1898 Clarence A. Black 1946
Steel Great Lakes bulk freighter
Built at Lorain OH by Cleveland Ship Building Co., Hull 31
Launched Sept 22, 1898
434’ LOA, 414’ LBP, 50’ beam, 28’ depth
1 deck, hold beams, hatches @ 24’, coal-fired boilers, triple expansion engine, 1200 IHP
Enrolled at Cleveland OH Oct 27, 1898 (#25)
413.4 x 50.2 x 24.5, 4521 GT, 3474 NT US 127300 to:
Cleveland Ship Building Co., Cleveland OH (home port Cleveland OH)
Reenrolled at Cleveland OH Nov 2, 1898 (Temp #2) to:
Northern Lakes Steamship Co., Detroit MI (home port to Detroit MI)
Entered service 1898
Sold 1899 to Ashtabula Steamship Co., Cleveland OH, Pickands Mather & Co., Mgr. (home port to Ashtabula OH)
Sold 1900 to Pittsburgh Steamship Co., Duluth MN (home port to Duluth MN)
(This fleet was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie to compete with John D. Rockefeller’s Bessemer Steamship Co. When the United States Steel Corporation was founded in early 1901, the 99 vessels in five other fleets joined the thirteen vessels then in this fleet to become the ore-carrying arm of the Corporation, at 112 vessels the largest fleet on the Great Lakes.)
Cargo hold rebuilt 1922 to arch construction at Cleveland OH
Remeasured at 50.0 beam and 4150 GT, 2555 NT
Traded in 1943 with six other vessels of the fleet to U. S. War Shipping Administration, Washington DC on the purchase price of strs. Sewell Avery, George A. Sloan and Robert C. Stanley. Operated during World War II by Pittsburgh Steamship Co.
Laid up end of 1944 season at Erie PA
Sold for scrap 1946 to Steel Company of Canada. Towed to Hamilton ON and scrapped there.
See history in Detroit Marine Historian Feb 1962 (#126)
Also in Great Lakes Ships We Remember p. 48
X801
Hello, My father purchased the brass ship’s bell from the Clarence A. Black in 1946, and I inhrited it. It now has a proud place at the family enclave on lake Sebago , Maine. I live in Concord h.H., but grew up in what was then North Girard Pa, now known as Lke City. The abpve website ss that of my son. Mine is anne.ward8@comcast.net.
My father Glenn Allison Darling sailed on the Clarence A. Black under Captain Pensinhagen from the late 1930’s through 1940. After WWII began he stayed with shipping on the Great Lakes until he joined the Merchant Marine and sailed the North Atlantic to Le Harve France, England and Murmansk (Molotov) Russia. I’m happy to hear that the ship’s bell lives on with you and your family.