Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company - Ships

Ships

The original ship, the Grand Haven, was sold, by its receivers, to the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company in 1905. In 1908 the car ferry company bought the ferry Manistique, Marquette & Northern No. 1 and renamed it the SS Milwaukee. In the mid 1920s, the two ships were augmented by chartering ferries from the Pere Marquette and Ann Arbor lines. In 1926, the Grand Rapids was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The ship was similar to Pere Marquette Railway's car ferries the Pere Marquette No.21 and Pere Marquette No.22 and the Ann Arbor Railroad's Ann Arbor No 7. Another ship, the Madsion was built in Manitowoc in 1927.

On October 22, 1929, the ferry SS Milwaukee sank. Two days later its wreckage was discovered near Racine, Wisconsin. The United States Coast Guard near South Haven, Michigan found the ship's purser’s message canister with a written note. The ship was replaced by a new ferry named City of Milwaukee built in 1931

The ships also had 16 cabins for passenger service. By 1970, the Grand Trunk Western car ferries were no longer carrying passengers, as they could no longer meet Coast Guard safety regulations for passenger ships. (The wood paneling in the staterooms constituted a fire hazard). They also were much slower and not nearly as luxurious as the Chesapeake & Ohio boats (the S.S. Badger, et al.) which were sailing from Milwaukee to Ludington, Michigan at the time.