- Barge
- 230ft
- 80ffw 26m
- Welcome Island, Lake Superior
- 48° 21.932’ N 89° 8.575’ W
The GOGEBIC was a wooden bulk propeller ship that was built in October 1887 at Wheeler’s shipyard in West Bay City. It had the official number 85977 and had a gross tonnage of 1680 tons and a net tonnage of 1312 tons. The ship measured 227.2 feet in length, 40.4 feet in beam, and 19.4 feet in depth.
Equipped with a triple expansion engine with cylinder sizes of 20, 32, and 52 inches and a 40-inch stroke, the GOGEBIC also had Scotch boilers measuring 10 by 12 feet, supplied by S.F. Hodge & Co. of Detroit. The vessel was owned by the Mills Transportation Co. and was intended for service in the Lake Superior trade. Captain Alvin Neal was appointed as her commander.
In 1921, the GOGEBIC was converted into a barge and renamed GREEN RIVER. Its registration was transferred to Canada, with the official number C 138863. The vessel’s fate took a turn in 1932 when it was dismantled, and its hull was scuttled outside Welcome Island in Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, on November 5 of that year.
These details about the GOGEBIC/GREEN RIVER are sourced from the shipbuilding master list of Frank Wheeler & Co. of West Bay City, as well as the Institute for Great Lakes Research in Perrysburg, Ohio. Additional information about the ship’s launch and specifications can be found in contemporary newspaper articles, including The Marine Record and the Port Huron Daily Times from October 1887.
