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 The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

region, principally in

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 the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that ...

in the 19th and early 20th century.

History

The line was founded in 1868 by Albert Edgar Goodrich (born ca. 1825-1826,

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

— 1885). Goodrich merged in April 1868 with the Engelmann line, run by Nathan and Michael Engelmann. The line leased the S.S. ''Christopher Columbus'' in 1899 and operated it Chicago-Milwaukee excursion service for more than 30 years. Many other ships were operated including the ''Menominee'', ''Muskegon'', ''Chicago'', and ''Milwaukee'' (many of the ships were named after cities serviced). Goodrich was involved in controversy. More than one Goodrich vessel was lost due to shipwreck. The SS '' Alpena'' was lost in October 1880 en route from

Grand Haven, Michigan Grand Haven is a city within the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River, for which it is named. As of the 2010 census, Grand H ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, and a subsequent investigation took the company to task for poor equipment condition and poorly trained crew. The line was involved in a case versus the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...

in 1912, ''ICC v. Goodrich Transit Co.'', , which went all the way to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

. On February 4, 1915, the steamer ''Iowa'' (built in 1896 on the hull of the ''Menominee''), on its way to the Port of Chicago with the ''Racine'' (belonging to

Chicago Racine & Milwaukee Steamship Company (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

), sent a radio message at 4:15 a.m., as she was about three miles out, that she had encountered heavy ice. The ice was especially bad that winter with ice freezing up to 25 miles from the port. She had been doing okay, under the command of Gerald E. Stufflebeam, as she approached the ice clogged harbor, until the wind shifted then she was crushed by the ice at 10:00 a.m. As the ''Iowa'' sank about two miles out, the 1 passenger and 45 crew left the ship and took refuge on the ice. They started walking toward Chicago as rescuers headed to meet them, including city tugboats. Goodrich went bankrupt in 1933 and its operations ceased permanently.

References

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History

References

Further reading