Mystery Ship
Who am I?
Thanks to The Rock for providing insight as to the possible identification of this Mystery Ship. The Rock states that there were about 10 ships that sailed the Great Lakes with characteristics similar to the Mystery Ship. Some of those ships were the Thomas F. Cole, James A. Farrell, Richard V. Lindabury, Myron C. Taylor and the Eugene P. Thomas. Recently, Ted Wilush said the Mystery Ship is from an earlier class of vessels – those built around 1906 or 1907. Some of those ships were the Peter A.B. Widener, George F. Baker, Norman B. Ream, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry H. Rogers, Thomas Lynch and William B. Schiller. The photo appears to be a rare nighttime shot that would most likely preclude identification however it appears that the experts are zeroing in on the identity of this Mystery Ship!
posted by Ookpik at 7:17 PM
8 Comments:
There were about 10 of these 604 foot class of freighters built for the Pittsburgh SS Company which shared many of the same characteristics---same dimensions, carrying capacity, name of the Pittsburgh SS Co. painted on the side of the hull, and the stern mast located forward of the funnel rather than behind it (to name a few.)
So it could be any of those ten ships,, but I will be sentimental and say its the EUGENE P. THOMAS, my favorite from that class of Pittsburgers ,as I have a model of the THOMAS in my den.
The Rock
Hi Rock,
Thanks for all the information!
Googling Eugene P Thomas and found your blog. My father sailed on this ship, postcard photo in hand. My grandfather was a Great Lakes captain from early 1900's to the 1950's will be interested in your posts!
I had a cousin that sailed on this 'boat', It was the first one he sailed on in 1959 and the one he liked the most. He became a chief back in 1972 and of course liked to call this 'his boat.' I was fortunate enought to get a tour on the Thomas back in 1977 after it had been converted to a diesel. One of its skippers was a Canadian and didn't like my cousin. He had his crew make up a banner and display it once when my cousin was on the Roger Blough. The banner said "Blough Jr." Some photographs have been taken of the boat when displaying this and are very rare indeed. The Thomas was scrapped in the eighties in Thunder Bay, ON and was fortunate not to meet its fate in Turkey, Portugal, or Spain.
This is not 1930 built Eugene P. Thomas, it is one of the Pittsburgh steamers built 1906-1907. These included Peter A.B. Widener, George F. Baker, Norman B. Ream, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry H. Rogers, and Thomas Lynch; their profile is distinctive. It would be very difficult to determine which one.
William B. Schiller could be included in that list as well.
I worked as a deck hand on the Eugene P. Thomas in the summer of 1968. Bos'ns name was Banderalewski or something like that (went by "Bandy" on his hardhat). I believe the Thomas was diesel powered in 1968.
Yes it was a Diesel by that time, had a friend on the Thomas. I sailed on the Lindabury at the time
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