Pere Marquette 18(II)

[Rob]

Nice shot. I can't seem to click on it to enlarge it however...

[Jared]

Do you have pictures and/or plans of her in her various configurations?

s-l400 (4).jpg (9.76 KiB) Viewed 1146 times

A rather rare one from a postcard. The postcard is listed as sometime in the 1920s.

[Rob]

Do you have pictures and/or plans of her in her various configurations?

[Jared]

Thanks very much for the pictures. I've seen the bottom one in the Great Lakes Carferries book by George W. Hilton. The top one I haven't seen before. In it she has an enclosed upper pilot house. I believe as built she had an open upper pilothouse.

It's actually a interesting design. The original PM 18 has a lower bridge (known as a half step turret) with an open flying bridge. The (II) retained the half stepped pilothouse and an enclosed flying bridge which in turn was the main bridge. Then right after her launch they turned the original lower pilothouse into a viewing lounge and added a new flying open bridge as a third level. This ended in the 1920s after a rebuild. I always thought having 3 helms, chadburns, and binnacles had to play havoc on the wiring up there but that explanation was given to me.

[Rob]

Thanks very much for the pictures. I've seen the bottom one in the Great Lakes Carferries book by George W. Hilton. The top one I haven't seen before. In it she has an enclosed upper pilot house. I believe as built she had an open upper pilothouse.

[BigRiver]

Thank you Jared. If you don't mind I will replace the photo on the page with this one for accuracy going forward. Roger

[Jared]

Here is one after her launch.

And in her later days

[Rob]

Today's Great Lakes history column stated that the second Pere Marquette !8 arrived in Ludington on this date in 1911. The postcard photo provided is clearly of the first PM18 with a load of excursionists coming out of Waukegan. I don't believe the PM18(II) ever engaged in the excursion business. At any rate, does anyone have a photo of the PM18(II) that they could provide?