The Empire State (U.S. Registry #7229) was launched
on 5 April 1862 by the Buffalo firm of Mason and Bidwell.
Built as a "propeller," a term that distinguished her from
contemporary paddle wheeled steamers, the passenger freight
steamer carried passengers above decks and freight below.
The vessel was reportedly popular, transporting many immigrants
and prominent people westward. Her dimensions were 212
feet in length, 33 feet in beam, and 12 feet in depth of
hold.
 |
The
passenger steamer Empire State with
its crew on deck. Credit:
Milwaukee Public Library. |
Originally
outfitted with a single cylinder steam engine, the Empire
State plied the Lakes for several years before being
selected as a candidate for testing a newly designed, two-cylinder
power plant. In 1867 and 1868, Horatio Perry and John Lay
used the Empire State to demonstrate the efficiency
of a new steam engine design they had recently patented,
an engine in which "the saving of fuel was the only point sought
to be obtained." The results revealed that the compound engine
consumed 21 percent less fuel than its single-cylinder predecessor.
This represented a savings so substantial that four steamers
were reportedly to be fitted out with the compound
engines in time for the coming season.
On
27 June 1900, the Empire State's most significant
navigational accident occurred when the vessel ran aground
in a thick fog near Sugar Creek, south of Little Sturgeon
Bay. Carrying oats from Green Bay and 13 passengers for the
Lackawanna, Green Bay & Western Line, the ship
fetched
up on the east shore of Green Bay while attempting to make
Menominee on the west side of the bay. It took the tugs George
Nelson, Sydney T. Smith, Gladys Nau, and Torrent three days
to free the vessel. During that time, local farmers constructed
makeshift rafts and salvaged the 5,000 to 8,000 pounds of
oats jettisoned to lighten the vessel.
In
1901, the Door County Advocate reported that the Barry Brothers
Transportation Company had purchased the Empire State and
sistership Badger State from Cleveland 's Northern
Transit Company for $75,000. In the opinion of "well-posted
local marine men," however, the sum was more likely $30,000.
After extensive overhauling in Manitowoc, the steamers were
put into service between Milwaukee and Chicago, though the
Barry brothers briefly considered the route between Detroit
and Cleveland. That the Barry brothers contemplated the Detroit
to Cleveland route at all reveals an especially ambitious
inclination, for that coveted route had been monopolized by
the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company for a third of
a century. Undaunted, Captain Thomas Barry piped, "you see,
we are no school boys when it comes to fighting in the vessel
business, we are not going there to sell out, but to stay." |
