The SS ''John Sherman'', originally the ''USRC Sherman'' or ''USRC John Sherman'' was built for the

United States Revenue Cutter Service ) , colors= , colors_label= , march= , mascot= , equipment= , equipment_label= , battles= , anniversaries=4 August , decorations= , battle_honours= , battle_honours_label= , disbanded=28 January 1915 , flying_hours= , website= , commander1= , co ...

in 1865 before being disposed of by the United States Government in 1872. It was a United States

sidewheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were ...

ship initially used as a

Revenue Cutter A cutter is a type of watercraft. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan) of a sailing vessel (but with regional differences in definition), to a governmental enforcement agency vessel (such as a coast guard or bor ...

on the

Great Lakes of North America 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 lake ...

before being used for ferry service across

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 ...

between the states of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. In 1874 the ship was chartered by

Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state of Michigan between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway. Early history The F&PM was ...

to become the first ship used by the company transporting freight and passengers.

Description

The vessel was long by wide with a hold and propelled by diameter paddle wheels fitted with buckets with a face and a dip and built in Cleveland, Ohio.

History

On November 11, 1866, the schooner ''George Worthington'' (initially reported as the ''George Washington'') was carrying

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

ran into difficulties and went ashore at the mouth of Cleveland harbor with 2 of the 8 crew drowning in the process. The ''Sherman'' started pulling on the Worthington on November 12, hauling it off on November 15, and towing her into port. On November 7, 1867, the Sherman refloated the schooner ''J. F. Prince'' after it had been driven ashore near the water works in Cleveland on the previous day. The ''Prince'' was then towed into port by the tug Levi Johnson. Around June 23, 1871, the Canadian schooner ''Denmark'' ran aground on the shore of Lake Eire at Rond Eau or Rondeau in

Ontario, Canada Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. After several days of unsuccessful attempts to refloat the ''Denmark'', the Sherman steamed to the location and the Denmark was refloated and under way again shortly afterwards. The owners of the ''Denmark'' offered payment which was declined, after which they sent a letter to the newspapers praising the work of the Sherman. The ''USRC Sherman'' was sold to a private buyer in Cleveland on June 25, 1872 and in July, the ''Sherman'' was slightly damaged when she went ashore at Bois Blanc on the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Det ...

in Ontario, Canada. Then in October the Sherman suffered an engine failure whilst sailing on

and needed to be towed to Chicago. After this she was refitted and became the ''SS John Sherman''. In 1873 it was then sold to a group of people including D. Cole by the company River & Lake Shore for $18,357. JW Steward

The ''John Sherman'' had already started a ferry service across Lake Michigan in 1873 when the

hired the cross-lake ferry service from

Ludington, Michigan Ludington ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Mason County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,076. Ludington is a harbor town located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Pere Marquette Riv ...

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...

, on June 25, 1874. They then initiated a public commercial package freight service across Lake Michigan on May 31, 1875. It shuttled packaged freight, grain, and people across Lake Michigan between Ludington and Sheboygan, Wisconsin under the command of Captain John W. Steward. After the one season in 1875 the vessel was found to be too small for the volume of freight on the route and was discontinued. The craft was then rebuilt in 1877 as a passenger steamer operating out of Detroit. In 1878 the ''Sherman'' was sold to J.P. Clark and W.O. Ashley of Detroit who removed the engines to be used in the boat ''Alaska'', then in 1890 boat ''Frank E. Kirby'', and turned the Sherman into a barge to carry lumbar before being scrapped in 1893.

References

Sources

* * * *{{cite book, last=Hilton , first=George Woodman , author-link=George Hilton (historian) , title=The Great Lakes Car Ferries, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9rIDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22John+Sherman%22+Lake+Michigan+between+Ludington+and+Sheboygan%2C+Wisconsin.&pg=PT190 , orig-year=1962 , date=December 2003, publisher=Montevallo Historical Press, Inc. , location=Davenport, Iowa , oclc=61225777 , isbn=978-0-9658624-3-1

External links

Pere Marquette Historical Society
Pere Marquette Railway Ships of the United States Revenue Cutter Service Great Lakes ships 1865 ships