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Reuniting with Grandfather’s ‘Good Ship Tobermory’ on its 100th birthday
Walking through the “freighter museum” at Sault Historic Sites in the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., with Dennis and Tunee Dougherty, the owners and restorers of my grandfather’s boat, “Tobermory II,” was a short course in the history of Great Lakes ships.
There were many splendid exhibits but the “piece de resistance” for me was the three exhibit display showing the three lives over 100 years of F.W. Wakefield’s “Tobermory II,” “Champion” and now fully restored to its original beauty and a pleasure boat once again, the “Gerald D. Neville.”
By now I realized Dennis and I were both attached to the good ship by one sturdy, common thread — a deep love of our grandfathers. Mine had come from Birmingham, England, in 1875 and his had come from Limerick, Ireland, in the early 1890s. Like so many Americans, we are grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants that came here seeking a better life and even though we love this country with heart and soul, we have never forgotten our homeland nor our humble roots.
I was greatly touched to see Dennis had painstakingly put together a three-part photograph presentation of the life of the three stages of my grandfather’s boat starting with photos of the birth, christening and launch of the old “Tob,” my grandparents, father and even my sister, Alice, who had come earlier in the year to view the display, moving into photos of the “Champion” years with the Pittsburgh Coal Company where the ship served as a ferry connecting the people of Lime Island to the mainland, several decades left as a ship wreck in the mud of the St. Mary’s River and her final rescue and restoration by Dennis Dougherty to the “Gerald D. Neville.”
It was fascinating to see in the second and third exhibits displays showing how the “Tobermory” was restored with parts from the fish tug, “W.R. Busch.” Dennis even had the original Tobermory engine displayed including the original bilge pump that I tried using just as Grandfather, Father and uncles had once used so many times in the past.
Dennis caught me up on what he had done with his restored boat for the last 40 years. He used it to take fishermen, tourists or divers out on trips in the lake for many years but now she has become a pleasure boat again for his family, neighbors and friends to enjoy.
Dennis and Tunee have celebrated the “Neville’s” 100th year birthday by inviting all the people who had some special interest in the good ship and could make the trip to Upper Michigan for rides on memory lane.
Three grandchildren of F.W. Wakefield of Vermilion, Ohio, visited the ship this year, sister Alice Wakefield, Cousin Margaret Wakefield Worcester and me. I have a feeling after reading this series more of his grandchildren will follow.
Dennis is a walking Wikipedia of knowledge of the Great Lakes. As we walked through the museum he kept up a commentary on many interesting exhibits. I wish I had brought a tape recorder to record all that he told me, tons of information.
I learned a great deal about freighters. My memory of freighters growing up on the lakes in the 40s and 50s are still vivid. They were about 500 feet long in those years with a crew of about 30 or so and mostly painted rust red with the classic white pilot house up forward and the stack back aft that left smokey trails in the sky as they steamed along.
Today the freighters are 1,000 feet or more and they come in all sorts of colors. The pilot house is now on the stern. Automation has shrunk the typical crew down to 22 or so in spite of the fact the ships have doubled in size.
One freighter can haul material that would take 700 train cars or 2,800 trucks. It can sail 607 miles on just a gallon of fuel per ton of cargo. A 1,000 footer can haul as much as 3 million tons of cargo in a single shipping season.
When the Great Lakes ice over each winter, the freighters cease shipping until the spring thaw. It was always fun to watch for the first freighter sighting from my bedroom in Vermilion, Ohio, around the end of March.
Father would shout the good news of the year’s first sighting to us three daughters and I can still hear the sound of excitement in his voice all these many years later. One would have thought the family had just struck a gold mine with the joy in his announcement that the “Big Boys” were back!
Our last glimpse of Dennis and Tunee Dougherty was looking up at the freighter museum and waving goodbye to them as we left and got into our car rental to leave. They had gone up to the top deck and were leaning over the railing waving farewell. I was sorry I missed walking to the pilothouse on the top deck but my legs had given out for any more walking. Besides, it was time to leave.
We took a quick trip to Canada that afternoon where we bought a genuine native Canadian made deerskin handbag for our daughter, Liz, who was home caring for the dogs. We left Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday for an overnight at Mackinaw Island, which was about an hour’s drive south.
There are no cars allowed on the island, so we caught the ferry which runs every hour in season. It was jam packed with end of summer tourists hoping for one last fling in the still very lovely summer like weather.
I remembered touring the island and seeing the world famous Grand Hotel as a child, but the fares this year were still in season and the rate was a shocking $2,000 per night, so we wound up in a less expensive waterfront inn close to the ferry dock that night.
Gone were the sounds of freighters going through the locks. Now we heard the horse and buggy carriages filled with tourists and clip-clopping on the street all day long and late into the night.
By then I had started a nasty cough (which later I learned was the beginning of another bout with COVID-19), which caused us to catch the ferry boat back to the mainland the next morning and drive to Lansing a day early to catch our plane back home to Virginia.
Despite the illness and cough (which lasted three months), it was a wonderful trip. My trip back to the Great Lakes to see my grandfather’s old boat was much more than a sightseeing trip or even vacation, which is what I had thought it would be.
It was an emotional journey for me into my past. It was almost as if I had returned to my childhood and visited with my beloved grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles once again, all of whom are now gone. It was an overwhelming, joyful and tearful experience, one that will be with me forever and I hope also with my children and grandchildren who have been reading these stories. Our past can never be forgotten nor our rugged ancestors that preceded us.
I still have teary eyes, even six months after this journey, and even today as I write these closing words, I still think of not just my family but the three lives more than 100 years of the “Tobermory II,” “Champion” and “Gerald D. Neville.”
I am sure that if F.W. Wakefield had still been alive, he would have been proud of what Dennis has done for his favorite old “Tob” and thrilled that three of his grandchildren had been able to visit his old dream ship.
Dennis and Tunee deserve great appreciation for inviting all those who had a special relationship with the good ship to come for a visit. More than 170 people made their way to the “Soo” in the last year to help them celebrate, each with his own memory and stories to share of the good ship.
We treasure our old boats. They are a part of our history. That big number of fans that made the trip to the Soo this last year proves the good ship is still alive and well, and still very much loved.
So we headed back home south to Virginia. And as the plane took off from Lansing airport I bid farewell once again to the Midwest and my Great Lakes heritage. I am a Virginian now and, if truth be told, I love my adult home in the Commonwealth as much as my childhood home in Ohio.
For somewhere in the deepest part of my brain, the Rappahannock River has become Lake Erie and the little town of Urbanna has morphed into my beloved old hometown of Vermilion, Ohio. (Conclusion.)
