On this day September 15, 1915, the Goodrich steamer NEVADA was launched in Manitowoc by the Manitowoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. She was built entirely of steel and measured 212 feet in length by 42 feet in beam. Built for freight service along the west shore of Lake Michigan, she had a speed of 18 knots an hour.
In 1917, the NEVADA caught the eye of an agent for the Russian government. His interest was her useful appearance and use as an ice breaker. An offer was made and Goodrich sold her to Russia for $750,000. On her way out of the Lakes and through the St. Lawrence River, her boilers were burned out and ruined, reportedly by a German spy. Once repaired, the NEVADA sailed through the Panama Canal to eastern Russia, was renamed ROGDAY and put into active service.
NEVADA, November 1, 1915
In 1920 with the war ended, the ROGDAY was in San Francisco and purchased by the Pere Marquette Company for their cross lake passenger and freight service based in Milwaukee. She was brought back to the Lakes and renamed NEVADA.
Her trip home from California was a long one through the Panama Canal, up the Atlantic coast to the St. Lawrence River. The crew was not happy at the end of their journey. Below is a report from New London, Connecticut, printed in the Milwaukee Sentinel of February 28, 1921.
“New London, Conn. – Police were called to the pier to prevent trouble when the crew of the ice breaker NEVADA, which ended a long voyage from Vladivostok on Sunday, was paid off.
“Capt. Hellsten said there had been some Bolshevik agitation among the crew of thirty-eight men during the forty-six days from the Pacific coast. An attempt was made to disable the steering gear, he added, but it was not successful. He attributed most of the trouble to drunken firemen.
“After the men had been paid, several remained on the vessel and declared they intended to libel the NEVADA because they received no overtime pay.”
Photo at top of page: NEVADA as a passenger boat
The NEVADA laid up there until the opening of the St. Lawrence River that spring. Then she proceeded to Manitowoc in early May and was rebuilt with a full length cabin for passenger traffic. Pere Marquette’s service ran between Milwaukee, Ludington and Manistee.
Nevada in Milwaukee below the Broadway bridge, April 1937
The NEVADA was a common site in Milwaukee for years. She again entered military service in 1942, this time for the US. She served proudly for two years delivering tanks, trucks and other heavy military equipment from the US to Canada, Greenland and Great Britain. She went down in the North Atlantic about 200 miles south of Greenland during a raging storm with 20 foot waves. She was able to send out distress signals before sinking. A Coast Guard cutter arrived and rescued 29 of her crew but she took 34 lives with her.
Suzette Lopez
PHOTO CREDIT: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
