If it was based on enthusiasm yes, but in all honesty knowing some of the players, they don't have a chance of coming up with the funding they need to make this happen.
Some of this group had a similar effort to save the Harriman, slick looking website asking for donations. It folded and I never got an answer where my donation went.
Nate wrote:In all flat out truth, do you guys think the JB Ford will eventually be preserved by the group out of Alpena are these guys legit and able bodied or do you think we will see failed attempts similar to what happened to the carferries Chief Wawatam, Madison and Frank E Kirby's Canadiana? If anybody knows anything about this organization besides whats on their website please share.
In all flat out truth, do you guys think the JB Ford will eventually be preserved by the group out of Alpena are these guys legit and able bodied or do you think we will see failed attempts similar to what happened to the carferries Chief Wawatam, Madison and Frank E Kirby's Canadiana? If anybody knows anything about this organization besides whats on their website please share.
Jared wrote:Why the bell and whistle be gone? I thought that she was technically in layup and that no items can be taken. Where they stolen?
Either removed by owners for keepsakes &/or were stolen, either for scrap or as a souvenir. Happens a lot, especially if a ship is moored at a remote location with little or no security. People seem to think that just because a vessel is no longer in operation everything is there for the taking. I work with the SS City of Milwaukee, we are still trying to locate the bell & wheel. People have made off with all the engine room gages, both builders plates (we got 1 back), the brass chadburns in the pilothouse (possibly for the scrap value), all the keys for the staterooms, a ship model being used for interpretive display in the dining room. We've even had stuff 'go missing' during the course of a guided tour. If anyone has any items off the City of Milwaukee the odds are highly likely the items were stolen. We have a 'No Questions Asked' policy regarding the return of any items, which so far has resulted in the return of 1 builders plate & the wheel from the aft pilot house.
Most of the items mentioned are cosmetic fixes. However, I have to wonder what her hull is like - especially below the waterline and the internal structure.
Hopefully, she will be saved. She has an remarkable history. I read a book a while back that told about her surviving the carnage that took place on Lake Huron during the "Great Storm" and was one of only a handful of ships that survived out on the open lake. Acme Transits Company's famed captain James Owens was the Ford's original commander and went down with the Henry B. Smith (one of the largest ships at the time of loss) out on Lake Superior in that same storm. Here are a couple of pages some of you might find interesting. http://www.greatlakessteamshipsociety.org/storms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Henry_B._Smith
The JB Ford inside as expected from sitting for a couple decades is dirty and dusty, but still very much intact. Yes people will say she is missing all sorts of stuff, and is stripped clean. While in one aspect this is true, that alot of items have been taken from her, many things still remain. Much of her original navigation equipment like wheel, chadburns, binnacle etc was gone by the time she became a cement boat, so that was gone 60 years ago, her pilot house is still intact structurally, still has her older radar units, radio direction finder, chart table, wheel stand, and other controls from her cement days. It is still wood paneled, and in good shape. As are nearly all of her cabins, still wood paneled, and ingood shape, dirty after decades of dust and no one living in them, but still intact with many original fittings like bunks and plumbing. Her engine room is indeed dirty and in need of a solid cleaning and repainting, and some asbestos removal, but still generally intact, again brass and shiny easily removed stuff is missing, but still historically intact. Steam machinery and generation equipment is still intact and in place, as is electrical and distribution switch gear. Her historical integrity is still there, her machinery is still there, as is her structure, design and important systems. Of all the items that have gone missing from the ship that cannot be replaced that can be found at later date is the Bell, Whistle, and Engine room gauge panel. Everything else can and will be replaced with like objects. When the Irvin became a museum, during her restoration many of her fittings had gone missing, wheels, telegraphs brass etc... but over the many years she has been a museum, many things have been returned and put back in their rightful place. It is expected that if sucessful the same will occur with many of the Fords fittings. If not we have enough details to replicate them, and can make it right in the mean time. Many say she is an empty worthless hull, we see her as as container full of history and intact beyond most peoples ability to see. She is a time capsule, that is just waiting to be opened and cleaned up and made to live again.
So what is the actual condition of the Ford internally. On the outside she looks like she needs a fresh coat of paint, but does anyone know the condition of the pilothouse or cabins? what about the cargo hold?