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IgnoreThe Muskegon (aka Peerless) was a steamer vessel built as a combination passenger and package freight vessel for the Leopold and Austrian Lake Superior Line out of Chicago. It was constructed in 1872 as the Peerless by Ira Lafinter at Cleveland, Ohio. This vessel was part of a class of package-freighters that were built to serve as multi-purpose non-bulk freight and passenger carriers. When the Peerless was first in service, primarily as a passenger freighter, it had a main salon with clerestory windows and a specially designed dome with stained glass windows. In addition to the main salon, the Peerless had two separate salons, one for women and one for men. The Peerless was renamed the Muskegon in 1908 after the Muskegon and Chicago Navigation Company purchased the ship. This vessel was re-fitted twice: once as a bulk cargo carrier for lumber (lumber- hooker) and later as a sand-sucker. Because of its re-fitting, it was considered a package-freighter. There was also folklore that the Muskegon served as a floating gambling house and bordello for a very brief time around 1907-1908.
Reportedly the vessel burned to just above the water line at the Indiana Transportation Company’s dock. The cause of the blaze was believed to be the ignition of kerosene or oil residue that was near the boilers. The vessel sunk at the dock after the fire and stayed there until June 10, 1911, when the vessel was re-floated and towed out of the harbor to be scuttled. No lives were lost when the ship burned and the Indiana Transportation Company salvaged some of the sand-sucking machinery which was then later added to the J. D. Marshall. The Muskegon is listed in the National Register of Historic Places because it is representative of a variant type within the specialized class of steam powered vessels and because it contains unique naval architectural design features of a distinct class of package/freighters constructed during the 1870s.
The Muskegon propeller (or screw) has four blades that measure approximately three feet long from the hub to the tip of each blade, with each blade approximately two feet wide. The propeller is almost six feet in diameter.
Gears transfer energy from the engine to the propeller shaft so that the propeller will turn. Propellers are the piece of the ship’s machinery that convert power from rotation into thrust to move a ship forward or backwards.
Throughout the vessel’s useful life, numerous repairs were made. In 1895, as the Peerless, the engine malfunctioned and the ship required at least one new boiler. When the Muskegon was scuttled in 1911 and settled on the bottom of Lake Michigan, miscellaneous equipment spilled onto the lakebed.
The boilers consist of two parts: the boiler and the exhaust tube (pre-heater). They have both spilled out of the starboard side of the wreckage. When the Muskegon was the Peerless, the vessel was equipped with dual boilers, capable of 60 pounds of pressure.
The boilers consist of two parts: the boiler and the exhaust tube (pre-heater). They have both spilled out of the starboard side of the wreckage. When the Muskegon was the Peerless, the vessel was equipped with dual boilers, capable of 60 pounds of pressure.
Valves on boilers controlled the circulation of hot steam or water from in the heating system. The Muskegon boilers were fire-box boilers that operated at 80 revolutions per minute (rpm). Both the engine and boilers were built by Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
The propeller shaft was the machinery that transferred the energy from the engine to the propeller. In 1896, it was reported that the Peerless became disabled when it broke a crank shaft when entering the Portage canal and had to be towed to Portage, Wisconsin, by the tug Zenith. Two pieces of modern pipe lie alongside the propeller shaft, and are sometimes exposed when they are unburied from the sand.
Several times the Peerless suffered engine damage. In 1898, a problem was caused by a connecting rod to the engine that broke during bad weather. Additional repairs were made that included adding new keel to the forward and aft of the ship, some new bottom planks, caulking on the bottom and sides, and a fastening wheel.
When the Muskegon was the Peerless the vessel was equipped with a large, single piston drive, reciprocating engine. The engine now lies off to the side of the hull, but most of the gears and framework remain in the center of the wreck.
The hull was constructed using two rib sets per frame affixed to planking with square spikes.
On the shipwreck site, there are several pieces of modern pipe that measure two feet in diameter and over 400 feet long. One piece has worked its way underneath the ship’s hull planking. Two pieces of this modern pipe lie alongside the propeller shaft from the middle of the wreck to just past the propeller.