Self-Unloaders Maritime Trails Marker - Lakeshore State Park
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Self-Unloaders Lakeshore State Park Maritime Trails Marker
 
Details
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Lower Lake Michigan
Year Built: 2019
Nearest Address: 500 N Harbor Dr
Nearest City: Milwaukee
County: Milwaukee
Zip Code: 53202
Latitude: N 43° 01.787'
Longitude: W -087° 53.688'
Attraction
Features
Open to public?: Yes
Mooring buoy?: No
Mooring buoy in place?: No
Snorkelable?: No
Dive guide?: No
Trails sign?: Yes
National Register?: No
Attraction
Description
Marker is located along the Hank Aaron State Trail in Lakeshore State Park.
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Marker Narrative Text:
Lake Michigan Shipping: An Industry of Innovation

Demands on bulk cargo fleets on the Great Lakes at the turn of the 20th century created the need for development of highly specialized vessels and technologies not found anywhere else in the world.

The conversion of old wooden schooner-barges into self-unloaders was a relatively inexpensive process. Schooner-barge hulls, with a flat bottom and flat sides, left space in the hold to install machinery. Ships were outfitted with two parallel belt conveyers, located beneath parallel hoppers running the length of the vessel. These would carry the bulk cargo to an inclined pan-conveyer, which would lift the cargo up on deck to a self-unloading boom, where it could be deposited on shore.

Self-Unloading Barges of the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co. (T.M.E.R. & L. Co.)
T.M.E.R. & L. Co. took advantage of this newly emerging technology as a solution to transport coal upriver to the company’s power plants. Company officials converted the schooner-barges William McGregor, A.A. Carpenter, and A.C. Tuxbury into high-capacity self-unloaders that were renamed Transfer, Collier, and E.M.B.A. to transport coal brought into the port on lake vessels upriver to the East Wells (Oneida) and Commerce Street power plants. Motors to operate the self-unloading machinery were plugged directly into the company’s powerhouses. In October 1932, the company stopped moving coal by river and began using trucks. It was more economical and required almost 5,000 fewer bridge openings annually.

Today, all three self-unloading barges lie on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Transfer
The schooner-barge William McGregor (1872) was purchased in 1911 and renamed Transfer. The vessel was originally used as a scow transporting coal from the K.K. Coal Yard to the Milwaukee Western Power Plant, but after a few years of service, Transfer was converted into a self-unloader to increase productivity and operated until 1923. When the vessel was determined no longer economically viable, it was towed out into the lake and scuttled. Transfer lies broken in 120 feet of water about 6 miles east of the Milwaukee Harbor.

Collier
Needing increased capacity for carrying coal up the river, the company purchased the schooner-barge A.A. Carpenter (1881) in 1918 and outfitted the vessel as a self-unloader with an elevator. Collier was scheduled to be scuttled in December of 1932 in Lake Michigan along with E.M.B.A., but was purchased by a former theater advertising executive from Milwaukee, and converted into a 750-seat showboat named Cotton Blossom, and towed to Chicago for the 1933 World’s Fair. In May 1936, after burning at its dock, the vessel was abandoned in 100 feet of water 13 miles outside of Chicago’s harbor.

E.M.B.A.
To replace the aging Transfer, in 1923, the company purchased the schooner-barge A.C. Tuxbury (1890), renamed it E.M.B.A., and converted it into a third self-unloader, carrying coal up the Milwaukee riverways. By 1932, after nine years of service, the vessel had also outlived its usefulness. The unloading boom and a few other components were removed, and it was towed out onto the lake where it was cut loose and scuttled. E.M.B.A. sits intact and upright on the lakebed, in 160 feet of water, approximately six miles east of Bradford Beach.
 
Map
 
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