SS St. Marys Challenger
Lake freighter
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Key Takeaways
- Marys Challenger is a freight-carrying vessel operating on the North American Great Lakes built in 1906.
- After a 107-year-long working career as a self-propelled boat, she was converted into a barge and paired with the tug Prentiss Brown as an articulated tug-barge.
- Operating history Steamship The vessel was launched on February 7, 1906, by Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ecorse, Michigan.
- Soon the large boat, christened William P.
- Snyder was beginning her working life at the same time as the development of the assembly line for bolting together consumer goods made with steel, such as automobiles.
The SS St. Marys Challenger is a freight-carrying vessel operating on the North American Great Lakes built in 1906. Originally an ore boat, she spent most of her career as a cement carrier when much larger ore boats became common. After a 107-year-long working career as a self-propelled boat, she was converted into a barge and paired with the tug Prentiss Brown as an articulated tug-barge. Before conversion, she was the oldest operating self-propelled lake freighter on the Great Lakes, as well as being one of the last freight-carrying vessels on the Great Lakes to be powered by steam engines.
Operating history
Steamship
The vessel was launched on February 7, 1906, by Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ecorse, Michigan. The shipyard had received an order to construct a 551-foot (168 m) Great Lakes bulk carrier for what was then the booming Minnesota iron ore trade. Soon the large boat, christened William P. Snyder, was shuttling hematite for the Shenango Furnace Company. William P. Snyder was beginning her working life at the same time as the development of the assembly line for bolting together consumer goods made with steel, such as automobiles. Iron ore boats would have plenty of work to do. William P. Snyder also carried iron ore to furnaces to make munitions used in World War I and World War II.
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