The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1868-05-01
Lake Vessels Nearly Two Hundred
Years Ago.

From the Detroit Post.
From early marine records, which have
fallen into our posses slon, We are enabled
to give to the readers Of our marine col
umn much matter pertaining to the early
navigation Of the lakes, which will be of
great importance for future reference. A
few years since We gave brief account Of
the first vessel which ever crossed Lake
Erie, the career of which was a short lived
one. This vessel was called the Griffin,
built in 1869 at Erie, then called Fronte-
nae, by the celebrated Robert de La Sale,
her commander. This vessel sailed on the
18th of September in that year for Green
Bay, having On board, among other pas
sengers, Father Louis Hennepin, mis-
sionary. On arrival at Green Bay she
took on cargo of furs, and while on the
return passage was lost In Lake Huron
with all on board. She was of 60 tons
burthen and was re-and- aft rugged. Pre-
vious to the era of this vessel, the lakes
were navigated only by birch-bark canoes.
Again, in 1857 four vessels piled upon
Lake Erie. These were the Gladwin, La
dy Charlotte, Victory and Boston. The
two latter laid up in the fall near Navy
Island, above Niagara Falls, and one of
them was accidentally burned November
30th of the same year. A vessel called
the Brunswick, owned and commanded by
Captain Alexander Grant, made her ap,
pearance on the lakes during the year
1867, and was lost sometime during the
season following. Capt. Grant was the
Commodore Of the lakes for two or more
years. In 1869 Sterling & Porterous built
vessel at Detroit called the Enterprise; a
man by the name of Richard Cornwall of
New York, was the carpenter The boat
men that went from Schenectady with the
rigging and stores tor this vessel to Detroit,
were to have each EGO and ten gallons OF
rum. They were seventy days on Lake
Erie, and two of the number perished from
hunger Their bodies were kept for days
to decoy eagles and ravens. They returned
to New York in February, ITO, by the
way of Pittsburgh, then called Fort Pitt.
In May l770, vessel Of 10 tons burthen
was launched at Niagara, called the Chair
ty, by whom owned or commanded is not
stated. The same year the Duke of Clou-
chester, Secretary Townsend, Samuel
Fletcher, Henry Baxter. and four others,
formed company for mining copper ore on
Lake Superior. La December they built at
Point au Pins. some nine miles from Sault
st. Mary, barge, and laid the keel of a
sloop of 40 tons burthen. As to the sue
cess of this enterprise we are in possession
of no farther data whatever touching the
matter. Subsequently to the above period
but very little was accomplished in the con-
struction of vessels for lake navigation, and
the few that came into commission were
used solely as traders, as were also those
previously named. Not long following the
latter date batteaux from Montreal and
Quebec, employed by the Hudson Bay
Fur Company, made their annual tour
westward. gathering large quantities, and
returning home in the fall season. With
reference to Lake Ontario, the first Ameri,
can vessel which navigated those waters,
was buils at Hanford's Landing, three
miles below Rochester, and was called the
Jemima. From this period (l789) onward
to the commencement of the war 1912, sew.
eral crafts, from fifty to ninety ton.
burthen, were commissioned, chiefly for
trading purposes, and several were cap
tured by the British during the war. In
l779 vessel called the Washington was
built and set ahoat at Four Mile Greek,
near Erie, Pa, and the same year a vessel
called the Schenectady was built by Captain
John Fellows, of Sheffield, Mass, and
launched at Sodus, Lake Ontario.
Captain Fellows subsequently navigated
the Western lakes for number of years,
and died at Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, n.
Y, somewhere about the year 1885, On
the Canadian side of Lake Erie, sloop
called the Detroit was owned by the BIRTHS b
Northwest Company. She was about rs
tons burthen, and was subsequently sold to
the American side during the year 1879.
The schooner Wilkinson, so tons burthen,
was built not long after this time at De,
| troit, which navigated the lakes many sub
sequent years, and in 1910 was reconstruct.
ed. In 1906 the schooner Mary, los tons
burthen, was built at Erie, by Thomas
Wilson,. who afterwards disposed of one.
half interest to Capt. james Rough and
lfenrre Rcnshler and the other halc tc