By Chris Winters

The former USS CHIWAWA now the LEE A. TREGURTHA receives new dual-fuel Bergen diesel engines, July, 2006. Interlake’s decorated WWII veteran became the first vessel on the Great Lakes with a fully automated engine room.  

The LEE A. TREGURTHA was launched on June 25, 1942 as the CHIWAWA by Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point, Maryland, under a Maritime Commission contract as the SS SAMOSET.  As the CHIWAWA she received two battle stars for her World War II service and was decommissioned on May 6, 1946.   Idle for years, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company purchased her in 1959-60 and rebuilt her for Great Lakes use.   In 1961, basically a new ship having been lengthened and widened, she was christened WALTER A. STERLING in honor of Cliffs’ chairman.  In 1978 she was converted into a self-unloader.   Cleveland Cliffs sold her in 1985 to the Ford Motor Co. (later Rouge Steel) who renamed her WILLIAM CLAY FORD.  In 1989 she joined the Interlake Steamship Co., for whom she still sails, and was renamed LEE A. TREGURTHA in honor of the wife of Interlake’s vice chairman.

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Chris Winters is a Trustee and Vice President of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society, a well-known author and has been a photojournalist for over 25 years.  He and his cameras have enjoyed a privileged glimpse into the lives of merchant mariners aboard some of the Great Lakes best-known and best-loved vessels.