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JOHN ERICSSON
Great lake freighter
The John Ericsson was
a whaleback Great Lakes freighter designed by
Captain A. McDougall and built in Superior,
Wisconsin in 1896. She was named after a friend of
Captain McDougall's who was the inventor of the
first screw propeller. She was designed to carry
freight on the rough waters of the Great Lakes. Her
hull looks somewhat like a submarine and was
designed so that the decks would be awash in rough
seas.
The John Ericsson
ship was 396' long with a 48' beam and a draft of
21'. Displaced 3200 tons, she was a good freight hauler
but not popular with all skippers because it was
difficult to handle her in the wind when empty as it
tended to "weathervane".
John Ericsson served
for 67 years, carrying originally iron ore and then
grain from the Lakehead to Sarnia. When she retired
in 1963, she was the penultimate whaleback and the
only one with bridge forward. Upper Lakes Shipping
offered John Ericsson as a museum ship to the City
of Hamilton. She was towed to a berth in
Confederation Park arriving on June 7th, 1966. The
necessary funding was not forthcoming and she was
eventually scrapped in 1967-68.
Between 1888 and 1898, the shipyards at the western
end of Lake Superior built 39 of a unique kind of
steamer featuring whaleback design in which the hull
curved inwards from the water line to reduce the
wave resistance of the hull. The final whaleback,
the Meteor, is preserved as a museum ship in
Superior, Wisconsin.
We build this primarily wood model
of the John Ericsson the following sizes.
24" long (1/200 scale),
33" long (1/144 scale), and 48" long (1/200 scale).
Email us for prices and lead time.
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