The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is a maritime museum in the Lake Michigan port and shipbuilding city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, U.S.. It preserves and teaches about the maritime history of the Great Lakes and Wisconsin.
Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, was a major shipbuilder for the Great Lakes. It was founded in 1902, with the purchase of the "Burger & Burger Shipyard," a predecessor to The Burger Boat Company, and made mainly steel ferries and ore haulers. During World War II, it built submarines, tank landing craft (LCTs), and self-propelled fuel barges called "YOs". Employment peaked during the military years at 7000. The shipyard closed in 1968, when Manitowoc Company bought Bay Shipbuilding Company and moved their shipbuilding operation to Sturgeon Bay.
The Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's subsidiary company operating its Lake Michigan railroad car ferry operations between Muskegon, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1905 to 1978. Major railroad companies in Michigan used rail ferry vessels to transport rail cars across Lake Michigan from Michigan's western shore to eastern Wisconsin to avoid rail traffic congestion in Chicago.
Type C1 was a designation for cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. Total production was 493 ships built from 1940 to 1945. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original Maritime Commission designs, meant for shorter routes where high speed and capacity were less important. Only a handful were delivered prior to Pearl Harbor. But many C1-A and C1-B ships were already in the works and were delivered during 1942. Many were converted to military purposes including troop transports during the war.
The firm of Hooven, Owens, Rentschler, and Company manufactured steam and diesel engines in Hamilton, Ohio. Because the firm was frequently known by its initials, H.O.R., the Hooven is sometimes incorrectly rendered as Hoover, and the Owens may be mistaken for Owen.
SS City of Milwaukee is a Great Lakes railroad car ferry that once plied Lake Michigan, often between Muskegon, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was built in 1931 for the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company and is the only pre-1940s ship of this type to survive. She now serves as a museum ship, bed and breakfast, and event venue on the waterfront of Manistee Lake in Manistee, Michigan. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
The Auk class were a class of minesweepers serving with the United States Navy and the Royal Navy during the Second World War. In total, there were 93 Auks built.
The SS Christopher Columbus was an American excursion liner on the Great Lakes, in service between 1893 and 1933. She was the only whaleback ship ever built for passenger service. The ship was designed by Alexander McDougall, the developer and promoter of the whaleback design.
MAN Energy Solutions SE is a German multinational company based in Augsburg that produces large-bore gas and diesel engines and also turbomachinery for marine, rail and stationary applications, as locomotive and marine propulsion systems, power plant applications, and turbochargers. The company was formed in 2010 from the merger of MAN Diesel and MAN Turbo. MAN Energy Solutions is a subsidiary of the German carmaker Volkswagen Group.
Rosinco was a diesel-powered luxury yacht that sank in Lake Michigan off the coast of Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1928. The yacht was built in 1916 as Georgiana III and served during World War I as USS Georgiana III, a Section patrol craft, under a free lease to the Navy by her owner and commanding officer. After the war the yacht was sold and renamed Whitemarsh in 1918. In 1925, after sale to Robert Hosmer Morse of Fairbanks-Morse, the yacht became Rosinco. She was sunk following a collision in 1928 and the wreck was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
The lake freighter MV Saginaw was launched as John J. Boland in 1953, the third vessel to bear that name. John J. Boland was owned and operated by the American Steamship Company and constructed by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In 1999, the ship was sold to Lower Lakes Towing and renamed Saginaw. The ship is currently in service.
The Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Company was founded by Adolphus Busch of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company in 1911 as a joint venture with Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland. The company manufactured diesel engines until 1946.
Henry Harnischfeger was a pioneer in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, mining industry.
Bruno V. Nordberg, was a Finnish Swedish engineer that emigrated to the United States and founded the Nordberg Manufacturing Company.
Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) is a shipyard and dry dock company in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. As of 2015, Bay Ships was a subsidiary of Fincantieri Marine Group and produces articulated tug and barges, OPA-90 compliant double hull tank ships and offshore support vessels. It also provides repair services to the lake freighter fleet. In the past the shipyard located in Sturgeon Bay has operated under several different names and traces its history back to 1918.
The SS Pere Marquette was the world's first steel train ferry. It sailed on Lake Michigan and provided a service between the ports of Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Pere Marquette Railway from 1897 to 1930. The railway used the name Pere Marquette for many of its ships and ferries, adding a number to the end of the name.
SS S.C. Baldwin was a wooden-hulled steam barge built in 1871, that capsized in a storm on August 26, 1908, on Lake Michigan, off Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States, with the loss of one life. On August 22, 2016 the remnants of S.C. Baldwin were listed in the National Register of Historic Places as reference number 16000565.
SS John V. Moran was a wooden-hulled American package freighter in service between 1888 and 1899. She was built in 1888 in West Bay City, Michigan, by F.W. Wheeler & Company. She was built for Ward's Crescent Transportation Company of Detroit, Michigan, and was operated as part of his Detroit & Lake Superior Line. She was built to haul both bulk, and package freight. Throughout the 1893 shipping season, John V. Moran ran between Buffalo, New York, and Duluth, Minnesota. She was sold for the first time in 1895 to the Union Transit Line of Buffalo, and once again in 1898 to the Crosby Transportation Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Robert C. Pringle, originally named Chequamegon, was a wooden-hulled American tugboat that sank without loss of life on Lake Michigan, near Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on June 19, 1922, after striking an obstruction.
Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. was a large-scale World War II ship manufacturing shipyard, located at Superior, Wisconsin. Walter Butler purchased the shipyard from Lake Superior Shipbuilding in 1942. Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. was at E 1st St, Superior, Wisconsin. The shipyard was located on the western part of Lake Superior. Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. was found by Walter Butler in 1942 to build ships for World War II. Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc., the McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company and the Superior Shipbuilding Company were called the Twin Ports shipbuilding industry of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Once built the ships can travel to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
