1904                                  Marquette & Bessemer No. 1                                  1961

Steel Great Lakes bulk freighter

Built at Buffalo NY by Buffalo Dry Dock Co., Hull 206
Launched Nov 14, 1903

255’ LOA, 241’ LBP, 43’ beam, 21’6” depth
2 decks, coal-fired boilers, triple expansion engine, 850 IHP
Built with two pairs of removable railroad tracks down her spar deck and a stern loading entrance to receive railroad hopper cars, which were rolled aboard at Conneaut OH and unloaded into the cargo hold.  The vessel crossed Lake Erie to Erieau ON, where the tracks were removed and the cargo unloaded with shoreside unloading rigs.

Enrolled at Buffalo NY Dec 16, 1903 (#36)
241.0 x 43.0 x 22.4, 1732 GT, 998 NT     US 200537     to:
Buffalo Dry Dock Co., Buffalo NY

Reenrolled at Buffalo NY April 22, 1904 (#64) to:
Marquette & Bessemer Dock & Navigation Co., Conneaut OH (home port Buffalo NY)

Entered service April 1904.  Arrived Conneaut OH April 26 to begin carrying coal from Conneaut across Lake Erie to Erieu ON

Chartered 1916 until about 1930 to Lake Erie Navigation Co., Walkerville ON

Converted 1925 to a modified conventional bulk freighter at Buffalo NY by Buffalo Dry Dock Co.
Remeasured to 241.0 x 43.2 x 18.3, 1525 GT, 925 NT

(On Aug 27, 1927 the Lake Erie Navigation Co. purchased the str. H. A. Rock from the defunct Forest City Steamship Co. and probably some time during or at the end of the 1930 navigation season turned this vessel back to her owners – where she was permanently laid up since the firm was about to go out of business.)

Sold 1935 to Capt. Frank Peterson, Saginaw MI

Sold 1936 to Saginaw Dock & Terminal Co., Saginaw MI, Oglebay Norton & Co., Mgr. (home port to Wilmington DE)

Renamed Carrollton 1937

Rebuilt 1940
Remeasured to 247.5 length and 1635 GT, 958 NT

Requisitioned 1942 by U. S. War Shipping Administration.  Operated during World War II by Oglebay Norton & Co. and returned to her previous owners after the end of the war.

Fleet merged Oct 1957 into parent as Columbia Transportation Division, Oglebay Norton Co.

Sold 1958 to Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Co., Duluth MN for conversion to a scow.  The conversion was not done and the vessel was laid up.

Sold for scrap 1961 to Fraser-Nelson Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. and scrapped at Superior WI.

See history in Great Lakes Ships We Remember II p. 51

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