SS ''Lansdowne'' was a

railroad car ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ...

built in 1884 by the

Wyandotte Shipyard Wyandotte may refer to: People and culture * Wyandotte Nation (also Wyandot), a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma * Wyandot language, the extinct language, now under revitalization efforts, of the Wyandotte Nation United ...

of the

Detroit Dry Dock Company The Dry Dock Complex consists of six interconnected buildings located at 1801–1803 Atwater Street in Detroit, Michigan, as well as the remains of a nearby dry dock at 1900 Atwater Street. The 1801-1803 Atwater complex is also known as the Glo ...

. It was used as a steamer from 1884 until 1970 between

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

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

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

, across 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 ...

. At the time of its construction it was the longest ship on 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 ...

at . It was a

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 ...

, and at the time of its retirement it was the last sidewheeler serving on the Great Lakes, although in 1975 the sidewheel ferry Trillium returned to active service at Toronto after many years in layup. ''Lansdowne'' was captained by Nick Saad from 1942 to 1969 until his retirement, when he was relieved by his son James Saad-Miller. Capt. Jim Miller was last to man her under her own power, when she blew the cylinder head of the port engine coming out of Detroit Slip on midnight watch in 1970. The engines were from an even older paddle steamer, ''Michigan'', built in 1878. Lansdowne was thereafter used as a barge, pushed by a towboat, until her final retirement. In 1981 ''Lansdowne'' was converted by Specialty Restaurants Corporation of

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

, to a

floating restaurant A floating restaurant is a vessel, usually a large steel barge or hulk, used as a restaurant on water. The '' Jumbo Kingdom'', formerly located at Aberdeen in Hong Kong, was at one time the world's largest floating restaurant, until it sank a ...

and was moored just east of

Hart Plaza Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded ''Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit'', t ...

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ...

. A pair of

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced ...

Skytop Lounge The Skytop Lounges were a fleet of streamlined passenger cars with the parlor-lounge cars built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("the Milwaukee Road") and sleeper-lounges built by Pullman-Standard in 1948. The cars wer ...

" railcars were brought onto part of its deck while the remainder was occupied by additional restaurant structure including a below-deck banquet hall. Patrons had a front-row view of the

Detroit street circuit The streets of Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan, hosted Formula One racing, and later CART racing, between the 1982 and 1991 seasons. The street circuit (course) was set up near the Renaissance Center and the Cobo Arena, also including a ...

that hosted the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

United States Grand Prix East. The restaurant in Detroit shut down in the late 1980s or early 1990s. In 1999 ''Lansdowne'' was towed to

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

, where much of its superstructure was removed and the Skytop Lounge cars were stripped to bare shells with the intent of making it a riverfront restaurant in Erie. It sank at its moorings on 25 December 2005 and the City of Erie issued an order that it be removed by 1 March. On 16 July 2006 it was removed from Erie and towed to an industrial part of the Buffalo River in

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 ...

. On 30 January 2008 it again took on water during a storm at its moorings in Buffalo and began to

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby uni ...

. Specialty Restaurants' owner died in 2008 and whatever remaining initiative there was to restore ''Lansdowne'' died along with him. With pressure from Buffalo politicians to remove the "eyesore" from its shores, the Skytop Lounge cars were cut off their

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s and shipped to a railroad museum in

Montevideo, Minnesota Montevideo is a city in Chippewa County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,383 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chippewa County. The town's mayor is Erich Winter and the Council President is Nathan Schmidt. The area ...

, and the rest of the vessel was broken up for salvage in April 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansdowne 1884 ships Ferries of Michigan Ferries of Ontario Great Lakes ships Paddle steamers of the United States Train ferries Ships built in Wyandotte, Michigan