By 1910 the design of GL ore carriers had stabilized into a form that would hold true for the next 60 years. Not until the 70's did they start to get rid of the forward wheelhouse and stick the bridge on the aft superstructure.

I'd gladly give up a day pass for Disney World just to be riding aboard that vessel as it gets its first taste of water.

Really great picture. Back then it must have been very hard work to build such ships.

E. H. UTLEY (25), (b) CAMBRIA, (U.S. 207568). Steel bulk carrier built 1910 at Wyandotte by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company (Hull 184). 504.0 x 54.2 x 31.0; Gross 6287, Net 4861.

Built for the Frankl Steamship Company (Oakes), Cleveland, but transferred 1916 to the Beaver Steamship Company (also Oakes), Cleveland.

Ownership taken over 1924 by the Bethlehem Steamship Company and in 1925 by the Bethlehem Transportation Corp. Transferred 1942 to a Bethlehem subsidiary, Iron Mines Company of Venezuela, but no change in management.

Transferred prior to 1949 to yet another subsidiary, the Gasparillo Dock Company.

Rebuilt 1955-56 as a craneship by the American Shipbuilding Company at Lorain, Gross 6393, Net 4966. Although registered thereafter to the Bethlehem Steel Corp., management was transferred at the time of the rebuild to the Ore Steamship Company and she was operated by Boland & Cornelius, Buffalo.

Retired from service late in 1970 season and sold October 30, 1970, to the Miller Compressing Company for use as a storage and transfer barge at Milwaukee. Sold 1973 to the Elizabeth River Terminal Company and taken to Norfolk, Va., for further use as a transfer barge.

I love how almost everyone is standing on rails or planks anticipating the mini-tsunami. And there's the kid looking in the complete opposite direction, probably at something tiny, which makes this all the more ironic.

This must have been quite a sight to see and look how many people turned up! There are women, children, and men. Only two young lads are oblivious to what is happening, happily playing on the wooden planks (far right) and running with a stick (bottom edge).

Note that the ship is moving toward the crowd as it slides off the ways in the background. Must have been somewhat scary, as evidenced by the people running away from the water.

The Utley was renamed the Cambria 3 in 1925, then sold off the Lakes in 1973, used as a transfer ship in Milwaukee from 1971 to 1973.

The vessel in 1995 in use as a crane ship.

It has always struck me as sort of odd how violent the launching of a hull is. Such a massive construction in free fall just seems so counterintuitive, especially considering the mass and momentum.