FLORIDA (1889, Package Freighter)

Description

Identification

Construction and Ownership

Built at:: Buffalo, NY
Vessel Type:: Package Freighter; Note: Twin stacks, plain head with a round stern.
Hull Materials:: Wood
Number of Decks:: 2
Builder Name:: Robert Mills & Co.
Original Owner and Location:: Peter P. Miller et al (Kelderhouse syndicate), Buffalo, NY.

Power

Number of Masts:: 3
Propulsion:: Screw
Engine Type:: Triple Expansion
# Cylinders:: 3
# Boilers:: 2
Propulsion Notes:: 20, 32 & 52' x 45" engine, 650hp, H.G. Trout, Buffalo, NY, 1889. 11.5' x 12' scotch boiler.

Hull Dimensions

Final Disposition

Final Location:: Thunder Bay, MI.
Lake Huron.
Date:: 21 May 1897
Final Depth:: 250''
How:: Collision.
Final Cargo:: Four, general merchandise.
Notes:: Collided with steamer GEORGE W. ROBY in dense fog, sank 250' in 12 min. Wreck located in Jul., 1994.

History

Chronology:

1889, May 25 Enrolled Buffalo, NY; cost 135,000.

1889, Oct 12 Released by tugs MYSTIC & SWAIN at Sault St. Marie, MI. after lightening several hundred tons of coal.

1890, Apr 22 Chartered Lackawanna Transportation Co., to run coal & grain trade between Chicago, IL & Buffalo.

1893, Oct Ashore Whiting, IN; raised.

1894, Sep 14 Repaired.

1897, May 21 Sank, Lake Huron.

Notes

From the Collection of:: C. Patrick Labadie
Sources:: Steamboat Era in the Muskokas by Richard Tatley; Donald V. Baut; Dossin Great Lakes Museum; C. Patrick Labadie; William MacDonald Collection, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit; Milwaukee Public Library; Newspaper Clippings