Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: whaleback

From our walk on the Whaleback Trail, near Leland, a few days ago.

Meteor, long a museum and permanently parked at Barkers Island in Superior, seen from a Duluth-Superior Harbor Tour circa 1990. Scanned from a slide, likely taken with a Minolta point-n-shoot.

In June of 1981, Debbie was kind enough to deliver me back to my summer job assigning freshmen to rooms. We took the long way around, following the south shore of Lake Superior from end to end and doing some other exploring. When our trip brought us to this old ship, I got pretty excited.... This is the last surviving whaleback laker , a tanker named Meteor. She was built as the Frank Rockefeller in 1896; later she was known as South Park before becoming Meteor in 1942. She was an active ship until 1969, and has been functioning as a museum in Superior, Wisconsin, since 1972. I hear she's deteriorating and may not last much longer. Should that happen I'll miss her. Taken during a harbor tour out of Duluth, approximately 1990.

"Taken March 29, 1940 at ft of Riopelle St. Nose of whaleback South Park." Third of three photos of this ship; I gave a detailed ship bio a few weeks ago . This is a fascinating photo, really; interesting detail. This is a lot more like a photo I'd take than the typical Borucki shot. Borucki's Lakers

"Wed. Sept. 20, 1939 Company name on side of Steamer 'South Park'" Second of three photos; the third will be along in a month or so. I discussed this ship's history here . Borucki's Lakers

"Wed Sept. 20, 1939 Steamer 'South Park' An converted 'whale back'" First of three photos. "Converted" is an interesting description, as this ship's history is a series of conversions: Built in 1896 as the Frank Rockefeller , she sailed until 1927 as an ore carrier, mostly as a member of the Steel Trust's 'Tin Stacker' fleet. Renamed South Park in '27 and converted to a sand dredge, she helped fill in the site of the Chicago World's Fair. Converted again in 1936, she hauled automobiles around the lake until she was wrecked off Manistee in 1942. She wasn't done yet: She was salvaged, converted to a tanker, and renamed Meteor . In 1969 she was wrecked off Marquette. As a single-hulled tanker, she wasn't worth saving; as the last surviving whaleback laker, she was worthy of a final rescue. She's been a museum ship in Superior, Wisconsin, since 1971. She's apparently in need of serious repairs at this point and her future is in doubt. American Steel Barge of Superior built ships and (mostly) barges of this general design in the late 1800s. Whalebacks were interesting-looking ships, and evidently served their owners well, but the design has generally been judged a failure. More information is available on Wikipedia ; I shan't repeat it here. Borucki's Lakers