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Circa 1910. "Freighter S.S. Utica, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Line." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
I was not aware a vessel of this size could move South out of Lake Michigan and down thru to New Orleans in the canal/river system.
[As noted below, the Utica was a Great Lakes freighter. - Dave]
I wonder what the three planks on the side of the hull are.
[Docking fenders. - Dave]
Beeson's Marine Directory of the Northwestern Lakes, 1908Steamship Utica, built in 1904 for the Western Transit Co. of Buffalo, N.Y. Gross tonnage: 3533, length: 325 ft., beam: 44 ft.
Constructed by the Detroit Ship Building Co., this 325-foot package freighter was launched April 28, 1904, at Wyandotte for the Western Transit Company, the marine operation of the New York Central on the Great Lakes.
In 1915 the Interstate Commerce Commission, citing the 1912 Panama Canal Act, ruled that American railroads could not also engage in marine transportation, and the NYC (as well as Erie, Pennsylvania, and Lehigh Valley) sold their steamship operations on the Great Lakes. Many of the vessels were consolidated under a new firm, Great Lakes Transit Corporation, for which the Utica ran from 1916 until 1945. That year, GLTC sold her to Chilean interests who renamed her Quintay. She was towed down the Chicago River, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Illinois River, and eventually the Mississippi to New Orleans.
The Quintay stranded and became a total loss on Penguin Island in the Messier Channel, Chile, on April 28, 1949, on a voyage from Callao to Punta Arenas while carrying general cargo and drums of oil.
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