The Great Lakes Car Ferries
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There was a time in the United States when railroad tunnels and bridges were only dreams in the minds of designers, when the best way to move railroad cars across bodies of water was to load them on specialized ships designed specifically for this purpose.
With this utilitarian principle in mind, shipbuilders around the Great Lakes and elsewhere built an amazing variety of vessels to get the job done quickly, efficiently, and safely.
George W. Hilton's The Great Lakes Car Ferries tells the story of these boats and of the hardworking, heroic men who day after day, year after year, battled mechanical problems, ice, and bad weather to get the cars safely across the water.
Customer Review: Definitive authority on Great Lakes Railroad ferries
This book is a slightly updated reprint of Hilton's 1962 masterpiece. It is the best single source of information on the operations of railway ferry operations literally on the surfaces of the Great Lakes, from the St. Lawrence up to the tip of Lake Superior. All ferry ships are described, with stats, and pictures are provided for many.
The text narrates the development of the rail car ferry operations region by region i.e. the Detroit River operations form a chapter, the Lake Michigan ferries are a chapter, the Mackinac ferries are a chapter, etc. Within each chapter, the story is told by railroad, chronologically i.e. in the "Detroit River" chapter, the operations of the CASO/MC/NYC are described separately from those of the Wabash, Pere Marquette, Grand Trunk, etc. This is probably the most logical way to handle things.
Of especial interest is the descriptions of the battles of the various ferry operations with ice conditions on the rivers (where current is a factor) and on the open lake.
Jim Yaworsky
Customer Review: Found a reference to my uncle, a wheelsman during a crash!
I read part of this book online and immediately ordered it.
I found an excerpt of a collosion between the Ashtabula Car Ferry and another ship.
My uncle, Arvo Wiitala, was the wheelsman. The captain was charged and ordered to appear in front of a board of inquiry. He committed suicide the day before the meeting.
My uncle lived with this all his life repeating the story over and over during his final days in his bout with Alzeimers.
From what I have read so far, it shows the brutal conditions of operating ships on the Great Lakes especially during winter. A great read!