Captain of the pig boat: From Ludington steamers to the Christopher Columbus

This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union, the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum and Sable Points Media. 

Masters of the PM Steamers

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 30, 1917, the Goodrich Transportation Company excursion steamer Christopher Columbus prepared to leave Milwaukee for Chicago with 413 passengers aboard. About 200 of them were University of Chicago students.

Heavy rains had swollen the Milwaukee River, raising the water level and strengthening its current. From the pilothouse, Capt. Charles Edward Moody recognized that the conditions could complicate the maneuver required to turn the enormous passenger steamer.

Few shipmasters knew the Milwaukee River better than Moody.

He had spent years commanding Milwaukee harbor tugs before moving to larger Great Lakes steamers. He had been master of Christopher Columbus since 1904 and had handled the unusual vessel through the narrow river hundreds of times.

But this departure would be different.

Christopher Columbus had to move stern-first down the river before turning toward Lake Michigan. The tugs Welcome and Knight Templar handled the steamer’s lines, alternately pulling and checking the vessel as she moved through the confined waterway.

As the stern of Christopher Columbus swung, the swollen current began carrying the vessel toward the Yahr-Lange Drug Company dock.

Moody ordered the wheel hard to starboard and the engines full astern.

It was too late.

The projecting steel bow of the whaleback swept across the dock and struck two supports beneath a water tank about 100 feet above the river. Moody sounded a warning and shouted for passengers to run.

Seconds later, the tank and its supporting structure collapsed onto the forward portion of Christopher Columbus.

The impact crushed sections of the upper decks and pilothouse. The tank burst, sending water, steel, timber, debris and passengers across the vessel and into the Milwaukee River.

Moody escaped with an injury to his leg.

Sixteen people were killed and more than 20 were seriously injured. Some later accounts placed the death toll at 18, but Goodrich Transportation historian James L. Elliott, author of “Red Stacks Over the Horizon: The Story of the Goodrich Steamboat Line,” recorded 16 deaths, a figure also found in contemporary accounts.

The tragedy brought an investigation into the conduct of Moody and the tug captains. The unusually strong river current was considered a major cause and criminal negligence was not established. Steamboat inspectors, however, concluded greater caution by the masters of Christopher Columbus and Knight Templar might have prevented the accident.

Christopher Columbus was taken to Manitowoc for repairs reportedly costing about $25,000 and remained out of service for the rest of the season.

The ship returned in 1918.

So did Moody.

By then the 67-year-old captain had already been sailing the Great Lakes for more than half a century.

A captain’s son

Charles Edward Moody was born July 27, 1850, in Buffalo, New York, the son of Capt. James E. Moody and Emily E. Armstrong Moody.

His father had gone to sea at a young age and became a sailor, mate, tug master and vessel owner. The family eventually settled in Milwaukee, where Charles attended public school.

James Moody sailed aboard vessels including the steamers Queen of the Lakes and Princeton and later commanded harbor tugs. He owned the tug American Eagle and became involved in marine salvage and wrecking.

The elder Moody died in 1883 following a wrecking operation involving the brig Lucy J. Clark, which had stranded near Cross Village, Michigan.

After the vessel was released, a gale arose while it was under tow. Pumping equipment failed and the waterlogged vessel sank. James Moody, the mate and cook drowned. His body was recovered about a week later near Sturgeon Point.

By then Charles Moody was already an experienced Great Lakes sailor.

He had left school in 1864 at age 14 and shipped aboard the bark Newsboy. The following spring he served aboard the brig Starlight and in 1866 was royal boy aboard the bark Cream City.

His progression was typical of 19th century Great Lakes sailors who learned their profession from the deck upward.

In 1867 Moody became wheelsman aboard the steamer Governor Cushman. Additional service at the wheel followed before he entered Milwaukee’s harbor tug business as a linesman aboard Robert Emmett and Jonah Richards.

He soon advanced to command.

His early vessels included the tug B.F. Davidson as well as W.K. Muir, American Eagle and Margaret.

The work could be dangerous even within a harbor.

While serving aboard American Eagle, Moody jumped overboard to rescue a man who had fallen into the water. In 1872, while wheelsman aboard the steamer Messinger, he spent 52 days trapped in Lake Michigan ice.

He was only 22 years old.

Tugboat captain

In 1873 Moody took command of the tug J.J. Hageman, sailing it for three seasons. He next became master of Welcome, a Milwaukee steam tug that became one of the most important vessels of his early career.

Welcome belonged to the Milwaukee Tug Boat Line, a company whose fleet handled towing, salvage, wrecking and rescue work around Milwaukee.

Tug captains of that era did considerably more than guide vessels between docks.

They responded when schooners grounded, steamers became disabled and vessels went ashore during storms. Their equipment included diving gear, steam pumps, heavy hawsers and wrecking blocks.

Moody sailed Welcome for eight consecutive seasons and developed a reputation as both a wrecking master and lifesaver.

During a northeast gale, he rescued three fishermen from a capsized boat. In another incident, he jumped overboard and saved two boys from drowning.

Historian J.B. Mansfield later credited Moody with an exceptional wrecking record, including a night in which he helped release the Blackhawk, Quickstep, Burnham and their consorts after the vessels went onto the beach near Milwaukee.

In November 1883, the schooner Guiding Star stranded in heavy fog about 12 miles north of Milwaukee while carrying 560 tons of coal from Oswego, New York. Welcome assisted the Milwaukee Life-Saving Station in rescuing four men who remained aboard the wreck.

Moody’s work had already earned recognition.

During his command of Welcome he received a gold watch inscribed: “Presented to Captain C.E. Moody for active and meritorious services during the season of 1880.”

In 1881 Moody married Rose S. Rouch of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. They had four children: Florence, Olive, Hazel and Henry. Only Florence and Henry survived into adulthood. Olive died as a toddler and Hazel at age 8.

The family made its home in Milwaukee, even as Moody spent much of every navigation season on the Great Lakes.

Coming to Ludington

In spring 1887 Moody left the Milwaukee tug fleet for a job that would connect him directly with Ludington.

He became master of Flint & Pere Marquette Railway steamer F&PM No. 2.

Moody commanded No. 2 for two seasons, during a formative period in Ludington’s maritime history.

The Flint & Pere Marquette had already established a cross-lake steamship route from Ludington, but the railroad had not yet developed the carferry system that would eventually make the port internationally known.

Rather than carrying loaded railroad cars, the early F&PM steamers handled freight transferred between trains and ships at the docks.

Moody would also command one of the largest of those conventional railroad steamers.

F&PM No. 5 was built at West Bay City in 1890 by F.W. Wheeler & Co. The wooden package freighter measured 240 feet, 6 inches long, 38 feet in beam and 1,722 gross tons.

Unlike the carferries that soon followed, No. 5 had no railroad tracks and no passenger staterooms. Its primary cargoes included package freight, salt and grain.

Moody brought the new vessel into service.

On its maiden voyage, F&PM No. 5 carried 10,000 barrels of salt from West Bay City to Chicago.

The steamer arrived at Ludington for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 1890, with Moody in command.

No. 5 did not operate exclusively between Ludington and Milwaukee. During summer 1891 it carried grain between Duluth, Minnesota, and Ogdensburg, New York. During other seasons it operated between Manistee and Chicago carrying salt.

A 1904 history of the Pere Marquette marine department stated Moody remained in command until Jan. 1, 1895.

His time aboard No. 5 also included another rescue.

After the schooner M.J. Cummings went ashore at Milwaukee, two men became stranded in the vessel’s rigging. Moody took a tug to the wreck, had a scow positioned alongside it and removed the men.

The skills learned during his years aboard Milwaukee tugs remained useful even after he moved into the pilothouses of much larger steamers.

From carferries to whalebacks

After leaving the F&PM fleet, Moody’s career continued to expand.

His commands included the steamer Nebraska of the Soo Line and railroad carferry Ann Arbor No. 1.

Moody had therefore participated in both stages of railroad transportation across Lake Michigan. He had commanded the conventional package freighters that preceded Ludington’s carferries and later took command of a vessel designed to carry loaded railroad cars directly across the lake.

In 1896 he joined the Bessemer Steamship Company as master of Washburn and later John Ericsson.

Both introduced him to another distinctive type of Great Lakes vessel: the whaleback.

Whalebacks were the creation of Capt. Alexander McDougall, a Scottish-born Great Lakes captain and inventor. McDougall designed a low steel hull with rounded upper surfaces, reducing the amount of ship exposed to the wind and allowing waves to wash over the vessel rather than strike conventional high sides.

Because of their rounded hulls and projecting bows, sailors commonly called them “pigs” or “pig boats.”

Moody’s whaleback experience began years before the vessel with which he would ultimately become most closely associated.

In 1898 he commanded the large steel steamer Sir Henry Bessemer.

On Oct. 24 of that year, while crossing Lake Superior in a northeast gale, the whaleback barge Alexander Holley broke away from Bessemer.

Moody repeatedly attempted to recover the tow.

According to Mansfield, nine attempts failed. On the 10th attempt Moody succeeded in getting a line aboard. After waiting through darkness and heavy seas, the tow was recovered the following morning and brought into safer water.

By the end of the 19th century, Moody’s career had included sailing vessels, steamers, harbor tugs, wrecking work, railroad steamers, carferries, bulk freighters and whalebacks.

The vessel directories of the period show him moving rapidly between commands. Sir Henry Bessemer was followed by Charles R. Van Hise, Robert W.E. Bunsen and Mataafa.

Then, in 1904, the changes stopped.

Moody became master of Christopher Columbus.

The passenger whaleback

Christopher Columbus was unlike any other passenger steamer on the Great Lakes.

Built at Superior, Wisconsin, in 1892, the vessel was the only passenger whaleback ever constructed.

McDougall had built dozens of whaleback steamers and barges, but Christopher Columbus adapted the concept for excursion service.

The vessel was constructed to carry passengers during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. It later became part of the Goodrich Transportation Company fleet and settled into excursion service between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Goodrich rebuilt the vessel and added another passenger deck. Christopher Columbus carried the familiar Goodrich appearance of a black hull, white upper works and red stack.

Its interior was dramatically different from the utilitarian freighters Moody had commanded.

Family accounts described crystal chandeliers, red carpeting, inlaid mahogany, stained-glass skylights and soda fountains decorated with Italian marble. The ship included refreshment stands, dining facilities and even an aquarium stocked with trout.

Thousands of passengers could make the daylight trip between Milwaukee and Chicago.

For many, the voyage was itself the attraction.

Moody was particularly well suited for the vessel.

He had previously commanded whalebacks, had decades of shiphandling experience and knew Milwaukee harbor from his years aboard tugs.

Moving the large Christopher Columbus through the Milwaukee River demanded precision.

Moody reportedly seldom entrusted the wheel to another officer while entering or leaving Milwaukee. Elliott wrote that he became exceptionally skilled at maneuvering the big whaleback through the river.

He also developed a reputation for doing it quickly.

The wake created by Christopher Columbus was not always appreciated by crews aboard freighters and other vessels tied along the river.

Moody and his ship became part of Milwaukee waterfront folklore.

An anonymous poem, “The Passenger Hog,” mocked Christopher Columbus for charging through the river and creating havoc among other vessels. The title was a play on the Great Lakes nickname for whalebacks — “hogs.”

The confidence behind that reputation also formed the background of the 1917 tragedy.

By then Moody had commanded Christopher Columbus for 13 seasons.

He knew the vessel.

He knew the river.

But on June 30, 1917, the swollen Milwaukee River created conditions that neither decades of experience nor quick action from the pilothouse could overcome.

The accident nevertheless did not define the remainder of his career.

Twenty-six seasons

Following repairs at Manitowoc, Christopher Columbus returned to service in 1918 with Moody again as captain.

He remained there throughout the 1920s.

Elliott estimated Christopher Columbus carried more than 2.6 million passengers during Moody’s 26 seasons as captain. The 1917 disaster remained the only accident during those years in which passengers aboard the vessel were killed.

By the late 1920s, Moody had become nearly as recognizable along the Milwaukee waterfront as Christopher Columbus itself.

He retired from the Goodrich Transportation Company on March 1, 1930.

Moody was 79 years old. He would turn 80 that July.

He had gone to sea at age 14.

His retirement ended 66 years of Great Lakes service.

Goodrich formally recognized Moody with a certificate dated April 1, 1930. The company praised his 26 years in command of Christopher Columbus and the responsibility he had accepted for the hundreds of thousands of passengers who had traveled aboard the vessel.

The company told its retiring captain he had upheld the “best traditions of the sea.”

Retirement did not entirely separate Moody from his ship.

Newspaper accounts described him returning to Christopher Columbus, visiting the dock and joining his successor in the pilothouse. He continued to admire the vessel he had handled for more than a quarter century and once joked that he might eventually find himself working aboard the Milwaukee tugs again.

His great-granddaughter, Marjorie Timian, later remembered Moody as genial and well liked among Great Lakes sailors but also distinctly individualistic.

He was a storyteller, particularly popular with children who listened to his accounts of life on the lakes.

He was tall and well built, with blue eyes and a prominent mustache. Even in old age he remained conscious of his appearance. Family stories recalled that he colored his graying hair and used rouge on his cheeks to maintain the appearance of an outdoorsman’s complexion.

An injury associated with the Christopher Columbus accident contributed to a rolling gait later in life.

Rose Moody died in 1934.

Christopher Columbus had already made its final voyage.

The passenger whaleback last operated in 1932 and was eventually sold and dismantled. The only passenger vessel ever built using McDougall’s whaleback design disappeared before its longtime captain.

Charles Edward Moody died in February 1944 at age 93.

He was buried beside Rose at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.

Nearly 80 years had passed since a 14-year-old Charles Moody walked onto the deck of the bark Newsboy and began his life on the Great Lakes.

Few careers spanned as much change.

Moody began aboard sailing vessels, became a wheelsman on early steamers, worked Milwaukee harbor tugs, developed a reputation as a wrecking and lifesaving captain, commanded Flint & Pere Marquette Railway steamers out of Ludington, handled a railroad carferry, sailed steel bulk freighters and whalebacks and ultimately spent 26 seasons in the pilothouse of one of Lake Michigan’s most recognizable passenger ships.

His years aboard F&PM No. 2 and F&PM No. 5 represented only a portion of that career.

But they placed Moody among the captains who helped carry Ludington’s railroad marine operation from the era of package freight steamers toward the age of the railroad carferry.

The boy who went to sea while the Civil War was still being fought lived long enough to watch the Great Lakes maritime industry transform around him.

For 66 years, he helped navigate that transformation.

Moody’s reputation for handling Christopher Columbus through the Milwaukee River also survived in an anonymous piece of waterfront verse later reproduced in Elliott’s “Red Stacks Over the Horizon.”

The Passenger Hog

She comes up the river an’ all in her wake
There’s trouble she don’t care to heed
The water’s kicked up
an’ the hawsers all break;
Why don’t she come down in her speed?
She noses along like a grouchy ol’ sow
Then she lets out her engines a cog
An’ all along the river she raises a row
The clumsy old passenger hog.

The NORTHWEST’s a lady,
the NORTHLAND’s the same
An’ the others is mostly all right
But the passenger hog is a portly old dame
That ain’t at all nice or polite
She hasn’t no liking for freighters or those
That happen her pathway to clog
An’ the freighters they hates her
from rudder to nose,
The ugly old passenger hog.

The hogs that are loaded with iron or wheat
They seem to be handy for use,
But the passenger hog is a mean one to meet
An’ when you’re in dock she’s the deuce.
She ought to be given a port all her own
Where no one would care how she’d jog,
Where she’d leave us poor freighters
an’ others alone,
The ugly old passenger hog.

— Author unidentified; reproduced in James L. Elliott’s “Red Stacks Over the Horizon: The Story of the Goodrich Steamboat Line.”

 

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
• Ludington man survived worst Great Lakes maritime disaster, on the SS 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
• Peter Kilty: From Beaver Island fisherman to captain of a Great Lakes legend
• Following the captains: Wisconsin trip adds to Ludington maritime research
• J.B. Conrad rose from oiler to chief engineer of carferry flagships

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:

1. To share Ludington’s rich maritime history with readers of the Mason County Press.
2. To publish a biographical book about the Ludington fleet captains.
3. 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.

If you would like to financially contribute to the book project, please click here for more information. 

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