Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks


	gross tonnage
	The overall volume of a ship's hull, including crew cabins, storerooms and machinery spaces. A ton equals 100 cubic feet. The calculation of tonnage is complex, and a major revision in tonnage calculation laws occurred in 1864. The term "old measurement" reflects measurements before this change. See also net tonnage.


	net tonnage
	The volume of cargo a ship could carry, equal to gross tonnage minus the crew cabins, storerooms and machinery spaces. One ton equals 100 cubic feet.


	beam
	The width of a ship at its widest point.


	depth of hold
	The measurement from beneath the deck to the bottom of the hold; the vertical space in the cargo hold.


	horsepower
	A unit of power equal in the United States to 746 watts; nearly equivalent to the English gravitational unit of the same name that equals 550 foot-pounds of work per second.


	refasten
	The periodic replacement and repair of bolts, spikes and other fastenings that hold together the hull of a wooden vessel.


	fore
	1. The front part of a ship. 2. In the direction of or toward the bow.


	aft
	(Or after.) Near, toward or at the stern of a ship.


	hawser
	A large rope or cable -- usually more than 5 inches (13 centimeters) in diameter -- used to tow or moor a ship or secure it at a dock.

Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks - Ottawa

OTTAWA

The tug Ottawa, originally named the Boscobel (U.S. Registry #3152), was built by the Miller Brothers of Chicago and launched May 5, 1881. At that time, it was the largest towing tug ever constructed in Chicago, and it remained the largest and most powerful tug on the Great Lakes until its loss in 1909.

The Ottawa

The vessel weighed 610.81 gross tons and 450.95 net tons . It was 151 feet long, 28.4 feet in beam , and 13.7 feet in depth of hold . The ship's 600- horsepower engine was built in 1881 by S.F. Hodge & Company of Detroit.

The Boscobel entered service in 1881 for the Peshtigo Lumber Company in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and was enrolled June 18, 1881, at the Port of Milwaukee. It was used for rafting logs on Lake Michigan. The Boscobel went through a couple of owners, and then Lorenzo S. Boutelle and the Saginaw Bay Towing Company of Bay City, Michigan, purchased the ship in 1896. The company refastened the ship in 1897 and listed it as a "wrecker."

In March 1902, Liberty Dean Holden of Cleveland bought the Boscobel, which was then captained by James Thomas Reid, a famous salvager. In February 1903, Reid bought the ship for Reid Wrecking Company of Port Huron, Michigan. Author Lauchlen P. Morrison recalled the Boscobel and its skipper:

The Boscobel, one of Reid's earlier tugs, was a long, rakish, piratical-looking boat, with low-lying, open decks fore and aft . As boys, we used to talk with awe of her hawsers . With complete entrancement, we would say, "Twelve inch hawser!" Captain Jim Reid, her owner, was an amiable pirate who would blarney you while robbing you blind on a wrecking job. He was by far the most successful wrecker the lakes ever produced.

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