Our series of “How’d they get here?” posts is written to illustrate the nuts and bolts of how our early Mequon pioneers travelled from their original homes or ports of arrival in North America to the newly opened federal lands in Wisconsin Territory, circa 1830-1850. Today’s post continues our westward journey from Buffalo; see Note 1 (below) for links to earlier posts in the series.

The ships at Detroit, 1837

We closed our previous post with a brief look at a colorful aquatint of the ships and small craft on the Detroit River, a major port on the Great Lakes route between Buffalo and Chicago in the 1830s and ’40s. The print was published in 1837, and is an excellent illustration of almost all of the important types of ships in use during the years of Wisconsin Territory settlement:

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry., hand-colored aquatint on engraving, ca. 1837. National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Public Domain. Click to open larger image in new window.

If you’re not clear on your Michigan and Upper Canada (now Ontario) geography, the artist was standing on the Canadian shore, looking west across the river to the city of Detroit. The two steamboats at the left center of the picture are headed north, upstream on the Detroit River that connects Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair and, via the St. Clair River, to Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior.

Given that the picture shows leafy green foliage and men in shirt-sleeves, it was probably drawn in the spring or summer of 1837 (or a perhaps a year or two earlier?). In August, 1837, the Peter Turck family—including eldest daughter Mary Turck—migrated from Wayne county, New York, to Milwaukee via this exact route and, perhaps, on one of the ships shown in this picture. Other Mequon immigrants, including the Bigelow, Bonniwell, Loomer, Strickland and Woodworth families (and many others), would have seen similar views as they travelled from the eastern seaboard to Wisconsin Territory in the ’30s and ’40s.

There is a lot to see here. Let’s take a closer look…

Steamboats, Schooners, and more

Today’s image is filled with all types of early 19th-century ships, propelled—in various combinations—by steam, sails, and oars.

The steamboat had become an important part of Great Lakes transportation, for both passengers and freight, as early as the mid-1820s. The visual interest of our 1837 print is centered on three steamboats, the Erie, the Michigan, and the United States. These are real ships that played a role in early Wisconsin Territory settlement, and we’ll have more to say about the Michigan and United States, in particular, in future posts.

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, steamboats Erie, Michigan and United States. Click to open larger image in new window.

Steamboat United States

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, steamboat United States with small boat. Click to open larger image in new window.

To the right of the scene, the United States passes by, its decks filled with passengers. With two smokestacks, at least two boilers, and two gaff-rigged sails, the United States is typical of the larger Great Lakes steamships making the Buffalo-to-Chicago round trip.

Steamboat Michigan

The grandest ship in the picture is the steamboat Michigan.

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, steamboat Michigan. Click to open larger image in new window.

This was quite a ship for its day. In addition to its great size, large engines, and three gaff-rigged masts, it came complete with all the amenities:

“I’ll not trouble you with reading, or myself writing, a minute description of this noble vessel, except so much as to say that, with two immensely powerful engines, promenade decks, enlivened with the finest music and most brilliant company, splendid cabins and state rooms, dining tables covered with the choicest wines, and every delicacy that can please the most refined taste, or gratify the appetite of the epicure, the steamship Michigan is certainly, without exception, unsurpassed, and perhaps unequalled, by any of the numerous floating palaces which grace the widely extended lakes, rivers, and seas of these United States.“

“Extract from a letter from a young gentleman,” July, 1834, published in NYC Evening Star, September 11, 1834, via GenealogyBank.com

It appears that the Michigan may have transported Jonathan M. Clark to his new U.S. Army post in October, 1833, and we know it visited JMC’s regiment at Fort Howard, Green Bay, in 1834. I’ll have more details on these trips in an upcoming post or two.

Steamboat Erie and Great Lakes schooners

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, steamboat Erie, and a schooner under sail near shore. Click to open larger image in new window.

The bow of the Erie is obscured by the stern of the larger Michigan. Like all the steamboats in this picture, the Erie is a side-wheel paddleboat. But it appears to be a smaller steamboat than the Michigan and the United States. Its one smokestack suggests it was less powerful, too, perhaps having only one steam boiler. (I wonder if the Erie was limited to ferry duty or “commuter” service to villages along the Detroit River–St. Clair Lake–St. Clair River axis.)

The Erie is one of several smaller steamboats found in this picture; there are two more near the Detroit docks in the center of the image, and another that has just left the Canadian shore on the far right.

Behind the Erie, near shore, is a two-masted schooner with gaff-rigged sails aloft on both masts and a foresail in action, too. This ship appears to be a topsail schooner, as it looks like the foremast is rigged to support a square topsail (not in use at the moment) in addition to its fore-and-aft, gaff-rigged mainsail.

Schooners

Decade after decade, even as steamboats grew in popularity, the schooner remained the mainstay of Great Lakes shipping for about a century, from the early 1800s well into the twentieth-century. If you look in the background, you can see almost two-dozen schooners lined up along the wharves of 1837 Detroit:

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, row of schooners at anchor along shore. Click to open larger image in new window.

Our picture also includes a closer view of a two-masted topsail schooner, much like the one shown sailing behind the Erie. This schooner is either arriving or departing on the Upper Canada side of the river; its jib, gaff-rigged main sails, and square topsail are all half-deployed. (It’s not clear to me if they are approaching or leaving the dock.)

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, topsail schooner at dock. Click to open larger image in new window.

Full-rigged ship

One other sailing ship captures our attention:

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, detail, full-rigged ship. Click to open larger image in new window.

This large ship, behind and to the right of the steamboat United States, is what is known as a full-rigged, or ship-rigged, ship. Its three masts are all square-rigged and carry mainsails, topsails, gallant sails and possibly even topgallants. This was a common rig for warships and large, ocean-going ships of the period, but was less-common on the Great Lakes. The two-masted schooners dominated Lakes shipping due to their ease of maneuverability with a smaller crew.

The small craft

Every harbor or waterfront is serviced by a variety of smaller boats. We see that in this 1837 print:

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry, details of small boats. Click to open larger image in new window.

There are many types of small boats. Their styles and names vary by region and era. These boats were in constant use, ferrying passengers, freight, supplies and mail from shore to the larger ships and back. Some also served, at least occasionally, as pleasure craft.

The top detail shows three similar row boats. All are mid-sized, made of wood with, sharply-pointed bow and stern ends. If they have flat bottoms (and I think they do), they would be called batteaux or, if larger, Mackinaw boats. The Mackinaw boat was an important small boat on the lakes and rivers of the Upper Midwest, supplanting the large but more fragile Native American birchbark canoe, used by Indians and white fur traders and settlers of the early decades of the 19th-century. The Mackinaw boat could also be fitted with a single mast and small sail.

The lower-left detail shows a large rowboat with a pointed bow, square stern and a single mast set well forward of center sporting a gaff-rigged sail. In our era, this type of boat is often called a catboat, though I don’t know if that was a common term in the 1830s. Similar boats are sometimes known as a Whitehall rowboat or captain’s gig; larger versions may be called a pinnace.

Our lower-right detail shows a similar boat attached to the rear of the steamboat United States. The general term for a service-boat like this, hanging on davits from a larger vessel, would be dinghy. As with the catboat, the particular style of this dinghy might have been known as a Whitehall rowboat, captain’s gig or if larger, a pinnace.

In the era of our early Mequon immigrants, these small boats—plus the reliable canoe—were essential to life on the water throughout the Great Lakes and their tributary rivers, lakes and streams.

Next time

Coming up, I have some great first-person narratives from our early Wisconsin immigrants, featuring adventures with a variety of boats, large and small. Keep a lookout!

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NOTES:

1. If you missed ’em, the previous parts of this series include:
   • Monday: Map Day! – How’d they get here?
   • How’d they get here? – Steamboats!
   • How’d they get here? – early Erie Canal images
   • How’d they get here? Buffalo – a tale of two harbors
   • How’d they get here? – Westward on Lake Erie to Detroit
   • How’d they get here? Walking & riding
   • and bonus ship images and info at, Steamboat’s coming!, Steaming against the wind… and Still steaming ahead…
   
   Also, there are other really useful Erie Canal-related posts on the blog, written before the current “How’d they get here?” series. You can find them all by typing “Erie Canal” in the blog’s Search box. You’ll get at least 10 results.
   
   If you only have time to read one of these earlier posts, I recommend starting with Monday: Map Day! – The Erie Canal, from February 15, 2021. That post is focused on how Jonathan M. Clark, Mary (Turck) Clark, and the Turck and Gay families migrated in stages from their homes in the northeast to their new homes in upstate New York and then on to Wisconsin in the 1820s and ’30s. This February post also includes an informative, downloadable, high-resolution map of New York state and the canal system, circa 1834 (2 versions: original and with my annotations), plus links to many other relevant posts.