Capt. Peter Kilty
Masters of the PM Steamers
This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union, the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum and Sable Points Media.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
Every September, the sinking of Pere Marquette 18 is remembered as one of the greatest maritime disasters in the history of Lake Michigan.
The Sept. 9, 1910 tragedy claimed 30 lives and remains the only Pere Marquette Railroad car ferry ever lost on the open waters of Lake Michigan. At its center was Capt. Peter Kilty, who refused to abandon his ship and became the only captain in the history of Ludington’s famed railroad ferry fleet to perish with his vessel.
Yet focusing only on Kilty’s final hours overlooks a remarkable career that helped shape one of the Great Lakes’ most revolutionary transportation systems.
For more than 30 years, Kilty witnessed the transformation of Lake Michigan commerce from small fishing boats and passenger steamers to giant steel railroad ferries capable of carrying entire freight trains across the lake. He commanded two of the most important vessels in Great Lakes maritime history and earned a reputation as one of the region’s most respected captains before his life ended aboard the flagship Pere Marquette 18.
A younger Peter Kilty
His story began far from Ludington.
Kilty was born in January 1860 on Beaver Island, only a few years after the collapse of James Jesse Strang’s self-proclaimed Mormon kingdom. As the island’s Irish fishing community rebuilt itself, Peter grew up surrounded by commercial fishermen whose livelihoods depended on the often-unpredictable waters of northern Lake Michigan.
His father, Patrick Kilty, had emigrated from County Mayo, Ireland, and settled first on Mackinac Island before becoming one of Beaver Island’s early pioneers. Long before Peter stood in the pilothouse of a railroad ferry, he learned seamanship from fishermen who spent their lives reading changing winds, currents and weather.
According to Great Lakes historian J.B. Mansfield, Peter was operating his own fishing boat by age 11. During the next 13 years he built a reputation as a capable mariner before taking command of a fishing tug based at Onekama. Mansfield later wrote that Kilty’s reputation became so well established he “never had to ask for employment,” finding new positions through the confidence others placed in his abilities.
Mary Kilty
Around 1880, Kilty married Mary Nackerman in Elk Rapids. Together they raised four children: Alfred, John Peter, Claude and Mary Elizabeth.
As steam navigation expanded on the Great Lakes, Kilty’s experience opened new opportunities. He served aboard passenger vessels operating between Manistee, Onekama and northern Michigan before advancing to railroad ferry service.
In February 1896, he was named captain of Ann Arbor No. 1, the first railroad car ferry built specifically for scheduled service across Lake Michigan.
The vessel represented a revolution in freight transportation.
Ann Arbor No. 1
Before railroad ferries, cargo had to be unloaded from railcars at the waterfront, transferred to lake freighters, then unloaded again and placed onto waiting railroad cars at the opposite shore. The process was labor intensive and expensive.
Ann Arbor No. 1 changed that by allowing loaded railcars to roll directly aboard the ship, cross Lake Michigan and continue their journey without ever unloading their cargo. The innovation dramatically reduced shipping costs while establishing a transportation system that would dominate cross-lake commerce for decades.
Kilty spent two years mastering the specialized demands of railroad ferry navigation before accepting an even more significant assignment.
On May 20, 1898, he became captain of the vessel then known simply as Pere Marquette, the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad’s first railroad car ferry.
The Pere Marquette. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
Designed by naval architect Frank E. Logan and built of steel, the vessel became the first steel railroad car ferry to operate on the Great Lakes. It marked the beginning of Ludington’s rise as one of North America’s busiest railroad ferry ports.
The timing coincided with major changes in Michigan railroading.
On Jan. 1, 1900, the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad became part of the newly organized Pere Marquette Railway, a consolidation of the Flint & Pere Marquette, Chicago & West Michigan and Detroit, Grand Rapids & Western railroads. Under the leadership of Superintendent of Water Lines William L. Mercereau (1854-1946), the company rapidly expanded its Lake Michigan fleet.
The original Pere Marquette was later designated Pere Marquette 15 as four additional Logan-designed steel ferries joined the fleet between 1901 and 1903: Pere Marquette 17, Pere Marquette 18, Pere Marquette 19 and Pere Marquette 20.
Together, the five nearly identical vessels became the foundation of Ludington’s famous railroad ferry fleet.
PM 17 visits Detroit, August 1901
Kilty’s career advanced alongside that expansion.
After commanding Pere Marquette 15, he took charge of Pere Marquette 17 before transferring in November 1902 to the company’s newest vessel, Pere Marquette 18.
The assignment reflected the railroad’s confidence in one of its most experienced captains.
When Pere Marquette 18 entered service, it was the most luxurious vessel in the fleet. Although designed primarily to transport freight cars, it also featured elegant passenger accommodations and regularly operated summer excursion cruises carrying thousands of travelers around Lake Michigan.
The Ludington Record Appeal profiled both captain and vessel in March 1904, describing Kilty as a man who had “won his way to the front by sheer merit” and calling him “the acknowledged peer of a rising generation of carferry navigators.”
Pere Marquette 18 on excursion in Chicago
The newspaper portrayed him as a quiet, disciplined leader who preferred to remain personally involved in difficult dockings and heavy-weather navigation rather than leaving those responsibilities entirely to his officers.
Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, Kilty guided the Pere Marquette Railway’s flagship across Lake Michigan in every season.
The job demanded far more than keeping the vessel on schedule.
The railroad ferries operated year-round whenever conditions allowed, carrying loaded freight cars between Ludington and Wisconsin through storms, ice and freezing temperatures. Every voyage required split-second decisions, particularly during the winter months when Lake Michigan could become one of North America’s most dangerous bodies of water.
Capt. Kilty
One of the greatest tests of Kilty’s judgment came in January 1907.
While eastbound for Ludington, Pere Marquette 18 encountered a powerful westerly gale that transformed the lake into what newspapers described as mountainous seas. Freezing spray coated the vessel with heavy ice while violent rolling shifted a loaded railroad car, destroying it on the after deck.
Rather than attempting to force the ferry into Ludington harbor, Kilty turned the ship back toward Manitowoc, Wis., where he waited for the storm to subside.
Afterward, he told the Ludington Daily News he had “never saw such heavy seas result from a westerly wind.”
The decision likely prevented far greater damage. Aside from the destroyed railcar, the vessel escaped the storm largely intact, demonstrating the caution and judgment that had earned Kilty the confidence of both his crews and railroad officials.
PM 18 on excursion in Waukegan, Ill.
While freight made up the ferry’s primary mission, each summer brought a dramatic change.
Once the heavy shipping season ended, Pere Marquette 18 was converted into an excursion steamer. Railroad cars gave way to vacationers as the spacious passenger accommodations welcomed thousands of travelers from Chicago and other ports.
For many passengers, the summer cruises offered their first experience aboard one of the massive railroad ferries. During those months, the ship became one of the most recognizable vessels on Lake Michigan before returning to freight service each autumn.
By early September 1910, another successful excursion season had ended.
The passenger furnishings were removed or secured, railroad tracks again dominated the car deck, and Pere Marquette 18 resumed its regular freight schedule.
Nothing suggested the next crossing would be any different from the hundreds Kilty had already completed.
At 11:40 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8, the ferry cleared the Ludington pierheads bound for Milwaukee with 29 loaded railroad cars and a crew of 33.
Several hours into the voyage, crew members discovered water entering the vessel.
Kilty immediately ordered an inspection while engineers started the pumps in an effort to control the flooding. As the situation worsened and the source of the leak remained unknown, wireless operator Stephen F. Szczepanek transmitted distress calls requesting assistance. It was the first time a wireless radio had been used for that purpose on the Great Lakes.
Capt. Joseph Russell
The nearest vessel, Pere Marquette 17 under Capt. Joseph Russell, answered the call and steamed toward the disabled ferry.
The response reflected a long-standing policy established by Mercereau, who scheduled ferry departures so vessels would remain close enough to assist one another in an emergency whenever possible. Pere Marquette 17 reached the area shortly after daybreak, about 20 miles off Sheboygan, Wis.
For more than three hours, Kilty and his officers fought to save their ship.
The pumps continued operating while crew members searched unsuccessfully for the source of the flooding. Survivors later recalled there was little panic aboard. Officers and crew remained at their assigned stations as preparations were made to abandon ship if necessary.
When Pere Marquette 17 arrived, rescue boats were lowered to transfer the crew.
March 15, 1910. From left to right: Wheelsman Simon Burke, Second Mate Walter Brown, Capt. Peter Kilty, First Mate Joseph Brezinski. Burke survived. Photo from Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
Then, without warning, Pere Marquette 18 rolled sharply to starboard.
Within moments, the ferry capsized and disappeared beneath Lake Michigan.
Kilty remained aboard.
Rescue crews pulled survivors from the water while risking their own lives in heavy seas. Two crew members from Pere Marquette 17 died during the rescue attempt.
In all, 29 people lost their lives, while 33 survived.
The sinking remains the deadliest disaster in the history of the Pere Marquette Railroad’s ferry fleet and the only time one of its car ferries was lost on the open waters of Lake Michigan.
The loss devastated Ludington.
No tragedy had ever struck the city’s railroad ferry fleet with such force. Families waited anxiously along the waterfront for news while railroad officials struggled to account for the missing.
In the days that followed, search vessels slowly recovered the victims from Lake Michigan.
Kilty’s body was found Sept. 13, nearly four days after the sinking. It was returned to Ludington aboard Pere Marquette 17, the same ferry whose crew had risked their own lives trying to rescue those aboard the stricken vessel.
As the ferry approached the dock, residents gathered along the waterfront to receive the dead.
For many, Kilty’s return ended the last hope that the veteran captain had somehow survived.
Newspapers across Michigan devoted extensive coverage to both the disaster and the man who had commanded the railroad’s flagship.
The Ludington Record Appeal published a full-page tribute under the headline “Died at His Post,” recounting Kilty’s rise from Beaver Island fisherman to one of the Great Lakes’ most respected railroad ferry captains. The obituary concluded with a line that has endured for more than a century:
“The captain has made his last trip. He has made the harbor of final destiny.”
Kilty family gravesite at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Manistee County.
His funeral drew family members, fellow mariners, railroad officials and friends from throughout the Great Lakes region.
Even as federal investigators searched for the cause of the disaster, there was little disagreement about Kilty’s conduct during the ferry’s final hours. Contemporary newspaper accounts and testimony from survivors consistently described a captain who remained calm, directed efforts to save his vessel and stayed aboard until the end.
Kilty was buried at Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery in Filer Township in Manistee County where a prominent family monument still stands near the cemetery’s entrance, visible from Maple Road. His wife, Mary, and several members of the Kilty family were later buried nearby.
More than a century after his death, Peter Kilty remains one of the defining figures of Ludington’s maritime heritage.
His career traced the evolution of transportation on Lake Michigan, from the commercial fishing boats of Beaver Island to the giant steel railroad ferries that revolutionized freight movement between Michigan and Wisconsin.
Michigan historic marker memorializing the sinking of the PM 18, located at Stearns Park in Ludington.
He commanded the first purpose-built railroad car ferry on the Great Lakes. He later stood at the helm of the first steel railroad car ferry operated by the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad and ultimately captained Pere Marquette 18, the flagship of one of the nation’s most successful railroad ferry fleets.
While history remembers him for the tragedy that unfolded off Sheboygan on Sept. 9, 1910, Kilty’s legacy extends far beyond his final voyage.
For more than three decades, he helped build one of the most innovative transportation systems on the Great Lakes, earning a reputation for sound judgment, steady leadership and professionalism during an era when Lake Michigan remained both a highway for commerce and one of the most unforgiving bodies of water in North America.
Today, history remembers the sinking of Pere Marquette 18 as the fleet’s darkest day.
Just as worthy of remembrance is the life of the man who spent decades helping establish the railroad ferry service that made Ludington one of the Great Lakes’ premier maritime ports.
Masters of the PM Steamers series to date:
- 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
- The remarkable career of Capt. Joseph Russell
- Capt. John Doyle, first master of the PM 19
- Capt. Dority commanded several PM ships, the Ann Arbor 2 and the notorious Eastland
- Three generations of Robertsons commanded carferries
- Searching for the masters of Lake Michigan’s railroad steamers
- From ship enthusiast to carferry captain, Gregg Andersen lived a Lake Michigan dream
In search of information
Editor’s Note: I am seeking historical artifacts and stories from people whose family members worked as ship captains or in Ludington’s maritime industry. While this project focuses on the Ludington carferry fleet, I am also interested in items related to anyone from Mason County who worked on the Great Lakes or oceans.
This series has three goals:
- To share Ludington’s rich maritime history with readers of the Mason County Press.
- To publish a biographical book about the Ludington fleet captains.
- To create an interactive kiosk exhibit at the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum for historical research.
I am looking for artifacts such as photographs, written documents, or digitized materials. Items will be placed in the Mason County Historical Society archives, and donors will receive documentation of their contribution.
If you have items or stories to share, please email editor@mediagroup31.com or call/text 231-757-3202.
Note: I am also interested in collections related to the Mason County railroad industry.
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