Earlier this month, Tom, and my sister, Kathy took a tour of the front end of the Steamship John W. Boardman. She was captained by our dad in the 50s and probably the 60s. Since dad would be on the ships from March to December we rarely saw him. It was the years before he had a two week summer vacation so we took trips on the boat to spend time with him. It was always a special time, just me and dad. Usually he traveled with only one child but at least once a summer all the family took a trip. The ship was one of the 5-ship fleet of the Huron Portland Cement Company. The home port was Alpena, MI, my home town. They loaded dry cement and sailed to ports on the Great Lakes. The longest trip was 7 days to Oswego, NY and the shortest was to Detroit, MI. Other ports they sailed to are: Duluth, MN - 5 days, Milwaukee, Wi -4 days, GreenBay, WI - 4 days, Cleveland, OH - 3 days, Toledo, OH - 3 days, Muskegan, MI - 3 days.
My sister found the current owners, Marc and Jill on-line. They have owned the ship since 2005. They purchased the front section that includes the pilot house, guest and captain's quarters, the windlass room,the mates and wheelsmen quarters, an office and card room. The rooms are much smaller room than I remember. There is another deck below the mates quarters that was used as a shop. Altogether there is 5000 square feet. Marc and Jill hope to renovate the ship to eventually use as a bed and breakfast. They painted the ship the original Huron green from the white paint of the last owners. It will be awhile before they serve guests since they don't have a deck crew and are handling all the work themselves.
Marc and Jill are wonderful hosts and loved to hear our stories of years ago. They are avid fans of the Great Lakes freighters having many collections of paintings and models of the ships. Recently they found the original Boardman whistle in Alabama.
Marc has the log book kept by the officers from the 50s. Kathy and I were pleased to see our father's script written on the pages from 1957/58.
They have selected a wonderful piece of property to move the ship on in Detour, MI. It is located on the St. Mary's River that connects Lake Huron to Lake Superior. They can watch the ships up bound to the Soo Locks and down bound to Lake Huron. Often they will get a salute from passing ships.
Eventually they will landscape and prepare a pathway from their property next door to the back section and have an easier entrance to the ship. Currently they are using a door on the starboard side of the bow.
The small boat in the above picture is one of the original life boats from the Boardman but no longer sea worthy.
It is hard to get perspective on the size of the ship but this next picture of Kathy and Jill gives you an idea of it's size. It has been cut off at the water line so it's depth is less than the original.
So our time was well spent. Many childhood memories and a new perspective on the accommodations of the sailors. They endured cramped quarters, rough seas, loneliness of family but great food, good friendships and beautiful sunsets. It was a good career for dad but he did miss important family events like birth of children, graduations and his son's wedding. It was a way of life in Alpena with many sailors and the wives raising their children as single parents. The women were each others support long before the word support group was popular. As a child it was our way of life, we missed dad and looked forward to his homecoming just before Christmas.
