The steel gas launch North Shore was built in the spring of 1930 at Milwaukee by Mertes-Miller Company. Her official registry number was 230121. She was built west of the Milwaukee RR tracks on the corner of Barclay and Lapham Streets and was designed and built by the local naval architect Walter W. Haertel. She was used in the passenger trade from Juneau Park to South Shore at Milwaukee during the summer season. After the season ended, she entered the fruit trade.
The North Shore was the first entirely electrically welded steel vessel on the Great Lakes, others had been successfully built and used on the coast.

Final Voyage

The steel gas steamer North Shore left St. Joseph, Michigan on Friday, September 26,1930, with a cargo of 10,000 baskets of grapes, bound for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On board were newly married Captain Erwin Anderson, his 18 year old wife, and a crew of 4 men. It is believed that the steamer foundered somewhere mid-lake during the gale on Friday. On Saturday, her cargo of grapes began washing ashore along the east side of the lake, and part of the ship brought into Milwaukee and identified by the owner, William Lawrie, as wreckage from the North Shore. A search of the south half of the lake by coast guard boats and planes failed to locate the ship. One pilot, however, reported having seen what he believed was the ship 35 miles east of Carrolville, Wisconsin at noon on Friday. It is believed that the vessel attempted to turn and run before the gale, but capsized and foundered mid-lake.