The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-25
STEAMER ALGoMAH.

broad channel, six miles in width from
wharf TO wharf, and blocked with ice
for weeks and months every winter
and spring. A connection of some kind
was absolutely necessary, and the three
roads cO-Operated in organizing the
Mackinac Transportation company.
whose sole business was to keep a
steamer running continuously, summer
and winter, across the straits.
The AlgOmah. the first boat built for
the service, was modelled on the tug
Pilot of Cronstadt. Russia. The Ago
nah is only 135 feet long and thirty
three feet in breadth, but she is strong,
heavy and substantial. Her hull is of
wood sheathed with steel. She draws
thirteen feet aft. Toward the bow her
bottom rounds up out of the water, in
shape somewhat like the front Of a
sledge. Her engine is large for her size
and her owners thought she could force
herself up on to the heaviest ice, and
that her weight would crush il. Her
arrival at the straits caused much ex-
citement. naturally, and her subse-
Quent struggles with the ice were
watched with intense interest, both at
St Ignace and Mackinaw.
The first winter Of the AlgOmah's
service was comparatively open. and
for some time she had things her own
way. But late in January a bowling
gale came down the straits from the
west bringing great quantities of ice.
which blocked the channel completely
Tt took the AlgOmah a week. though
helped with dynamite, to make her
way across, aud her final victory over
the ice was a hollow one, for clearly she
could not maintain continuous naViga-
ton. She had little further trouble that
winter, however. but in the middle of
the next January a thirty-seyen mile
an hour gale arrived at Mackinac. and
the straits began to fill up with ice
gOrges, much as they had done the
previous winter. The Algomah left
st. Ignace at the height of the storm.
and after battling with the gathering
ice for two days, succeeded in reach
ing her wharf at Mackinaw City
Starting back, she worked along for
two miles, and then ran up on to some
very heavy ice and hung there. Super
intendent MCCOCl Of one of the three
railroads was sent for and he came
down from Marquette on a special
train, bringing a dynamite expert
along. They saw at once that the block
sde was the worst they had encounter
ed and that even with the aid Of ex-
plOsives it would be difficult, if not i'm
possible, TO open a channel from shore
10 shore.
McCool's Idea.
But McCool remembered having seen
tug fastened TO the bank on the
Hamburg canal at Buffalo, and work
Ing at full speed TO make a current and
carry of the sewage which drained into
the ditch. Her wheel was making a
tremendous disturbance. and McCool
conceived the idea that a current pro-
duced In the same manner and thrown
against the ice pack might loosen it
and wash it to pieces So the AlgOmah
was turned around and the crew made
her fast by lines and anchors to the
solid ice that surrounded her. Then
the engine was started ahead and as
she could not move forward on account
of her mOOrings the water was
forced TO move back. The big screw
threw a perfect cataract asteUn It
might not have had much effect against
a wall Of solid ice. but. like most ice
gOrges on either the lake or the ocean,
the frozen windrow in this case was
composed Of many layers cakes and
fragments, and the rushing water,
penetrating every crack and Granny be
tween them, swept them away as a