''Northern Wave'' was an American large steel
steamer built by Globe Iron Works and used on the
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 ...
. ''Northern Wave'' was
launched in 1889 and
scrapped
Scrap consists of recyclable
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on i ...
in 1926. It was one of eight steamships owned by the Northern Steamship Company of Buffalo.
The Northern Steamship Company was created in 1888 by Jerome Hill, who was also in the railroad business. During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
the ship was moved to the Atlantic as a part of the war effort.
In 1891 the ship had a gross earnings of $106,000.
From 1891 to 1896 the chief engineer was a Canadian named Frederick Potts.
In 1919 the radio stations onboard were controlled by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co.
The ship was also involved in a 1924 lawsuit, where the court decided that a lack of investigation is not prejudicial if such investigation would have been useless.
The ship was finally sold to Italian shipbreakers in 1925 and scrapped the next year in Genoa, Italy.
Ownership
The ''Northern Wave'' was owned by the Mutual Transit Co. as of 1907 under the Captain D. L. Cartwright. After the Mutual Transit Co., the ''Northern Wave'' was owned by the Great Lakes Transit Corporation in 1916. The U.S. Shipping Board is listed as the owner from 1917 to 1920.
Design
The ''Northern Wave'' was similarly made to five of the other ships owned by the company. It was a steel freight ship weighing 2,500 tons. James Croil of Montreal in 1989 described these ships as "perhaps the finest fleet of steamers on the Great Lakes."
The ''Northern Wave'' had two
Scotch boilers.
Rescue of the ''M. M. Drake''
In 1901 the ''Northern Wave'', along with another steamer, the ''Crescent City'', rescued crews from the ''M. M. Drake'' and the
schooner-barge ''Michigan'', which ''M. M. Drake'' was towing. There was only one casualty. While rescuing the crews the ''Northern Wave'' did collide with the ''M. M. Drake'', but suffered no damage.
Portage Bridge collision
In 1905 the ''Northern Wave'' collided with the
Portage Bridge
The Portage Bridge () crosses the Ottawa River just down-river from the Chaudière Bridge, joining the communities of Gatineau, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario. It links Laurier Street and Alexandre-Taché Boulevard in the Hull sector of Gatineau ...
, requiring the center swinging section of the bridge to be replaced.
Rebuild
In 1917 the ship was moved to the Atlantic Coast and rebuilt, to a new tonnage of and . This was due to World War I, when the U.S. Shipping Company moved ships from the Great Lakes for use in the war effort.
References
{{reflist
Ships built in Cleveland
Great Lakes freighters
1889 ships