diesel engines.

The vast majority of ships pressed into ocean service during World War I were only 260 feet in length – a few were longer, but they had to be cut in two with temporary bulkheads installed where the hull had been separated.

Once such ships were out of the seaway, they were re-assembled.

The once palatial steamer Northwest received this treatment in 1917, but the forward section of the ship sank in Lake Ontario and a new 198-foot bow had to be built in Quebec.

“Again the Northwest was launched and contributed her bit to the war effort,” Mary Frances Donner writes in her book, The Salvager, “carrying troops and supplies across the ocean, and, luckily, with convoy, evading submarines.”

The “split” procedure was later repeated, and, as the Maplecourt, the ship served as a salvage vessel on the Great Lakes between the world wars.

The procedure was repeated one more during World War II, but this time the ship didn’t return to the lakes – it was torpedoed in the Atlantic and again sank – this time in its entirety and for good.

Although by far the greatest number of Lakers built were of the “three island” type, a few “sternwinders” were also built. These had cabins and machinery all located aft and the most unique of them was the “Sturgeon Bay,” built at the Wisconsin city of the same name, just across Lake Michigan from Leelanau.

The Sturgeon Bay was the only unit of the large Laker fleet not built of steel, but of wood.

Because of standardization, the ships could be turned out rather quickly. The record time for construction of one of them was just 29 days.

The Fred W. Green, a typical Laker, was a familiar sight around the Manitou islands in the 1930s. The ship “mined” sand from the lake bottom for use in construction projects.

The ship, orperated by Capt. John Roen (who would later build the lakefront harbor at Leland), was named for Michigan governor (1927-30) Fred Green.
It was built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse, Mich., which later also built the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald.

Enter Henry Ford

At nearby River Rouge, no company was more involved with the Lakers than Ford Motor Company, which acquired surplus ships after the war. They were dismantled on a massive scale in 1927 and 1928.

Although a number of the ships were sunk by enemy action in both world wars, Henry Ford eliminated more of them than anyone else.

“How Ford dismantled or salvaged a fleet of 199 shipping board vessels constitutes an epic of modern business,” a “Ford Industries” 1931 publication reported. “Everything on all the ships had to be utilized by the Ford industries; nothing could be sold outside,” the report continued.

Apparently ship-related items could be given away, however. At least one lifeboat and dozens of ship lanterns found their way to the fledgling National Music Camp, where the lanterns illuminated an amphitheater – the Interlochen Bowl.

Although dozens of Lakers were totally scrapped by Ford, others were put to work. Some were operated as built, while others were reduced to barges. The steamers connected Ford’s far flung operations and “new plants are being built on navigable water, so that they can be supplied by boat. Ships now (1931) employed in the ocean trade are: East Indian, Onondaga, Oneida, Lake Ormoc, Lake Gorin, Lake Benbow, Lake Osweya.”

The Oneida should not be confused with a much earlier steamer of the same name, owned by John Kelderhouse, which gave its name to Leelanau’s Port Oneida.

In contrast to the Ford Motor Company’s involvement with the Lakers was their use by other operatives, at least one of whom also used the ships as floating billboards.

“Buick’s the Beauty” was painted on the sides of the Saginaw, for example, and “The Only Car Priced So Low” was lettered on the sides of the Frank J. Peterson. The “car” wasn’t actually named, but between “car” and “priced” appeared a chevron – the Chevrolet logo.

Frank Peterson was born and grew up in Frankfort, in neighboring Benzie County. He “went to sea” at a young age and rose through the ranks to become an officer and eventual shipowner.

Another connection between Benzie and the Lakers was the steamer Lake Crystal, named for Crystal Lake.

There was also a Traverse Lake, but that name was in reference to a lake between Minnesota and South Dakota – not Leelanau’s.

Probably the best remembered of all the Lakers were the units of the “Poker Fleet.” The ships, which sailed the length of the Great Lakes, had names such as Ace, King, Queen and Jack.

In recent years, an outdoor “exhibit” based on one of the Lakers, the Kiowa, was assembled at Munising, Mich., The ship was wrecked on the Lake Superior shore, east of there, in 1929, but the propeller blades and an anchor were salvaged and now adorn a fountain in the central business district.

The Kiowa was carrying a cargo of flax* seed from Duluth to Chicago when a storm struck on Nov. 30. There was a heavy ice buildup on the ship and it became unmanageable. A lifeboat was launched, but it was upset and several aboard it drowned, including the captain. The ship then went hard aground, but the remainder of the crew was rescued by Coastguardsmen.

Among those rescued was mate Arthur Kronk, who, a few years later, was involved in another Lake Superior shipwreck.

Kronk was on the bridge of the George M. Cox when it slammed onto the Rock of Ages reef off the southern tip of Isle Royale on June 27, 1933. The Cox, as the steamer Puritan, had formerly been a frequent caller at Leelanau ports such as Glen Haven and Northport.

“A portion of the cherry pack had already been shipped from Glen Haven,” the Enterprise reported in its edition of Aug. 10 of that year. “In former years the fruit was shipped by boat, on the Puritan, but with that ship on the rocks in Lake Superior, it will be necessary to ship by land this year.”

Though all aboard were rescued the ship was a total loss and Capt. George Johnson, of Traverse City, had his license suspended, pending an inquiry. On Aug. 24 the Enterprise reported Johnson’s license had been re-instated, but he retired from sailing, anyway, subsequently serving as Register of Deeds for Grand Traverse County.

Over 60 years earlier his father, Frederick Johnson, was captain of the small steamer Sunny Side, which called regularly at Northport.

During World War II, some of the surviving Lakers again saw war service on the high seas and the Fred W. Green was one of them.

Steaming along alone at less than ten knots and emitting lots of black smoke, it was an easy target for U-boats and was sunk by one in the Atlantic in 1943. The crew, in a lifeboat, was later rescued by an Allied vessel.

The Green, launched in 1918, was originally named Craycroft and was modified by Roen to handle sand.

Intended to dazzle

As the Craycroft, the ship was painted in camouflage. There were four basic colors for the ships: white, light gray, a dark bluish gray and black. Sometimes referred to as “dazzle painting,” the idea was to break up the ship’s profile, and make it difficult for enemy ships to identify.

“One of the pilots who sailed the Lakers out to the ocean described the effect of the camouflage,” William A. McDonald, a Detroit Shipbuilding Company employee later recalled. “Camouflaged ships, when seen from a fair distance, were difficult to distinguish as to size or type, even in clear weather. It was practically impossible to tell whether a camouflaged vessel was 250 feet long or 450 feet long, or whether it was a freighter, tanker or passenger liner.”

And Rev. Dowling, recalling boyhood days in Chicago, where some of the ships were built, wrote “even on clear days, and when viewed through binoculars, the camouflaged Laker looked like a bundle of black and white sticks moving up the lake. Only the trail of smoke revealed their identity as ships.”

The sight of them plying the Manitou Passags must have been interesting, indeed.

In World War II’s Pacific Theater, a former Laker was sunk by an American submarine.

The Keizan Maru, another of the ships built at Ecorse, had been acquired by a Japanese operative prior to the war. Ironically, the submarine that sank it, the U.S.S. Kete, had also been built on the Great Lakes – at Manitowoc, Wis.

An additional irony: “Maru,” commonly part of the name of Japanese ships, translates as “lake.”

The sunken ship’s original name was Crawl Keys. Launched in 1918, it was the Laker that was built in the record time of just 29 days. It was “the fastest complete ship performance of World War I.” But, although she had been built quickly, she sank even quicker.

Looked like a 'laker'

Finally, although it wasn’t a Laker, it certainly had the appearance, general design and dimensions of one. The Francisco Morozan, wrecked at South Manitou Island in a late November storm in 1960, never got out of the lakes with its mixed cargo from Chicago, but, like so many ships before it, was “claimed” by the Manitous.

Capt. John Roen tried to free the saltwater steamer but was unsuccessful and what is left of it remains there after the passage of almost a half-century.

The vast “Laker” fleet came into being because the far-flung shipyards on the Great Lakes had the capacity to build the tonnage the U.S. Government wanted in the “Great War.” The yards had built 200 steel ships in the decade of 1900-10, which helped to make this country the most powerful in the world.

In recent decades, there has been a great contraction of the yards and the limited work that has taken place has consisted largely of conversions and repair work.

The largest of the companies, American Shipbuilding, went “belly-up” and shareholders only received pennies for their dollars when the once mighty company’s assets were liquidated.

As a gesture of goodwill, “Amship’s” last CEO waived his own claim to any proceeds.

But Mr. George Steinbrenner, flamboyant owner of the New York Yankees baseball team, probably didn’t really need the money, anyway.

Born into a family with deep maritime roots, his own “ ship had come in” years earlier.

* Footnote: In the early 1940s, some of the Ford Laker barges were re-powered for war service. The engine from the Missouri was removed and placed in the Lake Inaha and the engine from the Illinois was placed in the Lake Folcroft. Known as the “Chicago boats,” the Illinois and Missouri were once frequent visitors to Leelanau. The ships each had accommodations for up to 200 passengers and room for nearly 1000 tons of freight. They also carried the U.S. mail. Both ships had seen only limited service during the Depression of the 1930s.