1914 Howard M. Hanna Jr. 2 1968
Steel Great Lakes bulk freighter
Built at Cleveland OH by American Ship Building Co., Hull 458
Launched May 9, 1914
524’ LOA, 504’ LBP, 54’ beam, 30’ depth
1 deck, arch cargo hold construction, hatches @ 24’, coal-fired boilers, triple expansion engine, 1760 IHP
Enrolled at Cleveland OH June 24, 1914 (#55)
504.0 x 54.0 x 30.0, 6204 GT, 4689 NT US 212353 to:
Hanna Transit Co., Cleveland OH, W. C. Richardson & Co., Mgr. (home port Fairport OH)
Entered service July 6, 1914 clearing Cleveland OH for Ashtabula OH to load a cargo of coal for Milwaukee WI
Richardson fleets combined 1921 into Columbia Steamship Co., Cleveland OH, John T. Kelly, Mgr.
Fleet reincorporated Nov 1931 in Delaware as Columbia Transportation Co. (home port to Wilmington DE)
Fleet merged Oct 1957 into parent Oglebay Norton Co.
Sold for scrap 1968 to Steel Factors Ltd. Resold to Spanish shipbreakers. Arrived under tow with str. Frank E. Taplin at Cartagena Spain May 23, 1969
1404
In the mid 1960’s I worked on the Frank E Taplin. I needed a job at the time and was told that there was a ship tied up in Buffalo NY that was short handed. Nobody wanted to work on this ship becaues it was hand fired. I worked as a coal passer, which meant shoveling coal into the three boilers which powered the ship. The work was hot, dirty, and physically demanding. I worked 4 hours on and 4 hours off 24 hours a day and was paid about $1.25 an hour. We sailed from Lake Erie to Lake Superior hauling coal and taconite ore. The work was brutal but the Great Lakes were a thing of beauty. This job helped me pay my tuition and stay in college. We tied the ship up in Erie PA. I believe it was the last time it ever sailed and that it was the last hand fired freighter to ever work the Great Lakes.