SS Chief Wawatam

Steel ship based in Michigan

Chief Wawatam (nicknamed the Chief) was a coal fired steel ship that was based, for most of its 1911–1984 working life, in St. Ignace, Michigan. The vessel was named after a distinguished Ojibwa chief of the 1760s. In initial revenue service, the Chief Wawatam served as a train ferry, passenger ferry and icebreaker that operated year round at the Straits of Mackinac between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, Michigan. During the winter months, it sometimes took many hours to cross the five mile wide Straits, and Chief Wawatam was fitted with complete passenger hospitality spaces. Chief Wawatam's work began to change in the 1940s. Its role as an icebreaker stationed in the upper Great Lakes was supplanted in 1944 by USCGC Mackinaw, a U. S. Coast Guard icebreaker. The ship's passenger traffic dropped off in the years following World War II. The remaining passenger service ended with the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 that connected the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U. S. state of Michigan. Chief Wawatam then entered upon the final phase of its revenue services, being exclusively used to shuttle railroad freight cars across the Straits. The two railroad docks that were used in Mackinaw City and in St. Ignace survive. USCGC Mackinaw, now a ship museum, is berthed at the railroad dock in Mackinaw City and a wooden statue of its namesake stands nearby at its harbor. The Wawatam Lighthouse guards the railroad dock at St. Ignace.

Chief Wawatam was designed by Great Lakes marine architect Frank E. Kirby. It was launched in Toledo, Ohio, by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company on 26 August 1911. It was a replacement for St. Ignace, a wooden vessel built in 1888. The new steel ship, at the time of construction, was said to have been the largest ice crusher in the world. It started servicing the Mackinac Transportation Company on 18 October 1911. The company was a joint venture of Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and Michigan Central Railroad. The three railroads crossed back and forth at the Straits of Mackinac. The first part of Chief Wawatam's history is that while its main purpose was as a train service to carry railroad cars, it also carried regular passenger train cars, automobiles, military personnel, and people for cruising. The cruising passengers had a lounge with oak seats. The ice crushing railroad ferry was used in various instances to break open a channel for other freighters to pass through. Chief Wawatam was 338 feet in length and had a beam of 62 feet. Her three propellers, two in the stern and one on the bow, were driven by coal fired triple expansion steam engines producing 6,000 horsepower. The vessel is believed to have been the last hand fired, coal burning boat in commercial service on the Great Lakes. Other coal burning vessels that survived longer in revenue service, such as the ferry Badger, had automatic stokers.

The vessel was originally called Hull Number 119 but was soon thereafter named for Chief Wawatam, an Ojibwa chief of the 1700s who, in the Ojibwa fighting outbreak at Fort Michilimackinac in 1763, rescued the Englishman fur trader Alexander Henry. In 1761, Henry had been the first English speaking fur trader to establish himself as a merchant at Michilimackinac. At that time Henry became a close friend and kinship relation of a Chippewa chief named Wa'wa'tam, and Henry later claimed that he and Wawatam had become blood brothers by the power of the Great Spirit. This gave Chief Wawatam an enduring place in Straits of Mackinac folklore. A wooden statue of Chief Wawatam stands near the harbor in Mackinaw City, Michigan, in Wawatam Park. It was carved by Jerry Prior from a white pine log that was a hundred years old. Objective historical records partly confirm Henry's story. After initial cordialities in 1761–1762 between the British and the local tribe of Chippewa, relations had deteriorated sharply in 1763. The change was associated with anti British organizational work among the Native Americans, led by the Odawa war leader Pontiac in southeastern Michigan. On June 2, 1763, as part of the larger conflict with the British Army, a group of Indians staged a ruse to gain entrance to the fort. Upon entering the fort the Chippewa killed most of the British soldiers and fur traders. Fur trader Henry had developed a kinship relationship with Wawatam during the 1761–1762 truce, and even as the fort fell Wawatam retained his rights and responsibilities as a kin. Henry found himself secreted in a Mackinac Island limestone hollow, Skull Cave, as an uncomfortable but safe fugitive. Henry later paid tribute to his rescuer in his published memoirs, leading to Wawatam's elevation as a legendary figure in the Straits of Mackinac.

Chief Wawatam's could carry up to 348 passengers and had a hotel services staff of 30 people in addition to the 24 crew members that just operated the vessel. That made a full crew of 54 people who had their own sleeping quarters that consisted of bunk beds stacked four high. Later in the history as a cruise ship these four high stacked bunk beds were made into two high bunk beds. Sometimes the lower bunk bed was three mattress thick and they developed a deep valley from usage. The officers of the ship had their own sleeping quarters that were luxurious. It was taken to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in 1989 and broken down to serve as a barge. It was reported at the end of 2009 that Chief Wawatam barge was being scrapped. Other artifacts from the ferry, including the whistle, wheel, telegraphs, and furniture are preserved by Mackinac Island State Park Commission in Mackinaw City. The original vessel was part of one of the last survivor ships of the Great Storm of 1913.

Chief Wawatam was added to the Michigan Register of Historic Sites in 1981. Wawatam Lighthouse, a 52 feet (16 m) octagonal structure with lantern and gallery in St. Ignace, Michigan, located at the far end of the former railroad ferry pier was used by Chief Wawatam.