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The history of commercial passenger shipping on the Great Lakes is long but uneven. It reached its zenith between the mid-19th century and the 1950s. As early as 1844, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes. By 1900, fleets of relatively luxurious passenger steamers plied the waters of the lower lakes, especially the major industrial centres of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto. ==History== Sources disagree as to which was the first steamboat on the Great Lakes. Some say it was the Canadian built ''Frontenac'' (170 feet), launched on September 7, 1816, at Ernestown, Ontario (about 18 miles from Kingston). Others say it was the U.S. built ''Ontario'' (110 feet), launched in the spring of 1817 at Sacketts Harbor, New York. It appears that while the ''Frontenac'' was launched first, the ''Ontario'' began active service first. The ''Ontario'' began its regular service in April, 1817, and the ''Frontenac'' made its first trip to the head of the lake on June 5.〔The debate is addressed by Barlow Cumberland in Chapter 2 of ( A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River ); Accessed Mar. 26, 2011〕 The first steamboat on the upper Great Lakes was the passenger carrying ''Walk-In-The-Water'', built in 1818 to navigate Lake Erie. It was a success and more vessels like it followed. Steamboats on the lakes grew in size and number, and additional decks were built on the superstructure to allow more capacity. This inexpensive method of adding capacity was adapted from river steamboats and successfully applied to lake-going craft. The Erie Canal opened in 1825, allowing settlers from New England and New York to reach Michigan by water through Albany and Buffalo. This route opening and the incorporation of Chicago in 1837,〔 http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11480.html 〕 increased Great Lakes steamboat traffic from Detroit through the straits of Mackinaw to Chicago. 〔 http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/GreatLakes/Documents/HGL/default.asp?ID=c014 "It was not until after the appearance of steamers on the lakes in 1818, and the opening of the Erie canal in 1825, that the lands of Michigan began to be occupied." 〕 〔 http://www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregister/shipwrecks/mpdf/mpdf2.php "By the 1840s, the Erie Canal brought tens of thousands of settlers to Buffalo each year in search of passage to the West. Population in cities bordering the upper Lakes reportedly quadrupled in the eight years previous to 1840 as a result of that influx." 〕 The screw propeller was introduced to the Great Lakes by ''Vandalia'' in 1842 and allowed the building of a new class of combination passenger and freight carrier. The first of these "package and passenger freighters," ''Hercules'', was built in Buffalo, New York, in 1843. ''Hercules'' displayed all the features that defined the type, a screw propelled the vessel, passengers were accommodated in staterooms on the upper deck, and package freight below on the large main deck and in the holds. Engines developed as well. Compound engines, in which steam was expanded twice for greater efficiency, were first used on the Great Lakes in 1869. Triple-expansion engines, for even greater efficiency, were introduced in 1887 and quadruple-expansion engines, the ultimate type of reciprocating engine for speed, power and efficiency, appeared on the lakes in 1894. Steamboat lines were established by railroads on the Great lakes to join railheads in the 1850s. This service carried goods and passengers from railroads in the East across the length of the lakes to railroads for the journey West. Railroads bought and built steamship lines to complement railroad services. One such railroad-owned steamship line was formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 to connect their terminals at Buffalo to those of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Duluth, Minnesota. This new line, owned by the Erie and Western Transportation Co., became the well-known ''Anchor Line.'' A significant industry in leisure cruising arose beginning in the late 19th century, often providing large passenger vessels for charter for day trips. Infamous among these are the ''Eastland'', which capsized in the Chicago River in 1915 with the loss of hundreds of lives, and the ''Noronic'', which burned at the wharf in Toronto in September 1949 with the loss of 119 lives. While the ship had been known as the 'Queen of the Great Lakes' it is now also a symbol of the end of passenger cruises on the Great Lakes. In 1915, the anti-monopoly provisions of section 11 of the Panama Canal Act of 1912, ch. 390, 37 Stat. 560, 566 (August 24, 1912), which prohibited railroads under most circumstances from owning steamships, went into effect. As a result, railroad-owned company fleets were sold to buyers with no ownership interest in railways because under the new law railroads had to divest themselves of their marine divisions on the lakes. Under this divestiture law, ''The Milwaukee Clipper'', for instance, was sold by the Anchor Line along with four other railroad-owned company fleets to the newly formed Great Lakes Transit Corporation. Under this flag, the ''Clipper'' carried passengers along her old route until retired in 1970. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Lakes passenger steamers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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