Georgian Bay Line
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The Georgian Bay Line is the popular name of the Chicago, Duluth and Georgian Bay Transit Company. From 1913 until 1967, the Georgian Bay Line (GBL) provided transit service and cruise voyages to passengers on North America's
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
.


History


Formation

The company was founded by Robert Chenault Davis, who for many years was employed by the Goodrich Line in Chicago. Mr. Davis envisioned a fleet of ships dedicated exclusively to passengers rather than the passenger and freight ships that plied the Great Lakes. The initial board consisted of Mr. Davis and four other Chicagoans: Charles Bour of President Northern Railways Advertising Company; Joseph M. Wile of Wile, Loeb & Gutman, Insurance; Dr. James Whitney Hall of the Chicago Railways Company; and Sam G. Goss, Vice President of Goss Printing Press Company. The company was capitalized initially with $250,000 in preferred stock from about 35 investors located mostly in Chicago and Detroit.


Profitable operations

The Georgian Bay Line began operation in 1913 with the '' SS North American'', which was launched on January 16, 1913. Due to a very profitable first season, the company launched the ''
SS South American Steamer ''South American'' was a Great Lakes Steamship, steamer built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse, Michigan. It was built in 1913/14 for the Georgian Bay Line, Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company. The vessel was launc ...
'' on February 21, 1914. Built of steel, these ships were almost sister ships. The North American had an overall length of 280 feet (85 m) while the South American was 321 feet. They carried passengers between
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( , ; ; ; ) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and "Mitchimakinak" in Ojibwemowin, meaning "Great Turtle". It is located in ...
,
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is a city in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Chippewa County, Michigan, Chippewa County and is the only city within the county. With a population of ...
,
Duluth Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
,
Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...
,
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
,
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, and Buffalo, and sometimes intermediate ports. In the 1940s, the Georgian Bay Line acquired a third vessel, ''
SS Alabama SS ''Alabama'' was a steamship that served on the Great Lakes. Construction ''Alabama'' was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1909. She was in length, had a , beam, and drew She was equipped with a 2,200 ho ...
'', a refugee from the bankrupt
Goodrich Transit Company 'Goodrich Transit Line or Goodrich Steamship Line or Goodrich Transportation Company or Goodrich Transit Company was a passenger steamship line operating in the Great Lakes region, principally in Lake Michigan in the 19th and early 20th century. H ...
where Mr. Davis had begun his career. The three ships tied up at the foot of 16th Street in Holland, Michigan, each winter and until they were permanently assigned elsewhere. Up until
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
vessels like those operated by the Georgian Bay Line were an essential part of the transportation infrastructure of the Great Lakes. The line sold large quantities of point-to-point tickets to revenue passengers who paid publicly tariffed rates to be moved from one port to another. After the war, with increasingly inexpensive motor fuel and reliable, paved roads, point-to-point passenger volume declined and the Georgian Bay Line shifted its emphasis to the
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...
trade. Both vessels advertised weeklong cruises through the upper Great Lakes, with the ''South American'' traditionally visiting
Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...
and the ''North American'' taking the
Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...
run. Mackinac Island, in the
Straits of Mackinac The Straits of Mackinac ( ; ) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is wide with a maximum depth of , and connects the Great Lakes of Lake M ...
, was the division point where the Y-shaped arms of the Georgian Bay Line's service territory came together.


Shutdown

The Georgian Bay Line's long-term viability was compromised by the seasonal nature of Great Lakes cruise trade. The boats were traditionally fitted out each spring in May and mothballed each fall in late September. After the invention of the passenger jet airplane in the 1950s, North American tourists found themselves able to fly to ports in locations, such as the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
and the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
, where twelve-month cruising was possible. In addition, cruise ships operating in
international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
could hire crews from the
Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...
and did not have to obey U.S. or Canadian
labor law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...
s. The Georgian Bay Line lost money in the 1960s. In 1963, after the GBL retired the ''North American'', the ''South American'' and the Greene Line's ''
Delta Queen ''Delta Queen'' is an American sternwheel steamboat. She is known for Cruising (maritime), cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South, although she began service in Ca ...
'' were the last two long-distance cruise ships sailing under the U.S. flag. Neither vessel could meet modern fire-safety standards. In 1966, citing the danger to passengers of a catastrophic
fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...
,
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
passed a law ordering both passenger vessels to tie up to the docks permanently. A series of temporary exceptions were carved out for the ''Delta Queen'', but not for the ''South American''. In 1967, the final Georgian Bay Line boat made its last trip. The ''North American'' sank while under tow to what would have been a new life as part of a merchant marine academy, and the ''South American'' was scrapped in 1992. The ''Alabama'' was cut down to a barge in 1961 and was still afloat until 2005, when she was scrapped.


References

Mary A. Dempsey, "Remembering the Georgian Bay Line", ''Michigan History Magazine'' Jan/Feb 1997, pages 28–37. Richard Braun, "The Georgian Bay Line", Ships and the Sea magazine August 1952, pages 10–15 Manitowoc Maritime Museum, Georgian Bay Lines collection
The Marine Historical Society of Detroit




{{Authority control Transport companies established in 1913 Transport companies disestablished in 1967 Defunct cruise lines Great Lakes History of Michigan 1913 establishments in Michigan 1967 disestablishments in Michigan