2025: 150 years of cross-lake service from Ludington
By Rob Alway
The year 2025 marks 150 years of cross-lake service from Ludington, Michigan to Wisconsin. In 1875, the first steamships to transport goods across Lake Michigan were known as break-bulk freighters. Railcars at that time did not travel across the lake, so the contents of the cars were removed, loaded onto the break-bulk steamer, shipped across Lake Michigan, then re-loaded onto railcars waiting on the other shore.
In December 1874, the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway completed construction between Flint, Michigan and Ludington in Mason County, with the first train arriving on Dec. 6. Within the next year, cross-lake service, the predecessor of the railcar ferries, began.
Construction of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway began in 1859. Railroad executives had been considering a cross-lake route to Manitowoc, Wis. since 1859 because the trip around Lake Michigan was costly, mostly due to heavy rail traffic through Chicago.
The break-bulk freighter John Sherman, first to cross from Ludington to Sheboygan.
In 1875, the F&PM chartered the 175-foot-long side wheeler steamer John Sherman to shuttle grain, packaged freight and passengers between Ludington and Sheboygan, WIs. to connect with the Sheboygan & Fond du Lac Railway. The steamer also handled passengers and general cargo.
The John Sherman was too small for the needs of the F&PM and served only for a single season. Beginning in 1876, the railroad chartered a variety of steamers from the Goodrich Transit Company, the largest Lake Michigan passenger and package-freight carrier. The Goodrich ships operated at various Wisconsin ports, but the principal route in connection with the Flint & Pere Marquette came to be the run from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the Michigan ports of Ludington, Manistee, and Frankfort.
The F&PM ended its relations with Goodrich transit in 1883 and purchased two steamers for its own operation out of Ludington, F&PM Nos. 1 and 2. Both were typical Great Lakes propellers at the time, with their engines aft and a single tier of cabins for 25 passengers on the spar deck. A spar deck is the upper deck of a ship that extends from stem to stern
With an increase in traffic in the late 1880s the railroad expanded its fleet by three ships: F&PM Nos. 3, 4, and 5, built in 1887, 1888, and 1890, respectively.
The break-bulk freighter City of Ludington
The F&PM began negotiations with the Wisconsin Central Railway toward the end of establishing a through all-rail route via Ludington and Manitowoc. The arrangement required the Wisconsin Central to build a branch from its main line at Neenah-Menasha, near Lake Winnebago to Manitowoc.
In December, 1895, the F&PM ordered a steel carferry, designed by Robert Logan (1861-1918), a prominent naval architect of Cleveland who had immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland.
The Pere Marquette was launched on Dec. 30, 1896 and arrived in Ludington on Feb. 13, 1897. It was then sent to Milwaukee for inspection. The Pere Marquette made its maiden voyage from Ludington to Manitowoc the evening of Feb. 16-17, 1897. It carried 22 freight cars and the private car of S.T. Crapo, general manager of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway.
The Pere Marquette Railway was formed on Nov. 1, 1899 to consolidate the Flint & Pere Marquette, the Chicago & West Michigan and the Detroit Grand Rapids & Western. When the new company was formed, it also obtained the former F&PM fleet consisting of the carferry Pere Marquette and the passenger and break-bulk freight-carriers F&PM Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5. Additionally, it acquired a carferry that had been owned by the Detroit Grand Rapids & Western.
Carferries PM 15, PM 17, PM 18 (II) and PM 19 on March 22, 1913 in Ludington Harbor.
In 1901, the Pere Marquette Railway changed the names of its entire carferry fleet, including its Detroit River ferries. Break-bulk freighters were to be numbered 1 and up. The river ferries were to be numbered from 14 downward and the Lake Michigan ferries were to be numbered 15 and above.
The break-bulk freighters were renamed Pere Marquette 2, 3, 4, and 5. The Pere Marquette was renamed Pere Marquette 15 and the Muskegon, a ship that the railroad acquired as part of its merger, was renamed Pere Marquette 16.
The fleet of Ludington-based carferries continued to grow and evolve. In 1947, the Pere Marquette Railway was absorbed into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. In 1951, the C&O asked for bids on a pair of ferries, similar to its City of Midland 41, built in 1941. The result were the Spartan (1952) and the Badger (1953), the last two steam-operated carferries built to operate on the Great Lakes.
Today, the Badger is the last of the ferries that began in 1875.
Sources: Mason County Historical Society, “The Great Lakes Car Ferries” by George W. Hilton.
Rob Alway is Outside Marketing Representative for Lake Michigan Carferry and is also the Editor-in-Chief of Mason County Press in Scottville, Mich. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Mason County Historical Society, in which much of the research from this article came from. The Mason County Historical Society owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum along with the Rose Hawley Archives in downtown Ludington and Historic White Pine Village, south of Ludington in Pere Marquette Township.
The 2025 Sailing Season begins May 16!
