This is an amusing story of a sweetheart of a captain who sailed the WILLIAM F. STIFEL. The STIFEL was built in 1908 at St. Clair, Mich., by the Great Lakes Engineering Works for the Ashtabula Steamship Co. as the NORMANIA. She was a 420 foot steel bulk cargo steamer and was renamed the STIFEL in 1915.
Photo at top of page: WILLIAM F. STIFEL in 1941
Her captain Elias Andreas had sailed around the world and around Cape Horn on sailing ships before coming to the lakes. He was very popular on the Lakes. A good description would seem to be, he had one in every port, as you will see from the following two articles printed in the Great Lakes News of November 1940 and May 1941.
“Capt. Elias Andreas, 65, was stricken aboard his ship, the Str. WM. F. STIFEL, with heart failure, when at Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, about 40 miles out of the Soo. U. S. Coast Guards were called who removed him from his ship and brought to Saulte Ste. Marie, and passed on while on the way to the hospital. He sailed around the world and around Cape Horn on sailing ships before coming to the lakes. He served on sailing vessels owned out of Milwaukee, then served in the Pickands-Mather, Tomlinson and later went with the old W. C. Richardson fleet, now the Columbia Transportation Corporation. He was mate on the Steamer HOWARD M. HANNA, when she left the shipyard new in 1914, with the late Capt. John Babbitt of Lorain in command. Capt. Andreas has commanded ships, the past ten years. Burial was at Milwaukee.”
“A SWEETHEART IN EVERY PORT
“No one got a better kick out of life than Capt. Elias Andreas who commanded the Oglebay Norton steamer W. F. STIFEL. Off Whitefish point last summer Capt. “Andy” answered the summons and then he left a will too. It said, “I bequeath to the last lady friend just before my demise $500.00.” From every port came the word that she was the latest sweetheart of “Andy” and it has kept Art Scher his attorney at Milwaukee busy trying to make a decision. Only fifteen claimants from as many ports said that they were Capt. Andy’s last girl.“
He seemed to be a captain who gave out his heart and in the end, his heart gave out. The STIFEL sailed on for 20 more years after Capt. Andy left her. She was sold to Canadian Shipbreakers in the fall of 1960 and left for Genoa in February 1961.
WILLIAM F. STIFEL dated December 12, 1927 in subzero weather loaded with 7,000 tons of coal
WILLIAM F. STIFEL docked
WILLIAM F. STIFEL in 1936
Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
