On this day July 28, 1888, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, launched her largest ship ever built – the steambarge HELENA. (Originally posted July 28, 2025)
HELENA being built at Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Photo at top of page: Painting of the launch of the HELENA by Plymouth artist Dan Ruzzi. Photo by Robert Melzer
The HELENA was built by the youngest shipbuilders on the Lakes, Messrs. Rieboldt & Wolters, for the Milwaukee Tug Boat Co. She measured 290 feet keel, 318 feet overall, 41 feet beam and 26 feet depth. She had four masts with topmasts, three sails, and two stacks, and cost about $140,000. She was named in honor of Miss Helena Meyer, the daughter of W. H. Meyer, the superintendent of the Milwaukee Tug Boat Co.
HELENA ready for launching at Rieboldt & Wolter Shipyard, July 1888.
HELENA before her launch
The launch drew many from surrounding areas. The train leaving Milwaukee was like a who’s who of Milwaukee maritime people. Below was printed in the Milwaukee Journal on Saturday, July 28th about the event and in 1888 descriptions:
“It was a large and very jolly crowd which was gathered on the platform of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western railway station at 11 o’clock this morning. Portly gentlemen, matronly ladies, young men and maidens all bore a look of pleased anticipation as they chatted gaily with one another or greeted some new and equally happy appearing arrival. An accurate estimate of their number was impossible, but it is safe to say that there were between 150 and 200, all the guests of the officers of the Milwaukee Tug Boat company, awaiting the special coaches which were to convey them to Sheboygan to witness the launching of the mammoth steambarge which Messrs. Rieboldt & Wolters, of that city, have recently built for the company. Among the excursionists were C. H. Starke and family, F. C. Starke and family, C. Starke and family, W. H. Meyer and family, D. W. Howie and family, W. Simpson and family, H. M. Benjamin and family, John Schroeder and family, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Wolf, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Schroeder, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Luenzmann, Mr. and Mrs. F. Vogel, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Kratz, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Liedermann, Messrs. David, W. F. Fette, Chas. G. Meyer, John Joys, Samuel Joys, James Sheriffs, and a great many others. Upon arriving in Sheboygan lunch was served, after which the guests will inspect the barge previous to the launching which is scheduled to take place at 3 o’clock. “
HELENA at Rieboldt & Wolter Shipyard, July 1888.
The launch was a very popular event in Sheboygan with nearly the whole town turning out as well as visitors from all around. The crowd was estimated at over 10,000 people. Most every company in town had contributed in some way to the building of the HELENA. She was a great example of the industry and craftsmanship of Sheboygan. It was reported that when she glided into the water at 4:05 pm it was “like a seagull from a log”.
HELENA just after her launch at Rieboldt & Wolter July 28, 1888.
The HELENA was breaking cargo records all that summer. The Marine Record of the November 29, 1888 wrote:
“The big Milwaukee propeller HELENA left Buffalo recently for Milwaukee with her seventh load of coal, today up there. The HELENA is called the largest wooden carrier afloat and her record, says the Buffalo Express, is worth looking over. She was launched on July 28 and left Milwaukee for Buffalo on August 8 with 96,800 bushels of wheat. Since that she has brought from Chicago to this port four loads of corn of 96,800, 95,700, 95,300 and 92,250 bushels each. The whole five loads aggregating 476,350 bushels. What is very curious is the fact she has overrun every time. She has also brought down 2,480 tons of ore to Ashtabula and 2,350 to Fairport, or 4,780 tons in all, coming here each time for coal. Her seven loads of coal foot up 18,418 tons, and it is claimed that one load taken to Milwaukee was somehow 300 tons short of an average on the usual draft. Here is a record of three months and a half that does the boat and her master, Captain Leisk, very proud especially as she has had no serious accident during the time. In little over a hundred days the boat has carried between Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, in round figures, 500,000 bushels of grain, 5,000 tons of ore and 20,000 tons of coal.”
HELENA as a grain dryer
The HELENA had a good career. She was sold in 1900 to the Gilchrist Transportation Co. About 1913 she was sold to the Armour Grain Co. of Chicago and converted into a floating grain elevator. She was considered a one of its kind floating grain elevator. The elevator contained drying vents and she would dry the grain while enroute to her destination.
Model of the HELENA built by Captain Raymond Groh of Sheboygan. Photo by Robert Melzer.
On September 17, 1918, the HELENA was bound from Cleveland to Toledo when she went ashore at Little Chicken Island in Lake Erie. There were 22 on board at the time. No lives were lost. A storm the next day battered her and filled her with water. She settled on the bottom. A few days later when the weather allowed, she was found too damaged to be rescued and was given up to the underwriters.
Suzette Lopez
PHOTO CREDITS: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
