Our Cruising History
Cruising on the Great Lakes with a Great History and Great Notables
In 1842, Charles Dickens embarked on a tour of North America taking a cruise across Lake Erie, and in 1895, Mark Twain decided to embark on a trip “at home around the world” and boarded a ship in Cleveland to travel to Mackinac Island. He wrote that “across Lake Erie to the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair River is a most charming trip.”
In 1894-1895, when the Northern Steamship Company introduced the North West and North Land, with their motto “In all the World, no trip like this.” Among the North Land‘s first passengers was Samuel L Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Part of the Great Northern Railway system, these ships were described as the “largest, most complete, and luxuriously equipped passenger boats in the world.”
Ernest Hemmingway and Samuel Clemmens like thousands of other people, relied on steamships and trains to get them from their homes to their Michigan destinations. The Hemingways journey began at a pier in Chicago where they boarded one of the several Great Lakes steamers that traveled along Michigan’s west coast. Porters would help them load trunks filled with clothes, books, and provisions onto the ship, and the family would settle in and enjoy the two-day trip. When the Manitou docked in Harbor Springs, the Hemingways transferred themselves and their cargo to a small train that would take them to their destination.
Many more cruise ships followed on both sides of the border, carrying Great Lakes cruisers for the decades to come. These ships were all between 300 and 400 feet in length, 3,000 to 7,000 tons, and carried between 280 and 500 passengers each. Their most interesting amenity was suites with private balconies, many decades before they were introduced into modern-day cruise ships.
The Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company began a Detroit to Chicago service via Mackinac Island in 1924, with the 500-berth Eastern States and Western States. In 1933, the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company offered a seven-day Great Lakes cruise all summer long. Unlike the traditional cruise ships, these were big side-wheel paddle steamers, the largest in the world, and they continued cruising until 1950, when D&C, deprived of its overnight business by the advent of the superhighway, closed.
A bow anchor from the S.S. Greater Detroit was cut in December 1956 and abandoned on the bottom of the Detroit River. The Great Lakes Maritime Institute’s Dive Team searched for this 6000-pound artifact and finally located it some 200 feet out in the Detroit River. The anchor was recovered on November 15, 2016, and is now located at the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority building.