Chief Wawatam Engine to be Moved
03/10
The massive triple expansion steam engine from the former carferry Chief Wawatam will begin its final journey to its permanent home at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum on Monday.

The 67-ton steam engine eventually will be one of the centerpieces of the museums $6.1 million expansion project.

The engine has been moved to a barge on the Manitowoc River. Monday, a 240-ton crane will lift the steam engine from the river barge onto a lowboy tractor-trailer for its two-block trip to the museum.

The crane then will crawl the two blocks to unload the engine Tuesday at its permanent site at the northwest part of the museum expansion.

The building will then be constructed around the mighty steam engine. An exterior wall of glass will make the engine visible to passersby on Maritime Drive. After the museum purchased the engine, it was stored at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay.

Unique to this display will be a smaller engine that moves the triple expansion engine in a mechanical ballet as if it were actually running. All that will be missing is the smell of steam and oil.

The Engine was moved in July to the LBI company on the former Manitowoc Co. peninsula for restoration, where it was stored until recently.

The Chief Wawatam carferry was built in Toledo, Ohio and commissioned in 1911. The 351-foot ship carried rail cars between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Mich.

On occasion, the Chief Wawatam was called into service by the Coast Guard as an icebreaker. The ship made it final journey across the Straits of Mackinac in 1984.

Preparing the engine last fall.
Wisconsin Maritime Museum

Reported by: Dick Sheehy and Dave Wobser thanks to boatnerd.com




lamontdc@adelphia.net

Nice!!!!! Always like to see big steam preserved. At 67 tons she is a bit small though. :-))))))

The Tod Engine

todengine@woh.rr.com

This is good, of course, but what happened to the boat itself?

Chief Wawatam Engine to be Moved
> 03/10
> The massive triple expansion steam engine
> from the former carferry Chief Wawatam will
> begin its final journey to its permanent
> home at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum on
> Monday.

> The 67-ton steam engine eventually will be
> one of the centerpieces of the museums $6.1
> million expansion project.

> The engine has been moved to a barge on the
> Manitowoc River. Monday, a 240-ton crane
> will lift the steam engine from the river
> barge onto a lowboy tractor-trailer for its
> two-block trip to the museum.

> The crane then will crawl the two blocks to
> unload the engine Tuesday at its permanent
> site at the northwest part of the museum
> expansion.

> The building will then be constructed around
> the mighty steam engine. An exterior wall of
> glass will make the engine visible to
> passersby on Maritime Drive. After the
> museum purchased the engine, it was stored
> at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay.

> Unique to this display will be a smaller
> engine that moves the triple expansion
> engine in a mechanical ballet as if it were
> actually running. All that will be missing
> is the smell of steam and oil.

> The Engine was moved in July to the LBI
> company on the former Manitowoc Co.
> peninsula for restoration, where it was
> stored until recently.

> The Chief Wawatam carferry was built in
> Toledo, Ohio and commissioned in 1911. The
> 351-foot ship carried rail cars between
> Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Mich.

> On occasion, the Chief Wawatam was called
> into service by the Coast Guard as an
> icebreaker. The ship made it final journey
> across the Straits of Mackinac in 1984.

> Preparing the engine last fall.
> Wisconsin Maritime Museum

> Reported by: Dick Sheehy and Dave Wobser
> thanks to boatnerd.com


bobyar2001@yahoo.com

Do you know if any of the big vertical corliss engines made it into preservation? I've only seen them in period sales literature.

> Chief Wawatam was converted into an unpowered barge in 1984 when the engine and superstructure was removed. Perhaps someone closer to the Lakes knows the current status. I would be surprised if the hull still exists with all the route changes that the railroads have had in the last 10 or 15 years. Ted


ted_miles@NPS.gov

As Mr. Miles said, she was converted to a barge, but not in 1984, but 1988. She last RAN in '84, and I guess that was really her death knell, anwyay. There was a serious effort to try and preserve her as is: she was actually owned by the State of Michigan. Bob Strauss has a great site on her, which I have listed below:

"In July 1979, the Michigan Transportation Commission rejected a proposal to replace the CHIEF with an integrated tug/barge unit. Instead, money was funded to look into the possibility of converting the ship's boilers to oil. The CHIEF was not only one of the last coal-fired ships on the lakes, she also was the last 'hand-bomber' to sail. The conversion never took place.

In August of 1984, the dock at St. Ignace collapsed and was not repaired, and the CHIEF had sailed for the last time. The death blow came in 1986 when the last rail link to St. Ignace was abandoned, thus negating any need for a ferry service. The CHIEF was laid-up at her dock in Mackinaw City until 1988, when, despite the best efforts of preservationists, the ferry was sold to Purvis Marine LTD of Sault Ste. Marie, ONT for $110,000 and was cut down to a deck barge. A few of her fittings were donated to area museums. She is still in barge service under her original name as of this writing."

I was lucky enought to see her a few times, and actually get a ride on her as a kid (about 8 years old at the time). It one of those things you never forget, that's for sure! I saw what was left of her still running for Purvis about two years ago. I don't know what makes me tear-up more, though: the sight of her stripped and cut down, our the City of Midland 41......

TJ Gaffney

P.S. The image below is just about how I saw her for the last time intact, heading for St. Ignace. To me, that's how I would like to remember her, not that cut-down version of what's left of her.

Chief Wawatam

peremarquette@hotmail.com

The end of the Chief Wawatam is emblematic of the general regard for industrial relics in Michigan, and many other places. The Chief was not just regionally interesting as an unmodified 1911 artifact. Rather, it was significant from a worldwide perspective. The Straits carferries pioneered icebreaking technology: they had bow propellers (two triple-expension engines in the rear, and one in front, fed from six Scotch boilers) and this general shape is still used in oceangoing icebreakers used by Finland, Russia, and maybe elsewhere. I'm told there was a replica of the Chief built in Scotland, knocked down, and sent to Lake Baikal where it was used on the Trans-Siberian Railway. (Might be there yet. Who knows?)

None of this was of any interest when the Chief lingered at Mackinac City before its disposal. Attempts to preserve it were half-hearted, despite the massive tides of tourists that pass through that city in the summer. Local officials were more interested in reclaiming the waterfront for marina use, and state officials had no interest in promoting heritage tourism. It is gratifying to know that at least one of the three engines will be preserved, and maybe interpreted for the Chief's contribution to naval architecture. It was news to me that an engine had been saved.

Aarne Frobom
The Steam Railroading Institute
P. O. Box 665
Owosso, MI 48867-0665

froboma@mdot.state.mi.us