Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Ludington Daily News Thursday, 23 October 1952 CAPT. BUTLER SAILED FIRST CARFERRY ON LAKE MICHIGAN by Leonore P. Williams One of the most enthusiastic in the welcoming throng to great the arrival of the new Chesapeake Ohio carferry, the SS SPARTAN, when she sailed into her home port of Ludington this morning was FRANK E. BUTLER, who sailed the first carferry to ply the waters of Lake Michi- gan back before the turn of the present century. CAPT. BUTLER, now retired and living quietly in his small apartment at 307 South Harrison street, has a wealth of memories of sailing ves- sels, cargo steamers, carferries and tug boats, each of them playing an important role in the development of marine traffic on the Great Lakes over a span of 70 long years. He has held his master's license for 64 years, a record achieved by few in the annals of Great Lakes shipping. Started as Fireman Starting as a boy of 16 at the job of fireman on the tugs in Mani- stee harbor, FRANK BUTLER worked summers on the tugs and went to school winters, shipping "before the mast" on lumber schooners and as deckhand on steamboats to earn in the hard way the master's license which was issued to him in 1888 when he was just 21 years old. FRANK E. BUTLER was born in Sheboygan, Wis., May 20, 1867, and, when only 18 months old, came across Lake Michigan with his parents, CAPT. and MRS. CHARLES J. BUTLER. The family first settled in Pent- water where the father engaged in fishing for two years. From Pent- water the fisherman moved his family, his fish boat and equipement north to Leeland. Then came the big Chicago fire of 1871 and at the same time the woods of Northern Michigan were engulfed in gigantic forest fires. CAPT. BUTLER traded his fishing outpost for a team of mules and wagon into which he loaded his family and all their posses- sions and drove down to Frankfort. At Frankfort the senior CAPT. BUTLER operated a harbor tug, moving booms of logs and vessels, and young FRANK went to school. The summer following his 16th birthday, FRANK BUTLER started out on his own sail- ing career as fireman on a tug in Manistee harbor. The harbor tugs of those days were the backbone of commerce and industry. They brought the logs and other supplies to the mills and carried away the manu- factured lumber products. Sailing vessels were helpless to enter or leave a port without the aid of a tug and the steam boats, too, relied of the guidance of the harbor tugs to safely reach their docks. For three years young BUTLER fired in the summer time and went to school winters. Next he shipped on the Schooner MINERAL STATE plying between Wisconsin ports and Cleveland, O., and from there he went onto a steam freighter carrying iron ore from Escanaba to Port Huron with coal for a return load. The world's first carferry, the Ann Arbor No. 1, was built in 1892 and in 1896 FRANK BUTLER shipped on her as second mate, rising to be master in 1898. This first carferry was a wooden hull with iron plat- ing fastened to her bow so she might serve as her own ice breaker in the winter time. She had two wheels aft and one forward, explained CAPT. BUTLER, the forward wheel being used to help in breaking the winter ice on Lake Michigan. Never Stopped For Winter "We could handle 22 freight cars," he said, "and carried flour, feed and grain going east and coal going west. Once each week we had an eastbound load of butter and eggs. We never stopped for weather, went through thick and thin and charted our course with just an old fashioned compass. We traveled between Frankfort and Manitowoc, Wis., and carried a few passengers along with our freight." CAPT. BUTLER vividly recalled one winter when his carferry re- mained frozen in the ice of Green Bay for 60 consecutive days and he and his crew of 30 men waited out the two months aboard ship. "It was not too bad though," he reminisced, "the mail stage operating over the ice between Menominee and Sturgeon Bay passed within a few feet of our ship every day and brought us our mail and supplies from the mainland. We were stuck just a mile from Green Island and the chief engineer, Al Ackerman, and I used to walk across the ice to the island where we borrowed the lighthouse keeper's rifle and dog and went rabbit hunt- ing. As our coal supply ran low more fuel was hauled out to us on sleighs by teams of horses." In July, 1900, CAPT. BUTLER came to Ludington to work as first mate on the new steel carferry PERE MARQUETTE (late the No. 15) under CAPT. JOHN ACKERMAN. He sailed as first mate and supply captain on the No. 15 and others of the Pere Marquette fleet but was mostly engaged during the winter months as captain of the tug W. L. MERCEREAU, the ice breaker which served as guardian angel to the big ferries coming in and out of port and kept the harbor channel open during their ab- sence that they might be assured a safe return. Recalls Harbor Feud CAPT. BUTLER interestingly recalled an old harbor feud between W. L. MERCEREAU, for many years superintendent of the Pere Marquette carferry fleet, and GEORGE KITZINGER, who operated the packet steamers steamers Pere Marquette Line Steamers Nos. 3 and 4, between Ludington and Milwaukee. "The black boats (PM Nos. 3 and 4)," said the captain, had a habit of traveling in the lane cut by the carferries during the bad weather and their arrivals and departures would be pretty well timed to take advantage of the path through the ice cut for the big ships. MR. MERCEREAU thought that KITZINGER should pay some of the expense of keeping the harbor open but in this KITZINGER did not agree as he reasoned his boats could get anywhere the carferries went and the tug had to operate to keep them moving. "One winter night the PM No. 3 wandered out of the carferry channel and became fast in the ice about a half mile off Ludington breakwater. KITZINGER decided to wait for a break in the weather rather than ap- peal for aid to MERCEREAU. For three days the little black boat lay helpless in the ice and then I got a call from the boss. KITZINGER had agreed to pay for the use of the ice breaker and MERCEREAU ordered me to go ahead. We cut our way out with the tug and within two hours had the No. 3 safe at her dock." The tug MERCEREAU, owned by Chicago Dunham Towing & Wrecking Co. and chartered by Pere Marquette Railway Co. as a winter ice breaker in Ludington harbor, returned to Chicago summers where she was used to tow steamboats up and down the Chicago river. One summer CAPT. BUTLER went back to Chicago with the MERCEREAU and for many succeeding years he continued on there in the harbor work for this company. As rank- ing captain in the service, he was given command of each new tug brought out until his retirement in 1941. CAPT. BUTLER was married in 1897 to Miss ELIZA BOLONGUE of Frank- fort. He brought his family to Ludington in 1901 and, though he would be absent for many months each year, the family continued to make their home in this city. The BUTLERS had four sons, CHARLES, RALPH, ELLIS and GLYNN. CHARLES is the only one to follow the lakes as did his father and grandfather before him. He is now CAPT. CHARLES E. BUTLER, master of the SS PRINCETON, operating out of Cleveland for Buckeye Steamship Co. RALPH BUTLER lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., and ELLIS in Chicago. GLYNN passed away a few years ago and MRS. BUTLER died in 1938. Father 'Real Sailor' Summing up his long years of service on the lakes, CAPT. BUTLER was reticent to recall any extraordinary experiences of his own but he did condescend to tell about his father whom he described as "a real sailor." In the later years of his life the senior CAPT. BUTLER lived the year round in the little cabin of his sort of pumpkin seed shaped sloop, the M. M. In the M. M. he crossed and recrossed Lake Michigan carrying fruit, wood and other cargo between Michigan and Wisconsin ports. He showed little regard for the weather man and often ventured forth when many larger craft stayed safe in the harbor shelter. His only companion aboard the sloop was a large dog, who served as deck watch while his master slept. When CAPT. BUTLER, regardless of the weather, went below to eat and sleep he would lash the tiller down and the little craft, heeled far over, would speed on through the water. The dog remained above deck and should any other vessel approach near the M.M., he would quickly awaken the captain and warn him of the dan- ger. During the earlier years of the 1900's the M.M. was a frequent visitor in port at Ludington and will likely be remembered by resi- dents of that day. ===========================================================================