Queen of the Lakes

Queen of the Lakes is the unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada. A number of vessels, mostly lake freighters, have been known by the title.

History of name
Queen of the Lakes has been used as the name of three vessels that sailed on the Great Lakes, but none was the longest on the lakes at the time. The first was a three-masted Canadian schooner built in 1853 as Robert Taylor, measuring 133 ft. It was renamed Queen of the Lakes sometime before 1864. She sank 9 mi off Sodus Point, New York on November 28, 1906. The second was a propeller-driven vessel launched in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1853, measuring 196 ft. She was lost to fire in port on June 17, 1869. The third was a small side-wheel steamer built in Wyandotte, Michigan in 1872, measuring 108 ft. While anchored near South Manitou Island she caught fire and burned in 1898. The iron hull was later scrapped.

The title has also been bestowed upon vessels that were especially liked or those considered to be especially beautiful or richly appointed. Such was the case as late as 1949, at which time SS Noronic was so honored. It has been applied to the United States Coast Guard cutter USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83) for its long and significant role in facilitating Great Lakes shipping and safety. The most common use of the title, however, at least since the early 1940s, is to honor the largest vessel on the lakes. On April 20, 1841, the Detroit Free Press referred to the steamer Illinois as "Queen of the Waters", but given that three vessels in that century were named Queen of the Lakes, its use as a title for the longest ship was not then common. The title is applied retroactively to vessels launched before this use of the title became popular. While some use gross tonnage, capacity, or length between perpendiculars as the criterion, the most commonly accepted standard is length overall (LOA). This article uses LOA as the standard.

Early Queens
The earliest vessels on the Great Lakes were human powered canoes and bateaux. Sources differ as to what vessel qualifies as the first real "ship" on the lakes. Many say it was Le Griffon, built by LaSalle through the winter and spring of 1678 and 1679, and launched in May of that year to sail the upper lakes (above Niagara). Reports of its size vary from 40 to 70 ft long. Contemporary chroniclers called it both a bark and a brigantine. Le Griffon was soon lost. It was last seen on September 18, 1679 and was lost with all hands. Her final location is unknown. Those who consider Le Griffon to have been the first ship on the lakes—and hence, the first Queen—also consider her to have been the first lost.

Other sources say the first ship was a smaller vessel built by LaSalle at Fort Frontenac beginning in September 1678, for the purpose of conveying supplies and material to Niagara. This vessel, which is called Frontenac in some reports, is said to have been about 10 tons burthen, measuring from 35 to 45 ft long. Expedition journalists called it a brigantine. It departed Fort Frontenac under La Motte's and Louis Hennepin's leadership on November 18, 1678, and arrived at the east bank of the Niagara River on December 6, 1679. Shortly thereafter, LaSalle and Tonty came with more supplies, and their vessel (carrying the anchor, rigging, and guns for Le Griffon) foundered in the surf less than 30 mi from Niagara. Hennepin called this vessel a "great bark." One source says the loss occurred on January 8, 1679. Supplies and extra clothing were lost, but LaSalle and his men rescued material for the ship, dragged them to the mouth of the Niagara, rested a few days in an Indian village, and arrived at the settlement above the falls on January 20. Some say the lost vessel was Frontenac. Historian Francis Parkman says that by 1677, there were already four vessels on Lake Ontario between 25 and 40 tons burthen. He does not say if any of them were named. Tonty's journal indicates that the vessel he and LaSalle used was a 40-ton vessel, but he does not associate a name with it.

Records of ship sizes on the lakes between 1678 and 1816 are rare. According to the Detroit Tribune, the vessels Gladwin, Lady Charlotte, Victory, and Boston were on the lakes in 1766 and Brunswick, Enterprise, and Charity were launched in 1767, 1769, and 1770, respectively, but no dimensions are given. HMS Ontario, at 80 ft, was launched on Lake Ontario on May 10, 1780, and sank in a storm on October 31, that same year. A history of Washington Island in Door County, Wisconsin notes that the schooner Washington, used to supply the fitting out of Fort Howard at the head of Green Bay in 1816, was the longest ship on the lakes at the time, but no details are given.

A succession of Queens
On September 7, 1816, the steamer Frontenac was launched. She was fitted out as both a schooner and a side-wheel steamer and designed for both passenger and freight transport. At 170 ft she laid claim to the honor of longest active vessel on the lakes, though she saw service only on Lake Ontario. She was scrapped at Niagara in 1827, and the next verifiable Queen was not launched until 1830.

The chart below identifies the succession of vessels known to qualify as Queen of the Lakes from 1813 to the present. The succession of queens is not known to be continuous before David Dows. Those from Frontenac through City of Buffalo were side-wheel steamships, though Michigan, like Frontenac was dual fitted as an operational schooner. The heyday of the luxurious passenger steamers was waning even as some of them were launched. Mississippi, Plymouth Rock, and Western World were all out of service by 1859, and the Queens that had not already been lost by 1862 were rebuilt as barges or schooners or dismantled within a year. Nebraska was a propeller-driven steamer for freight and passenger use, but given what had happened to her predecessors, she was likely not so richly appointed. In 1904, Nebraska was refitted as a lumber carrier, after which time she resembled a classic bulk carrier. David Dows was a 5-masted schooner used primarily for transporting wheat. Susquehanna, Owego, and Chemung were propeller-driven package freighters. The whaleback SS Christopher Columbus was a celebrated passenger vessel. Onoko and all other vessels from Curry on were or are propeller-driven bulk carriers.

The steamship Quebec, launched in 1865, appears in lists of Great Lakes vessels. At 283 feet, she was longer than both Nebraska and David Dows, but her service was on the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec, not on the Great Lakes proper. She continued in service for many years and was dismantled in 1938.