Sunday, July 22, 2007

Whatever floats your boat

Cool ship, eh? Plans to build her were signed by Abe Lincoln, but drunk politicians delayed its construction until after the weirdly-bearded Honest Dude got shot by that guy, Booth, who by the way had spent time conspring in Montreal, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, this ol' floater was called the U.S.S. Essex -- and how original! It was the third of four U.S. ships to bear that name but the only one never to serve in wartime (not that that makes it yeller).
We only mention it because it was on this date -- July 22 -- in 1904 that this here shipperoonie was just one of a jillion docked in the port of Montreal, no less. It was here to be handed over by some guy called Lieut. Nicklett to some other guy with even more stripes on his shoulders, Captain Edward McNelly. It had a hapless trip south: the picture shows her trapped on some U.S. river shoal just one month after the handover.
Already more than 30 years old by that time, the ol' creeper ended up doing some kinda Great Lakes service. In 1931, its new owner, A.J. Klatzky of Minnesota, took whatever was worth saving from 'er and set her alight on Lake Superior -- yee haw! If this story tugs at your hamstrings, don't tell us. It's way out of our jurisdiction. Call the folks at the Minnesota Historical Society. They'll talk your ear off.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Love to get comments! Please, please, please speak your mind !
Links welcome - please google "how to embed a link" it'll make your comment much more fun and clickable.