Capt. John Asuma rose from porter to carferry master

November 14, 2026

Capt. John Asuma. Mason County Historical Society.

This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union, and the Mason County Historical Society.

Masters of the Ludington Steamers

Stories of Ludington’s cross-lake rail fleet captains and other port mariners

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

On the night of Nov. 7, 1947, a violent gale swept across Lake Michigan as the freighter Jupiter lay disabled near the entrance to Ludington harbor. With 28 men aboard and the ship threatened by shoals, Capt. John R. Asuma took the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway carferry City of Saginaw 31 into the storm to help.

Before the first rescue attempt could begin, several railroad cars bound for Wisconsin had to be unloaded from the ferry. Asuma then brought the carferry within 200 feet of the Jupiter, but heavy seas prevented his crew from passing a line. During the attempt, Ludington seaman Frank Polasch was injured while helping lower the ferry’s stern gate. He was thrown against an oil tank and struck in the chest by an oil can.

After about three hours, Asuma returned to port so Polasch could receive medical treatment. The City of Saginaw left on its regular crossing at 6 a.m. Nov. 8, but was ordered back toward the disabled freighter at 7:20 a.m. Another Ludington carferry, the second Pere Marquette 18, also responded.

City of Saginaw 31 entering Ludington channel. Mason County Historical Society.

The Coast Guard cutter Sundew, battling the same gale on its way north from St. Joseph, Michigan, eventually reached the Jupiter and secured a line. The freighter’s crew was reported out of immediate danger. The rescue effort, covered by The Herald-Press of St. Joseph, was one dramatic episode in a career that would take Asuma from a teenager earning $1 a day to the bridge of some of Ludington’s best-known steamers.

John Richard Asuma was born May 7, 1894, in Ashtabula, Ohio, the son of Finnish immigrants Andrew and Sanna Ollila Asuma. His father was born in Nurmo, Finland, and his mother in Isokyrö, Finland. Asuma grew up in a Lake Erie port where ships carrying coal, iron ore and grain were part of everyday life.

At 15, Asuma left school when his father became ill and the family needed income. He spent a week working in a greenhouse for $3 before learning that a freighter porter could earn $1 a day, plus room and board. In September 1909, he began sailing aboard the coal carrier Horace S. Wilkerson. The steamer called at ports including Milwaukee and Superior, Wisconsin; Escanaba, Michigan; and Erie, Pennsylvania. His first sailing job exposed him to the long routes and hard routines of the Great Lakes shipping trade.

A year later, Asuma made his first visit to Ludington, arriving just two days after the Sept. 9, 1910, sinking of Pere Marquette 18. The railroad carferry went down in Lake Michigan with the loss of 29 lives, including Capt. Peter Kilty. Pere Marquette 17 rescued 35 survivors. Asuma was then a 16-year-old sailor aboard a coal carrier, with no way of knowing that Ludington would eventually become his home. Years later, his recollections differed on the name of the ship that first brought him to town: He identified it as Thomas Cranage in a 1953 interview and Wilbert L. Smith in a 1956 interview. Both accounts placed his arrival just after the tragedy.

Anna C. Minch. Sable Points Media collection.

By 1915, he was sailing aboard the steel freighter Anna C. Minch, which carried bulk cargoes throughout the Great Lakes. The vessel would later be lost in the Armistice Day Storm of Nov. 11, 1940, when it sank in Lake Michigan, taking all 24 crew members to their deaths. By then, Asuma had long since moved on to other ships. The Anna C. Minch was among three major freighters lost in the storm, along with William B. Davock and Novadoc. City of Flint 32, which Asuma later commanded, was driven ashore at Ludington in the same storm.

His own narrow escape came July 2, 1916, aboard the freighter Charles L. Hutchinson. In dense fog near Point Iroquois in Whitefish Bay, the steamer Lyman C. Smith struck the Hutchinson, demolishing the crew’s quarters and tearing a hole in the hull that Asuma later said was big enough for a team of horses to pass through.

“The room where I slept got the full force of the blow,” Asuma recalled in a 1953 interview with The Ludington Daily News. Fortunately, he had not been in his berth. The damaged ship was beached in about 28 feet of water, and no lives were lost. Asuma later described it as the only serious accident of his sailing career, aside from two minor collisions.

Pere Marquette No. 8. Mason County Historical Society.

During World War I, Asuma sailed aboard oceangoing vessels transporting war supplies to Europe. He returned to the Great Lakes after the war and, in 1919, arrived in Ludington as second mate aboard Pere Marquette No. 8.

The ship was one of the traditional break-bulk freighters known as the Pere Marquette “black boats.” They were operated by the Michigan Salt Transportation Company of Manistee, commonly known as Pere Marquette Line Steamers. The company had acquired the vessels from the Pere Marquette Railway as the railroad developed its separate fleet of railroad carferries.

Asuma spent the next decade aboard the black boats, rising through the deck department. In a 1953 interview, he said he received his master’s license in 1928. He transferred to the Pere Marquette Railway’s carferry fleet in 1929, beginning the part of his career that would tie him most closely to Ludington.

John Asuma. Mason County Historical Society.

Commanding a railroad carferry required its own skills. The vessels carried railroad cars, automobiles and passengers on regular crossings between Ludington and Wisconsin. Their masters had to handle narrow harbor entrances, rough weather and winter ice, then maneuver the steamers precisely into slips where tracks aboard ship lined up with those on shore.

As his career advanced, Asuma established a family and home in Ludington. He married Adelaide B. Steinberg of Manistee on June 30, 1923. After Asuma’s sister Marie died in 1926, the couple adopted and raised her young daughter, Jean Marie. According to Jean’s daughter, Brenda Knizacky of Ludington, Jean always regarded John as her father rather than the uncle who had taken her in.

John and Adelaide divorced in 1936. That August, he married Julia Bayer. John and Julia lived at 510 N. Lewis St. in Ludington. Jean later married Raymond Bentz, and the couple raised their family in the area.

Capt. John Asuma. Mason County Historical Society.

Meanwhile, the carferry fleet was modernizing. In March 1941, the new City of Midland 41 entered service, with accommodations for 34 railroad cars and 74 passenger staterooms. Capt. Charles E. Robertson was its first master, and Asuma served as first mate. The vessel was built at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and powered by Skinner Unaflow steam engines. Hundreds of spectators gathered on the Ludington waterfront for its maiden arrival, where the 90-piece Ludington High School band performed.

The ferries remained vital during World War II, moving rail freight across Lake Michigan as the country mobilized its industries. Beginning in 1942, the Ludington vessels were also used to help train Coast Guard officers. By 1944, records at Bowling Green State University’s Historical Collections of the Great Lakes identify Asuma as captain of the second Pere Marquette 18. From 1945 through 1948, he was master of City of Saginaw 31, including during the Jupiter rescue.

The Pere Marquette Railway was absorbed into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway on June 6, 1947, but the Ludington operation continued. Two more large carferries, Spartan and Badger, joined the fleet in 1952 and 1953, respectively. Asuma returned to City of Midland 41 in 1949, this time as captain. He remained its master through 1956, served aboard City of Flint 32 in 1957 and was again listed as Midland’s captain in 1958.

City of Midland 41 publicity photo featuring Capt. Asuma. Mason County Historical Society.

In July 1956, The Ludington Daily News recognized him as its “Resident of the Week.” The newspaper reported that he had traveled an estimated 3 million miles since starting his career in 1909. Over those decades, his work had taken him from bulk freighters and oceangoing wartime ships to increasingly sophisticated railroad carferries. He also had to navigate the practical pressures of a scheduled transportation service, including ice, wind and difficult harbor maneuvers.

Not every memorable voyage involved a storm. In July 1956, newlyweds William Meyer and his wife were late reaching the Manitowoc terminal for their planned honeymoon crossing aboard City of Midland. A flat tire had delayed the couple and their traveling party. The railroad office had already told them the carferry could not be held.

Capt. Asuma at his desk. Mason County Historical Society.

When Asuma learned what had happened, however, he arranged to delay departure for about 15 minutes while the newlyweds and four automobiles were brought aboard. The Manitowoc Herald-Times reported the gesture, which was later recounted in The Ludington Daily News. It showed another side of a captain whose work normally depended on keeping to a strict schedule.

Asuma retired in 1958, nearly half a century after first going to sea. He had begun as a $1-a-day porter and finished his working life commanding vessels that carried the railroad’s traffic across Lake Michigan. He had talked in a 1956 interview about looking forward to spending more time ashore. In retirement, he enjoyed woodworking and remained connected to the Mason County community.

Julia died Oct. 11, 1961. Asuma eventually lived in the Scottville area. He belonged to the First United Methodist Church, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Pere Marquette Masonic Lodge and the Shrine. He died Jan. 18, 1971, at Memorial Hospital of Mason County in Ludington. He was 76. He was survived by Jean, three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and other family members.

He was buried with Julia at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington. His career had spanned the coal-fired freighters of the early 1900s, the hard years of two world wars and the postwar heyday of Lake Michigan’s railroad carferries. Through it all, he spent almost 50 years earning his living on the Great Lakes.

Masters of the Ludington Steamers series to date:

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.

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

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