1908                                  Bennington     1                                  1944 (1950)

Steel St. Lawrence River canal size package freighter

Built at Ecorse MI by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Hull 37
Launched Dec 28, 1907

256’ LOA, 244’ LBP, 43’ beam, 26’6” depth
2 decks, hatches @ 24’, coal-fired boilers, quadruple expansion engine, 1350 IHP

Enrolled at Detroit MI April 1, 1908 (#47)
244.0 x 43.2 x 27.0, 2285 GT, 1393 NT     US 204944     to:
Great Lakes Engineering Works

Reenrolled at Buffalo NY April 14, 1908 (#70) to:
Western Transit Co., Buffalo NY
(The actual owner and operator of this vessel — and of all the other five steel vessels of her fleet — for her entire career on the Great Lakes until the fleet was disbanded in 1915 was Rutland Transit Co., Ogdensburg NY although, for reasons unknown to this researcher, she was enrolled to Western Transit Co. and her home port was shown as Buffalo NY, not Ogdensburg NY)

Entered service 1908

Sold October 2, 1915 to Pacific-Alaska Steamship Co. for off-Lakes service and left the Great Lakes.
(The railroads had been ordered under the provisions of the Panama Canal Act of 1912 to divest themselves of competing vessels and Great Lakes Transit Corporation had been organized to own and operate these vessels.  The new firm bid on the six steel Rutland vessels but since they were small enough to leave the Great Lakes without being cut in two and since prices on ocean vessels were abnormally high because of World War I vessel shortages, they were outbid by off-Lakes operators.)

Renamed Valdez.

Sold 1923 to Rutland-Lake Michigan Transit Co., Chicago IL, D. Sullivan & Co., Mgr. (home port to Chicago IL), renamed Brockton  (2) and returned to the Great Lakes.
Returned at her ocean tonnages of 2308 GT, 1729 NT
Converted from package freighter to bulk freighter at Cleveland OH by Interlake Engineering Co.

Transferred 1930 to Gartland Steamship Co.

Home port to Wilmington DE 1934

Requisitioned 1942 by U. S. War Shipping Administration, Washington DC for off-Lakes service during World War II and left the Great Lakes.

Returned to the Great Lakes Sept 1943 under charter to previous owner.

Sold British July 1944 under lend-lease program and left the Great Lakes again.  Br 180538.

Scrapped 1950 near Providence RI

0833