Reuniting with Grandfather’s beloved ‘Tobermory II’ ship on its 100th birthday
My grandfather, F.W. Wakefield, may have built an iron ship to last 100 years, but he did not do as well. He passed away in 1934 at age 71.
The “Tobermory II” was sold to the Pittsburgh Coal Company and became a hard-working tug delivering coal to Lime Island and providing various other services to ports in the Lake Huron area. Her name was now “Champion.” If our family had known of her new name and duties, they would have been greatly pleased.
Times change and with each new age comes huge changes in society. In 1952, two large oil tanks were constructed on Lime Island. The lake freighters that once depended on the Pittsburgh Coal Company coal were now starting to use “bunker oil.” In addition, the new tugboat “Lime Islander,” replaced the “Champion” at this Upper Michigan island refueling station. The “Champ” was then sold to a contractor and later abandoned and anchored in shallow water in the St. Mary’s River. It eventually sank and was eventually noted on marine charts as a shipwreck.
Several decades passed as the “Champ” lay inert and half sunk in the river. One day, my uncle Ted Wakefield from Vermilion, Ohio, who cruised the Great Lakes in his Grand Banks as often as his father F.W. had on the old “Tob,” came upon the partially submerged “Champ” as he was exploring the St. Mary’s River.
There was something about the bow of the boat that immediately grabbed his attention and he nosed closer to her. “Why that looks like my father’s old boat!” he shouted to his family. Ted took photos, dropped anchor and rowed to shore to see if anyone knew anything about the shipwreck.
While later docking at the local Sault marina about a quarter mile from the ship, Ted met a resident and gave him his contact information in Vermilion, Ohio. Later, when Bob found out Dennis Dougherty had salvaged the ship, he relayed the information to him.
Dennis was the grandson of Gerald D. Neville, who had once been captain of the old “Champ.” He had spent many days on the tug with his granddad and had happy memories of the old ship. Since he had been looking for a scuba diving boat he felt the old “Champ” was the perfect candidate. He decided to salvage it and purchased it from its present owner for $800.
This was a lot of money to put on a dream that he knew was a gamble, for if it even would be possible to bring about, it would take many years of grueling work to restore her. What a job it would be to free a boat that had been mired in muck for several decades!
But Dennis remembered what a beauty the old “Champ” was and he also knew about the galvanized iron hull that he thought would last a lifetime. He started the restoral project in 1977.
When he heard of the Wakefield contact he wrote Ted Wakefield who then gave him my father’s (George Wakefield) name. Dennis now knew about the old Tobermory and F.W. Wakefield’s connection — the ship’s history was no longer a mystery!
Dennis went to work on the old “Champ” (which I will relate in part five) and in 1983 he called my father and invited him and my mother, Mary, to the “Soo” to see the finished job.
Father was excited about seeing his father’s old Tobermory once again! He urged me to join them on their visit to Sault Ste. Marie but, in 1983, I was putting my children through college and working to pay the usual horrendous bills. But I thought one day I would also make the trip to Michigan to see the old “Tobermory,” “Champion” and now restored “Gerald D. Neville.” And especially I wanted to witness one day seeing my father once again take the helm of the “Tob.”
It’s hard to believe that 40 more years passed before that opportunity arrived. I was 83 in 2024, at the age when travel is getting difficult, and I felt barely able to deal with the stress of such a long trip.
I knew the “Soo” was a long way to go from Tidewater, Virginia, but my husband, Chip, and I soon realized the trip was now or never. I wanted desperately to see Grandfather’s “good ship” at long last.
We booked a flight in September to Lansing, Mich., which was as close as we could get to Sault Ste. Marie in Upper Michigan by air and arranged to rent a car for the rest of the trip.
Our daughter, Liz, insisted on driving us up to Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C., to help cut down on the stress of heavy traffic in and out of the airport. We were so thankful for that.
Handling parking and luggage and getting to a flight at a big airport is an ordeal at best these days and the luxury of being delivered to check in was a big help.
Liz made sure we boarded our flight with money, tickets, passports, cell phones, boarding passes, coats, hats, gloves and all pieces of luggage in tow.
We flew nonstop to Lansing, the capital of Michigan, a surprisingly small airport. We soon realized our 5:30 p.m. arrival from D.C. was the last flight of the day and the airport quickly emptied leaving us entirely alone with all of our gear surrounding us.
We waited on a bench outside the airport forlornly looking for a pair of headlights from the hotel van that was supposed to collect us as dusk settled around us.
We soon realized we were alone in the dark in a deserted airport surrounded by empty fields in all directions. Quite a change from the high stress, crowds and hullabaloo at Reagan.
Just as we were starting to really get nervous about our sudden isolation, our limo showed up and we were soon at dinner in our hotel and after a short walk around the square it became obvious I had entered “enemy territory!”
I had landed in none other than the home of Michigan State, sister to The University of Michigan and when one is from Ohio one does not want to be anywhere within such realms!
Not if you are an Ohio BUCKEYE! What? What? I explained all this to Chip, a Virginian, who had no idea how competitive Big Ten football was and how seriously we take ever being knocked out of our usual number 1 position by the likes of Michigan!
I ruminated for some time about finding myself in such a situation, but, oh well, I wasn’t about to be reminded of Ohio’s heartbreaking losses the last few years at the end of the season at play with Michigan. I had other things more important on my mind than silly football rivalry!
At 83 years of age who cares who wins the Big Ten championship anyway?
(Continued next week.)
