Boatnerd Discussion Forum

With Howard M. Hanna being owned by Hawgood I surmise they thought it as a subsidiary bought off by Cambria or another company.

Both vessels named Howard M. Hanna, Jr. were owned by Hanna Transit Company and managed by W. C. Richardson & Company. Hawgood had nothing to do with either.

pcolachap wrote:Hello Jared, if memory serves me correct, there were two M. A. Hanna boats lost in the great storm of 1913. They were the Charles Price and the Isaac M. Scott.

Yes, the Scott was run by the Virginia Steamship company and managed by M.A. Hanna. The Price was run by the Mahoning Company which was also managed by M.A. Hanna. Despite popular belief they are not sister ships. The Price was launched earlier and was lighter in tonnage and ran in different fleets.

The author(s) is vague on his sources (Schumaker and Cleary), and has the wrong Argus and Hydrus pictured. I think they both thought every boat with Hanna in the name must be part of M.A. Hanna company. With Howard M. Hanna being owned by Hawgood I surmise they thought it as a subsidiary bought off by Cambria or another company.

Hello Jared, if memory serves me correct, there were two M. A. Hanna boats lost in the great storm of 1913. They were the Charles Price and the Isaac M. Scott.

During the time period in question, the Howard M. Hanna, Jr. was managed by W. C. Richardson for the Hanna Transit Company, as I say below. The ill-fated D. R. Hanna was managed and owned by Hutchinson (Pioneer Steamship Company). The Leonard C. Hanna was managed by M. A. Hanna for the Mahoning Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the Cambria Steel Company. The M. A. Hanna was owned and managed by John Mitchell (Cleveland Steamship Company). Hawgood had nothing to do with these vessels. What was the author's source?

The Hanna organization was the longest living shipping firm on the lakes, founded in 1856 by L. C. Hanna, Robert Hanna, and Hiram Garretson with the building of the City of Superior. Eventually L. C. Hanna's sons assumed control of the firm, renamed M. A. Hanna & Company in 1890. With the sale of Hanna's interest in National Steel Corporation, that fleet came to an end in 1986, although I believe Hanna Mining Company continued to manage the George A. Stinson for a few years afterwards.

Thank you Mr. Lafferty and Pcolachap for your replies. The reference to the M.A. Hanna, D.R. Hanna, and W.C. Richardson come from a relatively new book on shipwrecks dealing with the storm of 1913 and the addition to the D.R. Hanna which sank in a collision off Thunder Bay in 1919. It states that the Hawgood company managed the "Hanna" boats until its demise in 1914 and the companies were cut loose and auctioned off. I don't know if it is an error on the author's part by lumping the H.M. Hanna Jr and the D.R. Hanna as fleetmates, but I only read references to the "Hanna" boats to 1950s and up.

The M. A. Hanna company or sometimes refered to as Hanna Mining Company was a vessel company, operator and had both iron ore and coal mining assets. Circa 1955, they managed 10 vessels, five for National Steel Corp. three "Hanna boats" that were acquired from Franklin Steamship Co. & the Joe Thompson owned by Hansand steamship co. Jared, the Hagwood company you reference may have been connected with Leonard C. Hanna, another Cleveland industrialist who was associated with the Columbia fleet. Dad sailed for Hanna in 1941 on the Fred G. Hartwell, a "Hanna boat" as a wheelsman. During that period Hanna managed several independent company boats like the LaBelle, the Joseph Wood and the William D. Crawford. They were referred to as the "orphans". The M. A. Hanna company also managed a large number of ore, coal loading & fueling docks across the lakes. The founder of M. A. Hanna was Ohio Senator Marcus Hanna.
If you could get ahold of a Red Book from 1944 or 1945 you could see a very good picture of the boats that were a part of the fleet.
This isn't a complete picture of the company. Sadly, just a few years ago a Hann executive, Dick Bibby, passed away in Duluth. He could have answered all you questions.

Some twenty years ago I tried to do some research on the history of the Hanna fleet and could not find any good resources to compile a history of its fleet operations. If access to such information has changed over the years I would be grateful to know.

I can find no listing for a Hanna Steamship Company. W. C. Richardson managed the Hanna Transit Company, incorporated 20 February 1914, the sole vessel of which was the Howard M. Hanna, Jr. of 1914. Greenwood's Fleet Histories does not mention any Hanna entity in his discussion of Hawgood in volume 6. Contemporary press reports often refer to vessels owned and/or managed by M. A. Hanna as "Hanna Steamship Company" vessels, which never existed as such.

I think M. A. Hanna were managers. It was Hawgood along with American Shipbuilding that got into financial trouble and that led to the Hawgood fleet being dissolved.

Perhaps William Lafferty and Jay Bascom can add some insight.

- Brian

was hanna steamship co not owned by national steel until they landed on hard times and sold their vessels for scrapping over seas?

I am looking for information on the Hanna Steamship Company. Am I correct in assuming that this is the same company that was also under the Hawgood Steamship Company as managers? If so how did they survive the bankruptcy of Hawgood let alone become their own independent company?