The City of Alpena was launched along with her sister ship, City of Mackinac, in 1893. In 1921 she was taken off the Coast Line and renamed City of Saugatuck. In 1957 she was scrapped. Info from here.

I like the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation company logo (D & C) over top of the smokestack. Looks like some pretty fancy metal work.

Take a look to the upper left of the photo. There is a sign with a big star on it. In the middle of the star are the letters W S L. If you look closer you can see the star in on a waving flag. This would indicate to me that White Star Lines of Titanic fame had an office and or boats located there. I thought they only had Ocean liners but apparently the sailed the Great Lakes as well.

[There was no connection between Detroit's White Star Line and the British company that operated the Titanic. -tterrace]

The City of Alpena is depicted on the 1901 "Fast Lake Navigation" Pan-American Exposition commemorative postage stamp.

You see that the dock has large wooden vertical pilings holding the waterside edge up, these give the boat something soft to ride against while docking. When the boat is at a concrete dock face or the concrete lock approaches these fenders protect the hull from abrasion which was important for wooden hulls. Also, they could be used to make up for dock to hull elevation differences.

I suspect the hanging wooden shapes are fenders, and some have seen hard wear keeping the ships from shattering each others' more delicate upper structure.

The ship in front looks like the White Star Lines steamboat Tashmoo which operated between Port Huron and Detroit.

Does anyone know what those items hanging from the second deck on both ships are for? They look like wooden blanks. Bumpers to protect the ship?