Capt. Joseph Russell
This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union and the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum.
Masters of the PM Steamers
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
Captain Joseph Russell had a remarkable career that consisted of many historical milestones. The first ship he sailed on was the acclaimed schooner Clipper City. He was the inaugural captain of the first Ludington-based carferry, which was also the first steel carferry on the Great Lakes, the SS Pere Marquette. He was first mate of the SS Michigan when it sank. He was the captain of the SS Pere Marquette 17 when the ship came to the rescue of the sinking Pere Marquette 18. He was first captain of the legendary successor of the PM 18, the second Pere Marquette 18.
“‘Bluff and burly’ are the adjectives best describing Capt. Russell,” his obituary, published on July 23, 1913 in the Ludington Chronicle, stated. “He was like a prickly burr — rough and forbidding as to the exterior he showed to casual acquaintances, but with a heart like a sweet rich kernel of the nut, hidden within.”
John Joseph Russell was born in Greenfield, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee, the son of Irish immigrants George and Mary Russell.
There is a lot of contradictory information of Russell’s birth year. His obituary in the July 23, 1913 edition of the Ludington Chronicle estimated his age between 70 to 75 upon his death, which would have meant he was born between 1838 to 1843. An obituary found in two different newspapers (likely a news wire story) stated he was 62 years old when he died. One family tree on Ancestry.com lists him as being born in 1852 and another in 1855. However, the 1900 U.S. Census recorded his birth as October 1853, which is what will be used here as the most likely factual date.
On Dec. 12, 1876, Russell married Mary Ann LaFleur (1856-1932) in Milwaukee. Mary was the sister of William Henry LaFleur (1870-1926) who later in life, like his brother-in-law, would become a carferry captain (when William LaFleur became captain of the PM 19 in 1904 he was the youngest man to become a PM boat captain).
Joseph and Mary had four children: Anna May (1877-1937), Francis “Frank” Alberton (born in 1878), Frederick J. (1882-1934) and Lillian “Lillie” Marie (born in 1884).
Like his birth year, the year Russell began sailing is not clear. The obituary published in the Ludington Chronicle, by far, provides some of the most detailed biographical information published about him. However, the article seems to offer dates that don’t necessarily match with the appropriate dates.
The article states his first sailing job was onboard the schooner Clipper City.
Schooner Clipper City
The Clipper City was designed and built by William W. Bates in Manitowoc, Wis. It entered service in 1854 and its design heralded major improvements in both speed and cargo-carrying capacity. The vessel was 100 feet long with a beam of 27 feet. It had a capacity of 185 gross ton and yet had a mere 7.5 foot draft, which meant it could enter several ports and rivers. It also could hit speeds of 15 to 20 mph. The success of the schooner led to Manitowoc becoming a major center for shipbuilding in the mid-19th century and into the 20th century.
SS Ironsides
Englemann Transportation Company and the SS Ironsides
The Ludington Chronicle obituary about Russell states he commenced sailing winters in 1873. It then discusses his career with the Englemann Transportation Company, also known as the Englemann Line. Englemann was the principle steamship operator between Ludington, Manistee and Milwaukee, and worked in consolidation with the Goodrich Transportation Company. Englemann also had a contract with the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, predecessor of the Grand Trunk Western Railway, operating passenger/freight vessels between Grand Haven and Milwaukee.
The timeframe of Russell commencing sailing winters in 1873 may be inaccurate as the Ludington Chronicle reported that he worked as a mate onboard the SS Ironsides for three years. However, that vessel, owned by Engleman, sank on Sept. 14, 1873. If he had worked for Englemann three years previous, he would have been 17 years old when he started with that company and even younger when he worked on the Clipper City. This was not an unusual age for a man to be working in the 19th century.
The wooden steamer Ironsides was built in 1864 by Quayle & Martin of Cleveland for the Cleveland & Lake Superior Line. It was later sold to the Englemann Line. The Ironsides was 218 feet long with a beam of 30.75 feet and a depth of 12.9 feet. The ship left Milwaukee on Sept. 14, 1873 with 13,000 bushels of wheat, 500 barrels of flour, 125 barrels of pork, 19 passengers and 30 crewmen.
Later that evening, the weather changed and a powerful gale swept over Lake Michigan. About 4 a.m., after making two attempts to enter the mouth of the Grand River at Grand Haven, Capt. Harry Sweetman decided to anchor the ship and ride out the storm offshore. Later that morning, the water extinguished the ship’s boilers. By 11 a.m., everyone onboard had escaped in five lifeboats. The Ironsides sank at 12:10 p.m. Three of the five lifeboats capsized in Lake Michigan, killing 10 crew members and 11 passengers.
On Sept. 10, 1873, four days prior to the wreck of the Ironsides, First Mate Russell was transferred to another ship. The Ludington Chronicle obituary states that Russell worked summers on the steamer Manistee on Lake Superior for three years and on the steamer Messenger on Lake Michigan in winters. The Englemann Line operated the Messenger following the wreck of the Ironsides.
On April 9, 1875, the Englemann Line sold its Grand Haven service to the Northwestern Transportation Company of Cleveland.
Russell then served as first mate on NTC’s Minneapolis for three winters, operating between Grand Haven and Milwaukee. Then, for two seasons, he was on the City of Duluth as second mate and then as first mate. He then spent a season on the City of Fremont, which operated between Buffalo and Duluth.
While the dates don’t quite match up to those in the obituary, Russell’s next assignment was serving as first mate of the SS Michigan.
SS Michigan
Goodrich Transportation Co., the SS Wisconsin and the SS Michigan
Obituaries about Russell published in the Muskegon Chronicle and Grand Haven Tribune stated that he had served as master of both the SS Wisconsin and SS Michigan, other evidence contradicts that information, showing him as the first mate of the Michigan. It is possible that he served on the Wisconsin briefly after the demise of the Michigan but newspapers show his first command in 1888 for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway.
The F&PM began moving freight across Lake Michigan in May 1875, six months after the railroad was completed in Ludington. For that first year, the railroad chartered a ship called the John Sherman, which transported goods from Ludington to Sheboygan, Wis. That vessel proved to be too small and, in 1876, the railroad contracted with Goodrich Transportation Company of Chicago to transport its freight. This was a very lucrative contract for Goodrich, which became the largest passenger/freight service on Lake Michigan.
Goodrich Transportation Co. (later Goodrich Transit Co.) was founded by Capt. Albert Goodrich in 1855, when he was 30-years-old, when he took possession of his first side-wheel steamship, the 165-foot-long Huron, built in 1852.
In 1881, Goodrich hired famed naval architect Frank Kirby to design three new ships to operate the Ludington to Milwaukee route.
SS Wisconsin
The three new ships were built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company at Wyandotte, Mich. First of the three to be completed was a side-wheeler, the City of Milwaukee. The boat was launched on Feb. 11, 1881 at a cost of $179,000. This should not be confused with the car ferry City of Milwaukee built by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad following the loss of the S.S. Milwaukee that is one of the topics of this series.
The other two steamers were propellers. The Michigan was launched on Aug. 20, 1881 with the Wisconsin following on Oct. 11, 1881. Both Michigan and Wisconsin were taken to Milwaukee for fitting out and completion. Both new steamers were finished and in regular service by the end of the year.
The Michigan and Wisconsin were rated at 1,183 tons and were 215 feet in length. Their beams were 34 feet wide and their depth were 14 feet. Each cost $159,212. They were especially designed for cross-lake winter service and had heavy ice-breaking qualities incorporated in their construction. Each had the rounded forefoot and full entrance found on the car ferries. This feature permitted the ship to rise up on the ice, crushing it with its sheer weight. The vessels were also equipped with double iron bottoms and their main decks were fashioned of the same material.
The three new ships only ran about two years for the Goodrich line. In 1882 the first two ships owned by the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad arrived in Ludington, F&PM No. 1 and F&PM No. 2. With the purchase of these two new steamers it was apparent that the railway company intended to go into the lake steamboat business for itself.
Capt. Albert Goodrich
Slowly business was taken away from the Goodrich steamers. On April 1, 1883, the F&PM cancelled its contract with Goodrich and ending Goodrich’s Ludington-Milwaukee route.
This was a serious blow to the Goodrich Transportation Co. A huge portion of its capital and funds borrowed from the banks had been invested in the new steamers and the development of the new service. The termination, after really less than two years’ earnings from the new service, meant insufficient return on the investment. To avoid a financial crisis within his company, Capt. Goodrich decided to sell his three new steamers to satisfy his creditors and obligations.
On May 1, 1883, the three ships were sold to the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway Co. The railroad paid $180,000 for the City of Milwaukee and $160,000 each for the Michigan and Wisconsin, the forerunner of the Grand Trunk Car Ferry Line operated by the Grand Trunk Western Railway.
The Michigan was the first of the twins to be lost, only a year after being sold to the DGH&M.
In the early months of 1885, a harsh winter had embattled shipping in Lake Michigan. It was typical at that time for shipping on the Great Lakes to halt during the winter months. But,
an early thaw in February prompted it to resume. As soon as ships left port with cargo, however, a strong winter storm engulfed the region, dropping three feet of snow in two days. This caused many ships to become trapped in ice, including the Michigan and the Wisconsin.
Knowing the ships and their cargo could be doomed if left to the ice pack, the Milwaukee Railway Company decided to use the Michigan and her double hull to break through the ice and free the trapped vessels.
On the morning of Feb. 9, 1885, the Michigan and 29 crewmen set up to see if they could free the ships. A gale blew the ship off course and into an ever-growing ice pack. By the morning of the Feb. 11, it was trapped in ice, drifting south. By Feb. 17, conditions remained unchanged, and the crew was quickly exhausting resources.
The captain ordered that the crew ration supplies, and also enlisted a 17-man team to venture across the frozen lake, to land, as the condition of the ship had worsened. The group, using ice picks, axes, and ropes, covered 12 miles and reached shore in Allegan County. On Feb. 21, a resupply ship arrived to restock the trapped Michigan.
Four weeks passed. While conditions improved, and ice began to break up, the Michigan was still trapped. On March 19, the pressure on the hull was causing the boat to moan, as the double iron hull buckled, and continued throughout the night. The tugboat Arctic arrived the following day as a last effort to free the Michigan. The Arctic became trapped as well. Late that night, the hull of the Michigan filled with water, and the captain ordered to abandon ship. All the crew was able to leave the doomed ship and watched as Michigan slipped under the ice, to the bottom on Lake Michigan. The crew then waited on the stuck Arctic until conditions improved, and the tug was freed. There were no deaths in the sinking.
Read about the sinking of the Wisconsin here.
F&PM No. 2
Flint & Pere Marquette Railway
Russell was hired by the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway in 1886, serving as first mate of the Flint & Pere Marquette (F&PM) No. 2 under the command of Capt. John Duddleson, who had commanded the ship since it entered service in 1882. In 1887, Duddleson was assigned to oversee the construction of the F&PM No. 3 and Capt. John Stewart took over command of the F&PM No. 2.
In 1888, Russell received his first command as master of the F&PM No. 2.
In 1889, Russell was assigned command of the F&PM No. 4 which he commanded until 1902 when he was given command of the carferry Pere Marquette 17, the first steamship built by the PMRR. In between that time, though, he also commanded the F&PM No. 3 for one year and he had the distinction of taking out the fleet’s first carferry, the Pere Marquette. Russell commanded the new ship for its first four months and then turned command over to Capt. Frank A. Dority.
SS Pere Marquette
SS Pere Marquette
The first railroad to offer car ferry service across Lake Michigan was the Toledo Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway, predecessor of the Ann Arbor Railroad, with the debut of the wooden vessels Ann Arbor No. 1 and No. 2 in 1892, which initially operated between Frankfort/Elberta and Kewaunee, Wis.
In December, 1895, the F&PM ordered a steel carferry, designed by Robert Logan (1861-1918), a prominent naval architect of Cleveland who had immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland. Logan’s original plan called for a four-tracked steel steamer of 337 feet with twin screws aft and, like all six of the wooden ferries that preceded her, a bow propeller. Apparently on the basis of the Ann Arbor’s unsatisfactory experience with bow propellers, the F&PM dropped the forward screw from the plans before the ship was built. The plans were also altered to cut back her spar deck slightly, as on modern car ferries, rather than to have it extend all the way to the stern, as on the original Ann Arbor ferries.
The new ship, named the SS Pere Marquette, was built by F.W. Wheeler & Co. in West Bay City, Michigan (West Bay City merged with Bay City in 1905). The ship was 337-feet long with a breadth of 56 feet and a depth of 17 feet. It was equipped with two fore and aft compound coal-powered steam engines with four Scotch boilers built by Wickes Brothers in Saginaw. It had twin screws, steel hull, two stacks placed fore and aft and a single deck of cabins.
The Pere Marquette was launched on Dec. 30, 1896 and arrived in Ludington on Feb. 13, 1897. It was then sent to Milwaukee for inspection. The Pere Marquette made its maiden voyage from Ludington to Manitowoc the evening of Feb. 16-17, 1897 with Capt. John Russell in command. It carried 22 freight cars and the private car of S.T. Crapo, general manager of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway.
Prior to the arrival of the Pere Marquette, the F&PM sold the F&PM No. 1 in April, 1896 to Hurson Transportation Co. for night service between Chicago and Milwaukee. In 1898, the railroad added to its fleet’s passenger capacity by having the F&PM No. 5 rebuilt with passenger cabins for Ludington to Milwaukee service.
When the F&PM was absorbed into the Pere Marquette Railway in 1900, the fleet consisted of the carferroes Pere Marquette and Muskegon and the break-bulk freight carriers F&PM Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5.
In 1901, PMRR changed the names of its vessels similar to the system used for locomotives. Ships numbered 1 through 5 were break-bulk freighters; 6 to 14 were Detroit River ferries and numbers 15 and above were Lake Michigan ferries. Therefore the old breakbulk freighters were now Pere Marquette Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the Muskegon became Pere Marquette 16. The Pere Marquette was unofficially known as the PM 15 but the name was not legally changed until 1924.
PM 15 was laid up in 1930. In 1935, it made its last trip to Manitowoc to be scrapped, a rather unceremonious end to the first steel Lake Michigan car ferry.
PM 17 visits Detroit, August 1901
Pere Marquette 17
On Wednesday, Aug. 21, 1901, the newly constructed Pere Marquette 17 arrived in Detroit for a public inspection. Construction of the 338-foot-long ship had been completed at American Ship Building Company’s Globe Works in Cleveland, Ohio and it was on its way to Ludington, its home port.
Capt. Peter Kilty
An article in the Tuesday, Aug. 20, 1901 edition of the Detroit Free Press invited the public to view the new boat:
“MOST MODERN OF HER KIND,” the headline read. “PERE MARQUETTE 17 WILL ARRIVE AT DETROIT WEDNESDAY; PUBLIC INVITED TO INSPECT THE NEW BOAT; ROUTE WILL BE FROM LUDINGTON TO MANITOWOC.”
“The public of Detroit, on Wednesday morning, will be given an opportunity to inspect the most modern and up-to-date car ferry on the great lakes.
“‘Pere Marquette 17,’ the latest ferry of the Pere Marquette railroad, built at the Cleveland yards of the American Shipbuilding company, will arrive in this city at 10 o’clock and tie up at the dock of the Northern Steamship company, foot of First street, in order to allow those who wish to see the new boat an opportunity to look her over. She will be in port about six hours and will then proceed to Lake Michigan where she will be placed on the route between Ludington and Manitowoc.
“The new boat is 350 feet in length over all, 56 feet beam and 19 feet 6 inches molded depth. Her power consists of two triple-expansion directing jet-condensing engines, with cylinders of 19, 31 and 52 inches diameter and 36 inches stroke, with an indicated horsepower of 3,500. Steam is supplied by four Scotch-type boilers, each 13 feet 9 inches in diameter and 12 feet long, carrying a working pressure of 175 pounds to the square inch.
“Four tracks traverse her main deck which will accommodate 30 standard-sized freight cars. Her cabin is provided with all up-to-date improvements, and the staterooms will accommodate 300 passengers.
W.L. Mercereau
“The entire vessel is of steel and the hull is heavily reinforced in order to permit the boat to combat the heavy ice which she will encounter in winter.
“Among the equipments of the ferry are two 11-inches lens searchlights.”
The Pere Marquette Railway was formally created on Jan. 1, 1900, a consolidation of the Flint & Pere Marquette, the Chicago & West Michigan and the Detroit Grand Rapids & Western. With the formation of the new railway came William L. Mercereau, who had been superintendent of steamships for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway, which had been operating operating cross-lake freight service since 1875 and had been operating car ferries since the introduction of the SS Pere Marquette (later known as the Pere Marquette 15) in 1897.
The PM 17 was the first of the Pere Marquette Railway’s carferries and was among four new ships ordered by Mercereau. The other vessels included Pere Marquette (PM) 18 in 1902, and PM 19 and PM 20 in 1903.
The four new ferries, designed by naval architect Robert Logan, differed from one another only in passenger accommodations and in engine details. They were each 338 feet long, 56 feet wide and had a depth of 19.5 feet.
The PM 17’s first master was Capt. Peter Kilty. Kilty started with the F&PMRR on March 20, 1898, commanding the Pere Marquette. Prior to working for the F&PM, he had spent the previous two years as captain of the Ann Arbor No. 1, the first Lake Michigan carferry, which was operated by the Ann Arbor Railroad. The 260-foot-long wooden Ann Arbor No. 1 began service in November 1892 and operated between Frankfort/Elberta and Kewaunee, Wis.
In November 1902, Kilty took command of the PM fleet’s new flagship, the Pere Marquette 18. Eight years later, he would go down with his ship when the PM 18 sank offshore of Sheboygan, Wis.
Capt. Russell, who had been the master of the Pere Marquette, proceeded Kilty and was in command of the 17 when it rescued crew and passengers from the sinking 18 on Sept. 10, 1910.
Pere Marquette 18 on excursion in Chicago
Rescue of the PM 18
Early in the morning of Friday, Sept. 9, 1910, the PM 17 was in Milwaukee when it received a CQD distress call from its sister ship, the PM 18. The story of the sinking of the Pere Marquette 18 is told in detail in a previously published story on MCP.
In a nutshell, the ship had left Ludington at 11:40 p.m. on Thursday evening en route to Milwaukee. The ship had been chartered out that summer for an excursion line in Chicago and had just returned to Ludington where it was converted back for freight duty. At 3:30 a.m. on Friday, the first engineer
William L. Mercereau, Pere Marquette Railway superintendent of water lines, pursued a policy of dispatching ferries so that, whenever possible, two boats could be reasonably close in order to come to one another’s assistance in case of an accident.
PM 18’s purser Stephen F. Sczepanek began to send the CQD distress signal by radio at 4:15 a.m.
CQD was a distress signal used by wireless operators and telegraphers to signal “all stations, distress”. It was created in 1904 by the Guglielmo Marconi wireless company by adding the letter “D” to the signal “CQ”, which means “seeking you” or “all stations”. Although it was commonly used, CQD was never adopted as an international standard because it could be confused with the general call “CQ” in poor reception. It was also considered outdated and confusing, and was eventually mostly replaced by the SOS signal in 1905.
The RMS Titanic used CQD in its first distress call after hitting an iceberg in April 1912. The call was repeated six times before the ship provided its position.
“17-17-17-18 — come help, come help,” was one of the messages Sczepanek sent out.
Capt. Russell proceeded immediately from Milwaukee to assist the PM 18, sighting it at 6:30 a.m. about 20 miles off Sheboygan.
At 7:15 a.m., PM 17 drew alongside PM 18 from starboard, but since that was the windward side, it could neither make fast nor come close enough to take off some of the passengers and crew. PM 17 put about and began an approach from the port side of the stricken ship.
The officers of the 18 thought they were winning their battle and therefore had neither ordered “abandon ship” nor even required that life jackets be put on the personnel aboard. Suddenly, the ship took an enormous amount of water, and sank almost immediately.
Arist Robert Hyde’s rendering of the sinking of the PM 18. Photo on display at the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
“Just then the order came, ‘Everybody jump,’ said George Harwood (1892-1975), who was 17 years old and working as a scrubber on the ship. Harwood was interviewed by Rose D. Hawley of the Mason County Historical Society and quoted in an article that was published in the April 7, 1958 edition of the Ludington Daily News.
Harwood put one foot into the anchor hole near him, turned around and fell off backwards into the water.
“As he struck (water) a suction pulled him deep into the water. The same kind of propulsion forced him back to the surface and shot him high up into the air,” Hawley wrote. “The ship had exploded almost instantaneously with the order to jump.”
As the ship was sinking, the PM 17 immediately put out boats to pick up survivors. With the high seas running, this was a difficult operation, and one boat was crushed against the ship’s own side, with a loss of life of two crew members. About 35 survivors were picked up, many of whom had been sucked down with the ship, but regained the surface in time to be saved.
Twenty-seven people died in the incident including Capt. Peter Kilty and all the ship’s officers, two official passengers, two stow-aways, and two crewmen from the PM 17.
The sinking of the PM 18 was the worst disaster to strike the Ludington fleet and only one of three carferries to sink. Interestingly, all three of the vessels to have sunk were of the same model ship designed by Robert Logan and were all built within a few years of each other.
The second PM 18
The second Pere Marquette 18
In 1911 the PMRR promptly replaced the 18 with another ship by the same name. The new boat, which became the fleet’s flagship, was the same length and width as its predecessor, 338 feet by 57.6 feet, but was slightly taller, 21.7 feet; the previous was 19.5 feet. The new 18 was built by American Ship Building Co., like the previous four Pere Marquette steamers. However, unlike the others, that were built in Cleveland, the new 18 was built in Chicago. This was because of the availability of the yard in Chicago and its ability to build a ship quickly, 90 days.
On Jan. 26, 1911, John Russell took command of the new ship and was named commodore of the fleet, replacing the late Peter Kilty, a title he retained until his death two years later.
Death
Sometime in early 1913, while still in command of the PM 18 (II), Capt. Russell became ill and required a medical operation. Russell died at Hanover Hospital in Milwaukee on July 23, 1913. He was 59 years old.
“He rallied finely and could he have been content to live ashore might have prolonged his life some years,” his obituary published that day in the Ludington Chronicle stated. “But life ashore was not worth living in his estimation, and he went back to his boat and continued in command as long as he could possibly summon the strength to reach the bridge and take her into port.”
Mary LeFleur Russell would live another 19 years. She died on June 16, 1932.
Capt. John Joseph Russell is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee.
Masters of the PM Steamers series:
Capt. John Stewart was first skipper of the Ludington fleet 150 years ago
Capt. Muir commanded first Ludington ‘black boat’ until his death
Ludington fleet captain Duddleson skippered the famed L.C. Waldo during the 1913 storm
Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake; filercu.com; 800.595.6630
The Mason County Historical Society is a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in 1937 that does not receive any governmental funding. It owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum in Ludington, Historic White Pine Village in Pere Marquette Township, and The Rose Hawley Archives and the Mason County Emporium and Sweet Shop in downtown Ludington.
For more information about donating to and/or joining the Mason County Historical Society, visit masoncountymihistory.org.
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