On this day January 11, 1937, the PERE MARQUETTE 4 was fired upon and sunk by gunfire from the US Coast Guard about 11 miles off Evanston. 

         Photo at top of page is PERE MARQUETTE 4 being sunk by gunfire off Evanston, January 11, 1937

         PERE MARQUETTE 4

            The PERE MARQUETTE 4 was launched on Saturday, June 30, 1888, at the Detroit Dry Dock Company in Detroit as the F. & P. M. NO. 4 also known as the FLINT & PERE MARQUETTE NO. 4.     Built for the F. & P. M. Railroad Co. she measured 186.6 feet in length and 34.5 feet in beam and was wooden. She served as a passenger and package freight steamer.  In 1901 the Pere Marquette Railroad Co. dropped the “F. &” renaming her PERE MARQUETTE 4.

         At Sheboygan in 1908 with the temperature 23 below zero

         PERE MARQUETTE 4 crew and their names in 1915

            On May 15, 1923, PERE MARQUETTE 4 enroute from Ludington to Milwaukee collided with the PERE MARQUETTE 17 in heavy fog about 25 miles northeast of Milwaukee.  The result was a large hole in the bow of the 4.   It was above the water line and she made it to Milwaukee, only to be abandoned to the underwriters as a total loss.  The next month she was towed to Manistee and converted to a barge.  

          PERE MARQUETTE 4 as the Columbia Yacht Club located at the foot of Randolph Street in Chicago

In the spring of 1925, PERE MARQUETTE 4 was taken to Chicago, docked near the foot of Randolph Street and used as a club house for the Columbia Yacht Club where she stayed until being replaced by the sidewheel steamer FLORIDA in 1937.

With her time as a passenger steamer, barge and club house now over, she was towed off Evanston and used for target practice.

Suzette Lopez

Photo Credit:  Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.