By James Heinz
On March 5, 1953, the converted World War II cargo ship MARINE ANGEL oozed her way through downtown Chicago. A photo taken from a downtown Chicago building immortalized this event.
The MARINE ANGEL was built in 1945 at Sun Shipbuilding in Chester, Penn. She was one of 14 class C4-S-B2 cargo ships known as Victory Ships built at Sun, out of a total of 75 of the C-4 class of ship. These were the largest cargo ships built in World War II by the U.S. Maritime Commission.
Wikipedia tells us that the MARINE ANGEL’s original dimensions were: 11, 1757 gross tons, 520 feet long, 71.6 feet wide, with a draft of 30 feet. A 9,000 hp steam turbine drove her at 17 knots.
According to news reports in the WMHS files, a former crew member who viewed the ship inching down the Chicago River said that the MARINE ANGEL carried 250 soldiers and had a 100 bed hospital tended by doctors and nurses. The ship never saw combat but at one point fired on Japanese fishing boats that were believed to be disguised warships. She was in service from April 1945 to March 1946 as part of Operation Magic Carpet, the return home of eight million World War II service members.
After the war, it appears that the MARINE ANGEL was placed in the reserve fleet. However, the outbreak of the Korean War and the postwar economic recovery caused the demand for steel to rise so sharply that Great Lakes shipbuilders could not meet demand.
According to WMHS files, the Cleveland-Cliffs shipping line announced that they planned to convert the MARINE ANGEL to a Great Lakes bulk carrier. The Bethlehem Shipbuilding yard in Baltimore took 90 days to build forward cabins in the style of the classic Great Lakes bulker, add an additional 165 foot midsection, and rebuild the ship’s hatches to conform to Great Lakes standards. When they were done the MARINE ANGEL was 620 feet long and 62 feet wide.
Since the St. Lawrence Seaway was not yet open, in order to get the MARINE ANGEL to the Great Lakes she was towed down the Atlantic coast and across the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River. The MARINE ANGEL’s cabins were dismantled and stowed in the hold so the ship could clear bridges on the river. Pontoons were fitted to the sides of the ship to add buoyancy to aid in passing shallow spots on the river.
Then, the ship was towed up the Mississippi to the Illinois River and then through the Illinois Waterway to the Chicago River. This left the towing company with the problem of squeezing the giant ship through the bends of the downtown Chicago River. An even bigger challenge awaited them just before they got to Lake Michigan.
Around 1900 the City of Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the river did not flow into Lake Michigan, but rather Lake Michigan flowed backward into the Illinois River. This was done so that Chicago would not have to drink the sewage it dumped into Lake Michigan. The city would flush it’s sewage down the Illinois River. The reaction from downstream communities can best be described as unenthusiastic. The reversal was accomplished by building a 600 foot long lock that controls the flow of water from Lake Michigan into the Chicago River at the spot where the river meets the Lake.
All the towing company had to do was fit a 620 foot long ship into a 600 foot long lock.
This was done by pushing the ship through the open land side lock gate until the bow just barely touched the inside of the lake side lock gate. The ship’s winches were connected with hawsers to land mooring posts. The lake side lock gate was then opened.
The ship then winched itself forward 20 feet against the force of the water rushing into the river from the Lake. When the ship had moved far enough forward for the stern to clear the land side lock gates, the gates were closed. The ship then moved into Lake Michigan. The towing company described the entire 3,000 mile odyssey as “a routine job”.
The MARINE ANGEL then went to Manitowoc, Wis., where Great Lakes style self-unloading equipment was installed. This was completed in October 1953 and the ship was renamed MCKEE SONS.
The conversion of a salt water World War II ship to a freshwater bulk carrier was so successful that five wartime tankers were converted to Great Lakes ships. However, these were done after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 made it much easier to move them to the Lakes. I profiled one of these ships that still sails the Lakes, the LEE TREGURTHA, in a March 9, 2021, blog post.
The MCKEE SONS continued in service until she was laid up from 1979 to 1990. In 1991 she was converted to the barge component of an integrated tug barge unit at Menomonee, Mich., by the removal of her engines and a notch cut in her stern. The web site Vessel Tracker.com indicates that she has been tied up since 2014.
James Heinz
Photos:
The MARINE ANGEL executes the tight turn past the Wrigley Building and narrowly misses the side of the river where the Trump Tower now stands Milwaukee Journal photo
McKEE SONS with INVINCIBLE in Rouge River, Dearborn, Mich., December 27, 2005. Photo by Craig Olson
McKEE SONS with INVINCIBLE in the Calumet River, August 19, 2004. Photo by Craig Olson
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
