The J. B. Ford at Azcon scrap dock Duluth, MN 27 June 2018The main steam whistle from the Steamship J. B. Ford. The insert shows a plaque inside the building that tells whom the whistle honors. Guest of the museum may salute passing lake freighters using this whistle. The Harsens Island Historical Society was gifted the whistle in 2017. Harsens Island is North of Detroit in Michigan.
The ship was launched in Lorain, Ohio on 12 December 1903 as the Edwin F. Holmes. The freighter was named in honor of Edwin Francis Holmes, an investor in the Hawgood & Avery Transit Co. and a director of the Hawgood & Avery Fleet in 1904. The Edwin F. Holmes sailed in the Commonwealth Steamship Fleet until 1911 when she was transferred to the Acme Transit Fleet (another of the Hawgood fleets).[1] At the time of its scrapping was the oldest intact lake freighter still afloat.[2]
The ship was 440 feet long by 50 feet across the beam, with a depth of 28 feet. It was powered by a 1,500-horsepower triple-expansion steam engine, fed by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers.[3] The Ford had 12 hatches feeding into 4 cargo compartments.[1]
Although the Ford had not seen powered service since 15 November 1985, it served as a stationary cement storage and transfer vessel in South Chicago, Chicago, from 1987 until 2001. The vessel was towed to Superior, Wisconsin to serve in the same capacity. The Ford continued in this duty until 2006 when the JAW Iglehart, former fleet mate of the Ford, was retired from service and took over the Ford's duties in Superior.[4]
Wooden Nameboard from Steamship J. B. Ford on display at the Buffalo Harbor Museum in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Ford was moved to a storage dock awaiting orders to scrap the vessel. The scrapping of the E. M. Ford, and the attempts to save that ship in 2008, generated public interest in the old steamers.[5] In 2010 the Great Lakes Steamship Society (GLSS) was formed (and soon thereafter incorporated) with the intention of acquiring and preserving items of maritime heritage on the Great Lakes, with their first goal the preservation of the J. B. Ford.[6] The GLSS achieved 501c3 non profit status in 2011 and worked to save the vessel until July 2014. When the GLSS effort began in 2010, the vessel's owner, Lafarge, deferred scrapping the Ford to allow the group time to get organized and put a real effort forward to preserve the ship.[7] The effort failed due to increasing cost to stabilize and preserve the vessel, combined with a loss of interest in preserving it.[8] As of July 2014, the GLSS was still working with the vessel's owners to recover artifacts and significant items from the vessel, particularly the forward cabins.[9]
The J. B. Ford was towed to the Azcon scrapyard on Friday morning, 9 October 2015.[10][11]
On the afternoon of Monday, 1 March 2021, the ship accidentally caught fire when a spark ignited wood in a cabin area while crews were dismantling it.[12]
January 22, 1904 : Work on fitting out the new vessel was delayed by major flooding on the Black River; the Holmes broke loose from her moorings in the current, and was pushed into the opposite bank. She was not freed until 5 February 1904 when she was returned to the fit-out dock and work continued.
July 19, 1904 : The Steamer Edwin F. Holmes was backing away from the Northern Coal dock un-assisted by tugs when a wind blew her into the Booth's Line passenger Steamer America crushing in five of her cabins. The America was not damaged below the water line so she left Duluth, MN with supplies to make repairs underway. The next day the Holmes left Duluth, MN.
November 27-December 1, 1905 : While sailing in Lake Huron with a load of coal for Duluth, MN a tremendous storm hit the region. The Holmes made it safely to the Soo Locks but she continued on, not knowing the full intensity of the storm. The Holmes was reported overdue on 30 November 1905. Although her identical sister ship, the Umbria, sustained heavy damage to her forward cabins and navigation centre (requiring the crew to steer the vessel from the emergency steering station at the stern of the vessel as it limped into Duluth), the Holmes arrived undamaged in Duluth, MN on 1 December, sailing into the Duluth piers past the broken and battered wreck of the Pittsburgh Steamship Companies'SS Mataafa which had been wrecked trying to enter the piers. She had grounded and broken her back on the beach just a few yards from the shore. Nine crew-members of the Mataafa perished in the wreck, giving history the name Mataafa Storm.[13]
The bow section of the J. B. Ford on 06 August 2022. By the end of August none of this vessel would remain floating.November 6–11, 1913 : Two powerful storm fronts collided over the region creating a massive storm system. Powering through the first part of the storm the Holmes reached safety of the Locks. A day-long lull in the storm tricked many seasoned mariners into thinking the storm was over, and after venturing out into Lake Huron, weather conditions deteriorated to the worst on record, and the storm ended up causing massive losses. Twelve vessels sank with no survivors, 32 vessels were blown ashore around the region, and seven of these were completely destroyed. On the lakes 235 sailors lost their lives, with at least 36 more killed on land, making this the worst storm ever to hit the region. To date no storm has equaled the Great White Hurricane of 1913, in terms of either lake weather conditions, or loss of life and property.[13]
October 9, 2015: Under tow by the Helen H. and the Minnesota, She departed the Superior Municipal Dock bound for Azcon Metals in Duluth Minnesota for scrapping.
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George Wharton. "Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature -- J.B. Ford". Boatnerd. Archived from the original on 28 October 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Even though her sailing days are done; the J.B. Ford is still providing a valuable service to her owners and is the only remaining vessel of any of the Hawgood fleets still in existence on the Great Lakes.
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Tom Gilchrist (August 2008). "Oldest Lake Freighter Bound For Scrapyard". Michigan Live. Archived from the original on 26 August 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Someday soon, though, officials with Lafarge - the boat's owner - say the boat will make its final voyage on the Great Lakes, on its way to a scrapyard.
^"Construction". Great Lakes Steamship Society. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Although she was not a record-breaker, she was a big boat for her day, 440 feet long by 50 feet across her beam, with a depth of 28 feet. She was powered by a 1,500-horsepower triple-expansion steam engine, fed by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers.
^"Huron Cement and LaFarge". Great Lakes Steamship Society. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Renamed J. B. Ford, she emerged from her rebuild in 1959, and went to work hauling dry powdered cement from the Huron Cement plant in Alpena, Michigan to their distribution terminals around the Great Lakes
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Alison Grant (11 November 2008). "Attempts To Save E. M. Ford fail". Michigan Live. Archived from the original on 29 May 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Morin said operating marine museums were told by LaFarge of plans to scrap the freighter or give it to a museum. But the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society - which does not have an operating museum - didn't find out about the boat's availability until two weeks before the one-year deadline.
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Brady Slater (17 July 2014). "Effort abandoned to save 111-year-old freighter as museum sh..."Duluth News Tribune. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2018. It had been estimated that $1.5 million to $2 million was necessary to save the J.B. Ford from the scrapyard. Lafarge North America owns the ship. When the News Tribune reached its communications department, the company spokesperson gave "no comment" on the ship's future.
^ ab"The "Great Storms" of 1905 and 1913". Great Lakes Steamship Society. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Perhaps the Ford's greatest claim to fame is as a survivor of two horrendous storms that pummeled the Great Lakes region in the first decade of her career. The storms of 1905 and 1913 both claimed many ships and many lives, and unlike the handful of other surviving vessels from that era that were safe in port when these storms struck, the then-Edwin F. Holmes was out in the thick of it both times, and both times she and her crew made it safely to port.
United States
