RHODA EMILY

In 1884 the wooden steam barge RHODA EMILY was built for W. R. Owen of Chicago, Illinois and ran for the Eastern Transit Company on Lake Michigan until sold to C. R. Jones of Cleveland, Ohio in 1896. In 1900, the EMILY was sold to the Saginaw Bay Transit Company of Cleveland. She was used mostly in the lumber and coal trade and often towed a consort schooner barge. Sold to Winnefred Schlosser of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1910, she was renamed CREAM CITY in 1913.

Again sold in 1917, she went to the James R. Andrews Transit Company of Escanaba, Michigan. By this time the ship was getting tired, but continued in use in the lumber trade on northern Lake Huron.

On July 1, 1918, while towing the barge GRACE HOLLAND, she was headed for False Detour Passage in northern Lake Huron in a dense fog. Not having the advantage of modern day navigation safety devices, the CREAM CITY stranded on Wheeler Reef, one-half mile south of False Detour passage, near Kitchener Island. Both the CREAM CITY and the GRACE HOLLAND went fast on the Reef. No one was injured from either vessel but the ships were high and dry. Attempts to save both the CREAM CITY and the GRACE HOLLAND failed, and they ended their days on this spot. After a long life, this lumber hooker was no more.

RHODA EMILY in 1910

a) RHODA EMILY
b) Cream City