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A Renewed Look at the America
 At least it rated the front page of the Duluth, Minnesota, newspaper: “Early in the morning of June 7, 1928, the steamer America struck a reef and sank at Isle Royale, Lake Superior’s largest island.”
In those few words, quoted around the entire Great Lakes, the
end of an era was reported, the end of first-class passenger and
freight service along Minnesota’s north shore. Several smaller boats
were to follow her in that area of commerce, but none were to boast the
furnishings and food that made travel on the America remarkable.
Her route began at Duluth and took her to Port Arthur,
Ontario, via Isle Royale, with some 50 stops along the way. She began
this run in 1902, making as many as three trips a week - weather
permitting - from the time the ice went out in the spring to as late as
the following February if ice conditions allowed. While there were many
more elaborate and larger ships engaged in commerce over the entire
Great Lakes system, several factors combined that made the America and her route truly unique.
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For more than two decades, the America
steaming through the Duluth shipping canal was a familiar sight to Twin
Ports residents. Her arrival on the lake in 1902 pre-dated the bridge
by about three years. James R. Marshall collection
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First and foremost was the weather. To find a more
inhospitable segment of shoreline than the Minnesota north shore is
nearly impossible. Terrible storms arise with terrifying swiftness, and
ships four times the length of the America have succumbed to
their wrath. Harbors of refuge were - and continue to be, although that
is changing - few, and countless stories could be recounted of the
times the America faced storms, blizzards and ice. But it wasn’t weather that claimed her; it was calm the night that she sank.
 Economics presented yet another challenge, and here again the
America was to triumph. Other boats, some much larger and far more well
appointed, came and disappeared from the horizon. The panic of 1903,
the Great Depression of the early 1930s, price and credit wars among
the fishermen also threatened her existence, but the America
sailed on, meeting her schedules, delivering her cargo and passengers
safely. Before the first road was built along the shore in 1923, the America was a veritable lifeline for those hardy families who sought to make a living on this rocky coast.
Literally, she became a viable part of all the many lives who
depended on her. Telling her story, in a very real sense, is the story
of those indomitable inhabitants of this Lake Superior shore and of the
men who served this able little ship.
My interest in the America began in 1958, a full 30
years after her demise. Several scuba diving friends had just returned
from a visit to her shadowy decks in the green gloom of Lake Superior
and told of her still in good condition.
I have resolved to learn more and dedicated some time and
plenty of money to learning about her and to acquiring, back in the
mid-1960s, the rights to salvage her from the family of Paul J. Flynn,
a hard-hat diver.
More about that later. First I want to tell you about the life of the America before I tell you about her death and what I hope will be a small resurrection of her memory in the months to come.
Pieces of the America’s past remain, like this
schedule from the United States and Dominion Transportation Co. and the
Monthly Time Book
indicated payments.
James R. Marshall collection
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Research into the life and death of the America
appeared at first to be reasonably simple since many documents exist
that tell portions of her history. It was only after finding the same
incident, first in the records of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and
later in several local Lake Superior-region newspapers, that the scope
of this undertaking began to focus. It was quickly apparent that
consistency was not the highest virtue of those reporters of the day.
It seems any news item, once published, was repeated and embellished by
other papers, each one trying to outdo the glowing comments of the
predecessor.
It soon made more sense to seek out those who might recall an
incident. I spent long talks with Art and Stanley Sivertson, whose
fishing family knows the shore so well, and with the late Alec
Christiansen, who wove miles of nets in his shop on Lake Avenue in
Duluth while we talked and reviewed his fascinating scrapbooks. Alec’s
daughter Betty, whose famous pie shop started just east of Two Harbors,
inspired conversation and was a real encouragement. There are many,
many others to remember and to thank for their time, among them the
daughters of Edward C. Smith, the last master of the America. Ethel LaPorte and Harriet Smith helped. I spoke, too, to Captain Duncan Shubert, who was a cabin boy on the America the night that she sank.
 Some of these kind people have since passed on, but their time talking to me about this special boat was much appreciated.
My passion in gathering these stories was because of my passion for the America and the people whom she served so honestly for a couple of decades.
The Booth Company ran the ship on its two-day voyages up to Ontario and back to Duluth.
The mix of passengers one might find boarding America
represented the mix of people living in this area. There were people in
their finest clothes, perhaps on a holiday headed toward Isle Royale
and its hotels, and there were working people, immigrant fisherfolk and
lumberjacks, using water transportation, the only means of heading up
or down the shore from Duluth until construction of the road in the
early 1920s.
In his book, Schooners, Skiffs and Steamships (proudly
produced by us, the publishers of this magazine), Howard Sivertson,
also from a fishing family, quotes an anonymous passenger on board the America.
The passenger’s words give us a sense of what a trip was like.
“The America runs so close to shore that the eternal
black rocks and dark red cliffs may be plainly seen; the former fringed
with the dashing white of breaking surf and the latter crowned with the
waving green of northland foliage. Far back from the shore, the granite
hills of Sawtooth Range rise to varying heights of several hundred feet
with lines of higher altitude farther inland. Unexpected little bays
and valleys are revealed as the steamer rounds one point after another.”
It is worth noting at this point, dear readers, as you are
becoming nostalgic for this water travel along the shore that you know
about a study under way this summer to examine whether such travel can
again be part of our region. The viability of a ferry or similar
service between Duluth and Thunder Bay, Ontario, will be studied under
the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, a cooperative effort
between the University of Minnesota Duluth and the University of
Wisconsin-Superior launched one year ago in June.
 But back to the past. While the America included
elegant touches for its passengers - such as the ornate circular
stairway between decks, crystal chandeliers, gaming areas and a bar -
it was also very much a working freight carrier. She carried mail and
she would make contact and either deliver goods to or pick up fish from
hundreds of fishermen along the way. This made perfect practical sense,
even more so when you remember that the Booth family, who ran the America, also ran a major commercial fishing operation.
The America, although she is so critical a link in the
history of Minnesota’s north shore, did not start her life at this end
of the Great Lakes. She actually ran two seasons as an excursion boat
between Buffalo, New York, and Niagara Falls. The 165-foot steamer
could reach 18 miles per hour and was fitted out with 60 staterooms
that could accommodate 189 passengers.
A. Booth and Company announced purchase of the boat in 1902
just before bringing her first to Grand Haven, Michigan, for refitting
and then to this shore on April 15, 1902. The Booths would form a new
company under which to operate the America due to the risk of
passenger liability and the international nature of the route. So it
was the United States and Dominion Transportation Company that operated
the America, but everyone called it Booth’s Line.
From the time she arrived, the America proved a good
and sturdy vessel (although those on board during Lake Superior storms
may have harbored some momentary doubts). It was no weakness of her own
that caused her ultimate demise. Next issue, I’ll talk about the wreck
of the America and about our plans to restore a piece of her for public viewing. Until next issue, dear readers.
The second edition of Shipwrecks of Lake Superior,
edited by Jim Marshall, has recently been published. And a selection of
Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages
has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge
by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link
for more information.
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