SS Spartan, the 42, still has a story to tell

The MCP Boat Blog is presented by the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum.

Story and photos by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

LUDINGTON — Earlier this week, I was flying my drone over Pere Marquette Lake photographing the tug Olive L. Moore and barge Menominee while the pair was unloading aggregate at the Rieth-Riley Great Lakes Materials terminal.

Since I already had the drone in the air, I decided to send it over toward another vessel that has been part of the Ludington waterfront for nearly three-quarters of a century — the SS Spartan.

I wanted some close-up photographs of the old carferry.

I have a certain affection for Spartan.

I remember my family riding her to Milwaukee when I was a kid and us going to the Milwaukee Zoo. I have also always been fond of the name, being a Michigan State University fan and a Mason County Central alumnus.

But, to generations of Chesapeake & Ohio Railway carferry employees, she was also known by another name.

The 42.

Spartan never officially carried that number. Neither did her slightly younger sister, Badger, which crews have long called the 43.

The numbering tradition came from the Pere Marquette Railway and its predecessors. By the time City of Midland 41 entered service in 1941, numbers had become as much a part of the Ludington carferry identity as the ships’ names.

When Chesapeake & Ohio built Spartan and Badger, however, the railroad ended the formal numbering system. They were simply Spartan and Badger.

The old sequence continued unofficially. Spartan became 42 and Badger became 43. Historical records show those unofficial numbers even appeared on C&O documents, arrival and departure boards and equipment.

More than 70 years later, the terminology remains. Spend enough time around people who have worked on the Badger and you will still hear references to the 42 and 43.

City of Midland 41 was the final Ludington carferry to actually carry its number as part of its official name. She was commonly referred to simply as the “41,” and that number survives today. The former carferry continues working as the barge Pere Marquette 41.

By the time Spartan was built, Pere Marquette Railway itself had disappeared.

C&O’s involvement with Pere Marquette had begun long before that happened. During the late 1920s, C&O began acquiring substantial holdings in the railroad, and in 1928 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized C&O to acquire control of Pere Marquette through stock purchases.

The two railroads remained separate corporate entities for nearly two more decades, but C&O exercised control over Pere Marquette for years. The arrangement became formal on June 6, 1947, when Pere Marquette was merged into Chesapeake & Ohio.

Only a few years later, C&O made a major investment in the Ludington carferry operation.

Rather than simply continue operating the fleet it had inherited from Pere Marquette, the railroad ordered two enormous new carferries in 1951.

The first was Spartan.

Christy Corp. of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, began construction in December 1950. Spartan was launched Jan. 4, 1952.

Her name also broke with Ludington tradition. Many previous carferries had either carried Pere Marquette numbers or had been named for Michigan cities. Spartan was named for the athletic teams of Michigan State College, now Michigan State University.

Her sister Badger was named for the University of Wisconsin.

The two vessels represented the ultimate development of the Ludington railroad carferry.

Spartan was about 410 feet long with a beam of nearly 60 feet. Four tracks ran across her car deck, providing space for 34 standard railroad cars. When configured primarily for automobile traffic, she could carry about 150 vehicles.

Passenger accommodations were also considerably more elaborate than those aboard many earlier railroad ferries. Spartan had 60 staterooms along with lounges, dining facilities and other public spaces.

Deep inside the vessel were two massive Skinner Unaflow steam engines producing a combined 7,560 indicated horsepower. Coal-fired boilers supplied the steam.

The Skinner engines were well suited for railroad carferry work. They provided tremendous power in both forward and reverse, something particularly useful when maneuvering a 410-foot ship into a railroad slip or working through Lake Michigan ice.

Spartan normally operated at about 18 mph.

She was also expensive.

Spartan and Badger cost about $5 million each, roughly twice the cost of City of Midland 41 and several times the cost of some of their predecessors. Adjusted for inflation, $5 million in 1951 would equal about $64 million in 2026 purchasing power.

Her arrival in Ludington came during an unusual moment in carferry history.

A major labor strike had idled the fleet beginning July 4, 1952. Spartan completed her trials that fall and arrived in Ludington in October, becoming the first carferry to enter the harbor since the strike began.

When the strike ended, Spartan finally began doing what she had been designed to do: move trains across Lake Michigan.

And there were a lot of trains to move.

The Ludington carferry operation was near its peak. In 1951, the ferries had made 2,776 round trips across Lake Michigan. By 1953, seven vessels were operating between Ludington and Milwaukee, Manitowoc and Kewaunee.

During busy periods, the harbor might see eight departures and eight arrivals in a single day.

It is difficult today to imagine that level of activity.

Spartan spent the next quarter-century doing the job she had been built to perform. She carried railroad cars, automobiles and passengers across Lake Michigan in all seasons.

There were incidents along the way.

On Aug. 12, 1976, Spartan struck bottom near the Ludington harbor entrance while operating in heavy fog. A substantial portion of her hull was damaged, but she was repaired and returned to service.

By then, however, the world around the carferries was changing.

Improved railroad routes around the southern end of Lake Michigan were reducing the advantage of sending railcars across the lake. Interstate highways were changing automobile travel. The railroad gradually reduced the size of the Ludington fleet.

By the late 1970s, only three remained: City of Midland 41, Spartan and Badger.

One of the men who commanded Spartan during those final years was Capt. John Bissell. Bissell began working for the Ludington carferry fleet in 1953 and earned his captain’s license in 1975, eventually serving as a relief captain for the C&O fleet.

Bissell would become the last captain to command Spartan.

Spartan was laid up at Ludington on Sept. 10, 1979.

There was one serious attempt to put her back to work. In 1980, Spartan was prepared for a proposed lease involving the former Ann Arbor Railroad carferry operation at Frankfort. The plan did not work out, and Spartan returned to layup at Ludington.

She never entered regular service again. That means Spartan has now spent considerably more of her existence tied to the Ludington dock than crossing Lake Michigan. She operated for about 27 years. She has been laid up for 47. But I don’t think that means the second half of her life has been without merit.

When the Chessie System (which was the branding that resulted after the C&O and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads formally merged) ended its Lake Michigan carferry operation in 1983, Spartan, Badger and City of Midland 41 were sold to the Ludington businessmen who created Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Co., Glenn Bowden and George Towns.

That company continued operating the carferries until 1990.

Ludington native Charles Conrad purchased the three surviving vessels in 1991 and eventually returned Badger to service in 1992 under Lake Michigan Carferry.

City of Midland 41 ultimately found another life as a barge and continues working today as Pere Marquette 41 with the tug Undaunted.

Spartan stayed put.

Over the years, there were ideas for putting her back into service, but none became reality. Instead, being Badger’s nearly identical twin gave Spartan another purpose. Parts and equipment from the 42 have helped keep the 43 running. That is especially important with machinery as unusual as the Skinner Unaflow engines shared by the two vessels. More than seven decades after the twins were built, replacement parts aren’t exactly sitting on the shelf at the local hardware store.

In 2020, Interlake Maritime Services acquired Lake Michigan Carferry, including Badger and Spartan, along with the assets of Pere Marquette Shipping Co. and the Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 operation.

Flying the DJI Air 3 drone around Spartan provides a perspective that is difficult to get from shore.

She looks tired, as one would expect from a steel ship that has been sitting in the same harbor for nearly half a century. But she is still unmistakably Spartan.

I know Spartan won’t be there forever. It will be strange someday and not see her.

But that has always been the story of working ships.

Ludington once had a harbor filled with railroad carferries. One by one they disappeared. Some were sold. Some found second careers. Most eventually went to the scrapyard.

Spartan’s fate someday will likely be the same as the dozens of Ludington steamers that came before her.

For now, 74 years after she slid into the waters of Sturgeon Bay, the 42 is still here.

And even tied to the dock, she continues to serve her younger sister and remains a very visible reminder of the era when trains crossed Lake Michigan from Ludington every day.

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