Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-02-20
WORLDS BIGGEST CAR FERRY.
How Freight is Carried Across Lake
Michigan the Year Round.

town in the United States of less
pretension than Ludington, a city of
5000 or 5000 inhabitants that is well
spread out over several square miles
of territory at the point where the
Hotepseakam river joins Lake Michi-
gan.
Certainly there is no town along the
western shore of the southern PENN
sula of Michigan where the dweller in
a seaboard city would be more sur
prised by anything strongly remind
ing him of the shipping to be seen in
a great Atlantic port. Yet not day
passes that the inhabitants of Lud-
ington do not see the arrival of what
closely resembles an ocean going
steamer of such size and would be no
0Iscredit to any transatlantic line, IL
you ask some Ludington by-stander
about the craft, he will tell you proud
ly that the Pere Marquette is "the
biggest sea-going car ferry in the
world" and that she is apparently
transforming the Flint and Pere Mar
quette railroad, of which she is an ap-
pendage, from line almost wholly To-
cal in its business to through trunk
highway of commerce.
Further investigation will develop
a number of facts novel to most east
ern men. The so-called sea-going
car ferry" is an important institu-
tion on Lake Michigan. BY it's use
freight between the middle north
Wisconsin, Minnesota and the
Dakotas-and the great cities of the
northeastern seaboard-New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, etc.,-can be
put through in a shorter period by at
least SO hours than by any of those
lines which go round Lake Michigan
by way of Chicago, instead of across
it, Moreover instead of paying ex-
ira freight for this shortening Of
transit, shippers actually make as big
comparative saving in money as
| they do in time.
That the shippers appreciate this
combination is abundantly proved by
! the big business done by the various
car ferries on Lake Michigan. Those
who know most about these craft and
| their performances feel assured that
they are bound to work nothing less
ing trade between the northwest and
the northeast. Already four vessels
are kept constantly busy in the trade.
| Three of these are run in connection
with the Ann Arbor railroad, plying
! between Frankfort on the Michigan
shore and one or two Wisconsin ports.
None of these three can compare IA
vorably either in capacity or appear
ance, however, with the Pere Mar
quette, being smaller and much more
| like the car ferryboat Maryland, that
plies New York, harbor in connection
with the Pennsylvania railroad, than
any other craft familiar to the eye of
Sunday Press readers.
The Pere Marquette plies between
Ludington, Mich, and Manitowoc,
Wis She is a twin screw vessel, $50
feet long, of IS feet beam and drawing
IA feet. Her compound engines-two
sets, working independently were
built for the development of 3 500 horse
power. Her main deck is 35 feet and
is fitted with sufficient trackage on
her car deck to accommodate 30
freight cars of the largest size in use.
| Owing to her. ocean steamer-like build,
the cars, once safely loaded on her
tracks, are as secure from being wet
| by the weather, as they would be on
| land.
| Lake Michigan, as every one knows,
is pretty big pond and wide enough
for good stiff gale to develop seas
mountains high, even if not as coll
ossal as the heaviest ones developed
on the ocean.
Naturally, heavy seas result in
deal of pitching and tossing and roll
| ing about on the lake, exactly as they
would on the Atlantic, and were it not
for divers ingenious devices adopted
on board the Pere Marquette her
wheeled cargo would often be in i'm
minent danger of rolling from it's
proper resting place into the fresh
green waters. These devices in
clude, besides automatic couples that
fasten each short train of cars firmly
to the snubbing posts on board, a
series of locks and chains that fasten
each individual car snugly to the rails.
| These hold the heaviest cars as Sc
curely as if they were part of the
| ships structure itself, and no matter
what the weather the Pere Marquette
makes it's trips as uninterruptedly as
any steamer anywhere in commission.
Of course this could not be so were
she not stanch and seaworthy. In this
regard she appears to be all that can
| be desired, since she successfully has
weathered many a storm that has
wrought destruction to all sorts or
steam and sailing lake craft, includ
ing several bad spells Of weather this
| fall, without even suffering a delay
of more than an hour, and has also
proved herself able to cope with the
heaviest lake ice ever known to form.
Before she was put on, February.
1897, there were some predictions that
it would be ice, if anything, tnat
would interfere with her service. So
/ e. l. r,Io h.