Chieftain

"Sunday Nov. 6 1938
Discarded wooden barge 'Chieftain'
rotting on river bottom
Davidson Shipyard"

This one's a little sad. When Chieftain was built in 1902 she was the largest hull on the Great Lakes (360 feet long), and apparently remains the largest wooden lakes vessel ever constructed. She was built as a barge by Davidson Shipyard for Davidson Steamship, and was part of a fleet of two steamships and three barges for most of her career. The entire fleet was technically obsolete by 1929, and all five vessels were thereafter moored at the Davidson yard.

The Davidson's Bay City shipyard originally opened in 1873. It was abandoned in 1932 as there was no longer any need for a shipyard specializing in repairs to wooden ships. The Davidson family was invested in American Steamship Corporation and in the Tomlinson fleet, so they remained active in the industry. (There's much more information about the Davidsons here. It appears reasonably accurate, but some details differ from my other sources. These disagreements are pretty common, and in this case are relatively minor; don't let them throw you.)

John Greenwood's book Namesakes 1930-1955 tells me Chieftain wasn't declared abandoned until shortly after this photo was taken, apparently because her oak construction kept her seaworthy long after maintenance ceased. Perhaps it was news of that impending abandonment that sent Mr. Borucki to the deserted shipyard. We have a couple more photos from that excursion, which we'll soon share.

Borucki's Lakers

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Chieftain

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