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You auto have seen it!
It was the ordinary bulk freighters and the "package boats," however, which were best known for hauling cars by the thousands. No one seems to remember exactly when the practice began or whose idea it was, but several fleets regularly carried shiny new cars from the Motor City as early as the 1920s. The Port Huron & Duluth Steamship Company operated the package freighters Lakeport, Lakeland and Lakewood, which all carried cars in that era. So did the old Spokane, first steel freighter on the Lakes, and even the antique wooden steamers Fleetwood and Thomas Davidson. In the 1930s the distinctive ocean freighters of Duluth's own Minnesota Atlantic Transit Company, the "Poker Fleet," always had deck loads of cars, as did the handsome white package boats
of the Great Lakes Transit Company. Both outfits carried refrigerated dairy products back down the Lakes to Detroit and Cleveland. These vessels loaded and unloaded in the Commerce Slip where the William A. Irvin lies today; that's where the old Northern Pacific No. 6 freight sheds were originally. Big, awkward wood-frame scaffolds were erected alongside the docks where the autos could be driven ashore. Similar ramps were later constructed on the NP No. 2 dock off Garfield Avenue, at the McDougall Terminals at 9th Avenue West and at the NW Hanna No. 4 site on Garfield Avenue, later the location of the Hyman-Michaels dock. During the wartime years and into the 1960s, many of the boats of the Nicholson, Wilson, Gartland, Hanna, Midland and Columbia fleets carried new autos north to the Head of the Lakes and hauled ore or grain back south. On Lake Erie, the smaller McCarthy Steamship Company boats were fitted with "flight decks" and extra "tween decks," which enabled them to load as many as 400 cars. Their T.J. McCarthy, George W. Mead and George H. Ingalls were exclusively auto carriers, with elevators to gain access to the various decks for loading and unloading. Not all of the new cars survived the thousand-mile journey unscathed. Deck loads were particularly susceptible to damage in the Upper Lakes' storms. Fall gales sometimes took a toll as cars could be swept over the sides of tossing ships, to disappear into the icy depths of Lake Huron or Lake Superior. As many as 30,000 cars in a single season made the trip in safety, though, in those days before the advent of highway and rail auto carriers. Their arrival in the Twin Ports was part of the rich flavor of this special place. Pat Labadie is the director of the Lake Superior Maritime Museum. |
For
many years Great Lakes ships formed the connecting link between the
automobile plants in Detroit and the big city markets all around the
Midwest. In addition, passenger steamers traditionally hauled cars in
their "tween decks" as a special accommodation to travelers.
They loaded through gangways in their sides. Brochures published by
the Great Lakes Transit Company, Northern Navigation Company and the
Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company all advertised that
option for passengers who booked one-way trips to the Head of the Lakes.
The larger liners could handle dozens of cars. 
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