Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: frank rockefeller

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.

"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