The Wisconsin Connection
By James Heinz
In a previous posting I had talked about “TITANIC: The Wisconsin Connection”, the exhibition of TITANIC artifacts displayed at the Oshkosh Museum this past summer. The exhibit displayed one artifact that most likely belonged to a Wisconsin resident: a piece of paper currency printed by a bank in Merrill, WI.
In those days local banks printed their own money, which is why money used to be called “bank notes”. Andrew Coxson, one of the passengers who did not survive the TITANIC, was a popcorn vender from Merrill, and since no one else on the ship was from Merrill, the piece of paper currency was almost certainly his.
The Oshkosh exhibit also told a story is about another Wisconsin resident, a Milwaukee ship owner who is reputed to have refused to purchase adequate life boats for his own vessels, and who supposedly died on the TITANIC because he could not find a life boat. He was actually taking a voyage on the TITANIC in an effort to conceal a sex scandal. He and his family would go on another voyage together even after their death. That man has also left us tangible relics of something he owned: Shipwrecks.
Edward Gifford Crosby, the son of Warren and Louisa Crosby, was born near Rochester, New York, on February 18, 1842. His mother was supposedly a cousin of Abraham Lincoln. He and his family moved to Michigan in 1856.
In August of 1861, he enlisted in Company E of the 1st Regiment, Michigan Cavalry. The 1st Michigan was part of the famed Michigan Brigade commanded by none other than George Armstrong Custer himself, who would lead them in cavalry charges by shouting, “Come on, you Wolverines.”
The National Park Service website shows that the 1st Michigan was formed in September 1861 and went on to participate in every major battle or campaign of the Union Army of the Potomac, including Gettysburg. It participated in the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac at the end of the war and was then sent to the Dakotas to fight Native Americans until it was disbanded in March 1866.
Crosby’s enlistment in the 1st Michigan ended after three years. He then enlisted in the Veteran Reserve Corps, which consisted of disabled or sick soldiers who performed light duties to free able bodied men to fight. Crosby was discharged in 1866, on April 14, a date that would later prove significant in his life.
On April 18, 1868, he married Catherine Elizabeth Halstead (born on October 26, 1847 or 1848), and they had three children: Martha (born around 1870), Harriette (born on October 8, 1872) and Frederick (born June 2, 1881). Sadly Martha died in 1880 from appendicitis.
In 1871, Crosby moved to Muskegon, Mich. He bought a small tugboat which he used to tow log rafts.
In 1881, he founded the E. G. Crosby Company which engaged in marine construction. Crosby supervised the construction of numerous breakwater and harbor facilities along the east shore of Lake Michigan and at Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee on the west shore.
In 1892, he commissioned the tugboat E. G. CROSBY from the Duncan Anderson shipyard at Grand Haven, Mich. She was the first of three ships Crosby owned that he named for himself. She was 84 gross tons, 89 feet long and 18.2 feet wide. She was dismantled in 1914. Her name never changed.
In partnership with other Muskegon businessmen, Crosby began buying steamers for cross lake package good cargo hauling. WMHS files show that in 1893 he purchased the steamer NYACK. She had been built in 1878 at the Union Dry Dock Company at Buffalo NY. She was a wooden propeller package freight/passenger steamer of 1,257 tons. She was 231 feet long, 33 feet wide, and drew 14.7 feet of water. Crosby placed her on the Milwaukee to Grand Haven to Muskegon route.
In 1896, Crosby bought the iron propeller steamer WISCONSIN. WMHS files show that she had been built in 1881 at the Detroit Dry Dock Company. She was 1,921 tons and 209 feet long, and 40 feet wide and drew 21 feet of water.
Wikipedia tells us: “Her design was progressive in several ways. She had an iron hull in an era when most ships were still built of wood. That hull was a double hull, with a max 3.8-foot space between the iron outer hull and the iron floor of the hold. This 3.8-foot space between the hulls was divided into five watertight compartments, which could be independently filled or emptied with ballast water, to adjust for light loads or top-heavy loads. Her front was clad with a rounded iron forefoot which could be pushed up onto ice floes so the ship’s weight could break through. The WISCONSIN and her sister ship MICHIGAN were the first double-hulled iron steamers on the Great Lakes.”
In March 1885, she was trapped in the Lake Michigan ice for 18 days and suffered $40,000 in ice damage. On August 21, 1885, while she was outbound, she ran over a small sailboat in the Milwaukee River and one of the sailboat’s four occupants drowned. Crosby renamed her the NAOMI in 1898.
The Crosbys lived in Muskegon Michigan, until they moved to Milwaukee in 1897 and in 1903 founded the Crosby Transportation Company. Titanica Encyclopedia says that the Crosby Transportation Company was capitalized at 2,000 shares at $100 each, for a total of $200,000.
Wikipedia says: “The Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad’s subsidiary company operating its Lake Michigan railroad car ferry operations between Muskegon, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1905 to 1978. The Montreal-based Grand Trunk Railway of Canada’s entry into car ferry operations started by signing an operating agreement with the Crosby Transportation Company, which established the Grand Trunk Car Ferry Line. The new line began building docking slips in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Grand Haven, Michigan. The Grand Trunk Car Ferry Line dissolved in 1905 when it defaulted on bonds.” It was recreated under the name Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company, with the Crosby Transportation Company operating the ferries.
The Grand Trunk line at the time was run by Charles Hays. He and Crosby formed a lasting friendship, which would later come to an eerie and tragic conclusion.
Crosby would own a number of ships, several of which, in a premonition of what would happen to their owner, suffered disasters at sea.
One of these ships was the CONESTOGA. WMHS records show that she was built at Cleveland, Ohio, at Thomas Quayle and Sons for the Erie and Western Transportation Line (known as the Anchor Line) and launched July 6, 1878. She was a double planked wooden propeller package freighter. Her hull was stiffened by hog braces of the arch type. She displaced 2008 tons, was 253 feet long, 36 feet wide, and drew 15 feet of water. Her propeller was made by the Sheriff Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee.
WMHS records show that on November 23, 1899, she collided with the new Chicago water intake crib in a dense fog, “and smashed in her stem and bow from the sail to the forefoot, causing her to leak so badly that she sank at the entrance to the Chicago River with her main deck about three feet under water.” The Dunham Wrecking Company began working on her the same day and raised and towed her to a dock two days later.
In 1906, she was sold to the Crosby Transportation Company. WMHS files say that at that time she was extensively remodeled, “The old style arches will be cut down flush with the deck and cabin accommodations will be provided for fifty passengers.” In addition, a metal skin was added to cover the hull to enable operations in light ice conditions.
WMHS files show that on the night of May 21, 1907, the NAOMI caught fire in the middle of Lake Michigan, 28 miles northwest of Grand Haven, while on her way to Milwaukee. The fire apparently began in her cargo under the foredeck. After the watchman discovered the fire, the 35 man crew directed seven streams of water into the hold. They did not alert the passengers until they determined that the fire could not be contained. The 56 passengers were roused and told to shelter on the stern. The crew captain toured the cabins three times, and the captain personally forced open every locked door.
The NAOMI’s crew knew that the steamer KANSAS would be passing them about 1 am. NAOMI’s whistle signals alerted the KANSAS, and the passengers were transferred to her and two other freighters, one of which, the steamer E. G. KERR, placed its bow against the stern of the burning NAOMI, an action for which her captain received a gold watch. Despite these efforts, one passenger and four crew men died.
The NAOMI burned almost to the water line. Because the lake was calm, her fellow Crosby steamer KANSAS was able to tow her into Grand Haven. She suffered $135,000 in damage to a ship valued at $155,000, along with $25,000 of cargo lost. Edward Crosby at first told the press he did not know if he would rebuild the NAOMI. Eventually he decided to have her rebuilt at Manitowoc, a process that took 2 years. The ship was widened by 6 feet. When it was finished, the NAOMI was renamed E. G. CROSBY.
At this point we should cue up the music from the Twilight Zone: in an ominous foreshadowing, another one of Crosby’s ships was sunk by colliding with…ice! And her sister ship NAOMI would be involved.
WMHS files show that the wooden JOHN V. MORAN was built by Frank W. Wheeler in Bay City, Mich., in 1888. She was 1,350 gross tons, 214 feet in length, with a beam of 37 feet. Her hull had both top loading hatches and side opening hatches to carry both bulk freight and package freight. Her hull was heavily reinforced with iron to resist ice damage. Crosby bought the MORAN in 1898 for $50,000.
WMHS files tell us that the MORAN left Milwaukee on February 9, 1899, at 1 pm with a crew of 25 and 1,220 tons of cargo, including 9,550 barrels of flower, bound for Grand Haven, Mich. In mid lake she met her fellow Crosby ship NAOMI and both ships continued together toward Grand Haven.
It was an unusually cold winter, the second coldest on record. The high temperature at Milwaukee that day was 14 degrees below zero. It was reported that there was less than five miles of open water between Grand Haven and Milwaukee. The MORAN and NAOMI battled ice together as they fought their way across Lake Michigan.
Late that evening the MORAN began taking on water. The crew could not locate the leak and the pumps could not keep up with the water. MORAN’s captain signaled the NAOMI and the crew climbed down onto the ice because they were afraid that the rising cold lake water would cause an explosion when it reached the red hot boilers.
The NAOMI picked up the crew at 12:30 am and then, also fearing a boiler explosion, backed off until daybreak when the NAOMI attached a line to the MORAN and attempted to tow her to Grand Haven. After proceeding 5 or 6 miles it was found impossible to tow the sinking ship through the heavy ice. The MORAN’s crew walked back to the MORAN and salvaged what they could. The NAOMI then took them to Grand Haven, leaving the MORAN stuck in the ice.
The MORAN was seen still afloat in the ice as late as February 12. Crosby dispatched ships from Milwaukee with divers and salvage equipment from Grand Haven. However, all three ships got stuck in the ice themselves and the MORAN was never seen afloat again. Crosby fired the NAOMI’s captain because the captain abandoned the MORAN. WMHS files show that the MORAN was worth $35,000 and her cargo $55,000.
And soon Edward Crosby and his family would meet their own fate on another ship that was sinking after it struck ice.
Photo at top of page:
Tug E. G. CROSBY built in 1892
Other photos:
PHOTO CREDIT: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
