The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-09-11
Giant Steel Freighter Crashed Onto
Launch Crushing It In Two as if
1t Were Eggshell.
BOAT HAS A REAL BELL BOY
Hustles Passengers to Dine Every
Morning at 5:45--What it
is Like.
BY +. A. WILSON.

1t is 925 miles from Duluth to
Buffalo on the water, and it seems
farther than that if the lake happens
to be rough To Toledo, Ohio, from
Bemidj it is approximately 900
miles The trip is made on a hard
shelled boat longer than a presi-
dents ge-but more substanti-
al The James E. Davidson, a men,
Der of the Tomlinson fleet, is the
vessel in mind. 1t is 545 feet long
in it's stocking feet, carries 10, 600
tons burden without missing step,
is coated with a slab of steel and is
garnished with a passenger deck,
which means sun parlors, state rooms
with brass beds, steam heat, electric
lights, hot and cold water, two port
holes and a nervous disposition.
Ore down and coal back is the
principle excuse for these boats, al
though passengers and other junk
are now and then found on board.
No passages are sold, persons sailing
the freighters being the guests OF
the boat owners. The boats skip
along at about the speed OF small
boy leaving the schoolhouse after his
arduOus days dutieS-that is to say
from y to Is miles an hour. 1t
takes from to 10 days, 600 or so
tons Of fuel for the engines and a
couple of tons of food for the pass
engers and deck hands to make the
round trip.
Usually you leave Duluth about
noon in disgust and a cold wind. The
section boss, Captain Stevenson, in
this particular case, points the for
ward part of the boat-the bow, or
whatever its nose is nautically
termed toward the center of the
aerial bridge channel and the engi-
neer yanks the throttle open a couple
of yards and the first the passengers
know Lake Superior is slipping along
under you with Duluth and Chester
A. Congdon s dOllar-righ
the-city-farm fading away in the dis
lance. This causes you to admire
the captain, the engineer and the
boat owners.
If your stomach is strong and the
lake wind is weak you dine at $50
D. m At or 8 p. m. you curl up
and sleep as sound as a dog on the
front door mat until 5:45 a. m. when
you are awakened by large, bolster
Gus. business like bell in the hands OF
a small sailor who as a ringer OF bells
has grandpa and his declaration OF
independence toy sounding like the
tiny tinkling of a brass bell on
dollies wrist. If the lad becomes as
proficient in other things as he is in
ringing that bell, he will be captain
of battleship before Bryan is elect
ed president.
You get a glimpse of Isle Royale
the rock bound refuge of summer
tourists and many other kinds of fish
Then comes the scrub spruce linet
shores of Michigan, as bleak, forlor1
and desolate as Minnesota senator
who last winter voted for reappor
tionment But, like hero in rags
appearances are deceptive for here il
to be found vast copper mines, thu
wealth of any one of which exceeds
that of barrel of sugar at its pres
ent cost. Then comes kewanav
Point, which is a good place to keel
away from A few weeks ago tn
captain of the good ship Moorlant
failed to do this, and now the Moor
land and her precious cargo of iro1
ore are still there. The boat wen
on the rocks, never to come off
They have cut her in two, carryin'
away the aft part with the valuabl
machinery. The remainder of tn
vessel, nearly 500 feet long, is, upol
admission of her ownes, a member o
the lake grave yard.
Superior is the toughest of all tn
great lakes and White Fish Point i
the toughest point of all, but Whit
Fish and his churn failed to baffl
the passengers of the Davidson i