| The Port’s Past The story of the Whitney by C.P. Labadie
Whitney Brothers sand and
some time before 1910 they acquired a large plot of land between Baxter and Cummings Avenues on the Superior bayfront, where they set up a shipyard for construction of wooden tugs, derrick-scows, and barges. Historical records are sketchy, but it is clear that they built dozens of vessels there during the next years, both for their own use and for other customers. With the advent of World War I, the firm negotiated a contract with the U.S. Shipping Board’s Emergency Fleet Corporation to construct 10 steel tugs for the war effort. Each of the big seagoing craft would be 150 feet long and 16 feet wide, driven by 850-horsepower triple expansion steam engines. Whitneys laid out a modern steel shipbuilding plant on its waterfront property and hired up to 1,200 men during the brief shipbuilding boom. The first of the tugs was launched January 15, 1919, and the other nine followed at regular intervals. When the war ended, the shipyard had a stock of materials left over, and the Whitneys built a 105-foot tug for their own use. It was christened William A. Whitney and launched on May 10, 1920. The Whitney was constructed with steel plating that had been rolled for the much larger Shipping Board tugs, and so it was somewhat over-built. It was de-signed with a cutaway forefoot (stem), making it particularly good for ice-breaking. It was powered by a 450-horsepower triple-expansion steam engine from the Whitneys’ old wooden tug The Moose, a 95-footer that had been built by the firm in 1907. By all standards, the Whitney was a very powerful tug. The Whitney firm merged with Merritt & Chapman in 1930 to form Merritt Chapman & Whitney, a major marine contracting and salvage firm based out of New York City and Cleveland, Ohio. The tug Whitney went to the new firm, working out of Cleveland. She suffered a serious fire at Toledo in October 1942 that nearly ended her career. The Whitney returned to Duluth in 1963, when she was bought by Zenith Dredge Company to tow the dipper dredges Duluth and Superior. She proved costly to operate because she required engineers experienced and licensed for steam, and so she was not used much after her return to the Head of the Lakes. Zenith finally sold her to the Gaelic Tugboat Company of Detroit, Mich., in 1975. It was at that point that the Whitney got a new lease on life. Gaelic pulled out the old boiler and steam engine and donated the engine to the Great Lakes Historical Society in Cleveland. The antique powerplant was replaced with a modern 2,000 horsepower diesel, and the tug was put back to work, now towing barges with rock salt and petroleum products in the Detroit River and Lake Erie. She proved that she was still one of the best ice-breakers around. In 1991 Gaelic chartered the Whitney to the Hannah Marine Corporation of Lamont, Ill., to haul petroleum barges. While in the employ of the Hannah fleet, the tug was badly damaged by a freak accident. A heavy towing cable left hanging over the side was caught in the tug’s propeller, and it was twisted so tightly that it distorted the vessel’s steel hull. Gaelic settled with Hannah by selling Hannah the tug. Hannah rechristened the tug as Peggy D. Hannah in 1992 and, under that name, it is still in service around Chicago. The talk is, however, that she "walks with a little limp." We haven’t seen her under-way to confirm that allegation. Pat Labadie is director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth.
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The
historical feature about "Fort Whitney" in the last issue of Minnesota’s
World Port magazine brought a number of comments, and it also spurred a few questions
about the big steam tug William A. Whitney, which was built to haul lake gravel to
the innovative but star-crossed unloading dock out on the lakeshore. The handsome old tug
often was tied up at 13th Avenue West during the 1960s and ’70s. 
gravel
business dates to 1889. It was begun by William A. Whitney and E. Harvey Whitney of
Duluth. At the turn of the century, they operated the tugs Major Dana and E.G.
Maxwell with the barges Ben Brink and Interstate. Their docks and
offices were on the water-front near the old Globe Elevator in Superior. At 
