User:GreatLakesShips/sandbox/Overhauls/Archive 1
46°47′0″N 92°4′10″W / 46.78333°N 92.06944°W
 Thomas Wilson with several passengers
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.svg){kind=small} United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | Thomas Wilson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner |
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| Port of registry |
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| Builder | American Steel Barge Company, Superior, Wisconsin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yard number | 119 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laid down | November 7, 1891 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Launched | April 30, 1892 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In service | May 9, 1892 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Out of service | June 7, 1902 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Identification | US official number 145616 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fate | Sank on Lake Superior | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General characteristics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class and type | Whaleback | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tonnage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beam | 38 feet (11.6 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Depth | 24 feet (7.3 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | 1 × fixed pitch propeller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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History
[edit]Background
[edit]Thomas Wilson was a whaleback, an innovative but unpopular ship design of the late 1880s, designed by Alexander McDougall. A Scottish immigrant, Great Lakes captain, inventor[1] and entrepreneur, McDougall developed the idea of the whaleback as a way to improve the ability of barges to follow a towing vessel in heavy seas.[2] Whalebacks were characterized by distinctive hull shapes with rounded tops, lacking conventional vertical sides, and conoidal ends.[3] Their rounded hulls enabled water to easily slide off their decks, minimising friction, and letting them sail quickly and smoothly through the water.[2] Their superstructure was located on turrets mounted on the main deck.[3] The rounded contours of whalebacks gave them an unconventional appearance,[2] and McDougall's ship and barge designs were received with considerable skepticism, resistance, and derision.[2][4] As they had porcine-looking snouts for bows, some observers called them "pig boats".[4][5]
After McDougall was unable to persuade existing shipbuilders to try his designs, he founded the American Steel Barge Company in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1888, and built them himself. McDougall actively promoted his design and company by sending the steamer Charles W. Wetmore to London, and starting another shipyard in Everett, Washington, which built the steamer City of Everett.[6] Despite McDougall's further efforts to promote the design with the excursion liner Christopher Columbus, whalebacks never caught on, with only 44 of them being built.[1][2][7]
Design and construction
[edit]Service history
[edit]Final voyage
[edit]
Wreck
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Sources
[edit]- Croil, James (1998). Steam Navigation and Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United States. Toronto, Ontario: Montreal News Company. pp. 362–64. OCLC 1082014. Retrieved January 25, 2021. Google books has images of those pages in the chapter entitled The Turret Steamship
- Duerkop, John (2007). "Some Marine Terminology". Research Resources (definition 65, "Whaleback". Kingston, Ontario: Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
- Ebeling, Charles W. (2001). "You Call That Damn Thing a Boat?". American Heritage of Invention & Technology. 17 (2). American Heritage Publishing. ISSN 8756-7296. OCLC 11638224. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
- Leonard, John (1983). "A Whaleback Quiz". Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Toronto Marine Historical Society. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- Oakley, Janet (2005). "Charles W. Wetmore arrives". Washington, United States: Washington State online history encyclopedia. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
- "Remember the Whaleback Steamers". About the Great Lakes. 2007. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Historic Description". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Construction and Career". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Whaleback Freighters". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Description of the Wreck Event". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Post-Depositional Impacts". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Present Description". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- "Thomas Wilson – Statement of Significance". Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2021.