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The SS ''Christopher Columbus'' was an American excursion liner on the Great Lakes, in service between 1893 and 1933. She was the only whaleback ship ever built for passenger service. The ship was designed by Alexander McDougall, the developer and promoter of the whaleback design. ''Columbus'' was built between 1892 and 1893 at Superior, Wisconsin, by the American Steel Barge Company. Initially, she ferried passengers to and from the World's Columbian Exposition. Later, she provided general transportation and excursion services to various ports around the lakes. At , the ship was the longest whaleback ever built, and reportedly also the largest vessel on the Great Lakes when she was launched.〔 ''Columbus'' is said to have carried more passengers during her career than any other vessel on the Great Lakes. After a career lasting four decades, she was retired during the Great Depression and scrapped in 1936 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin.〔 Note: follow URL, then search by vessel name "Christopher Columbus" to find page with stats cited.〕 ==Background and proposal== (詳細はAlexander McDougall. A Scottish immigrant, Great Lakes captain, inventor〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=(About the Great Lakes ) )〕 and entrepreneur, McDougall developed the idea of the whaleback as a way to improve the ability of barges to follow a towing vessel in heavy seas.〔 Whalebacks were characterized by distinctive hull shapes with rounded tops, lacking conventional vertical sides. Waves thus broke across their hulls with considerably less force than when striking a conventional hull. Water could also flow around the rounded turrets which resembled gun turrets on contemporary warships; the superstructure and deckhouses were mounted on these turrets.〔 (definition 65, ''Whaleback'').〕 The rounded contours of whalebacks gave them an unconventional appearance,〔 and McDougall's ship and barge designs were received with considerable skepticism, resistance, and derision.〔〔 As they had porcine-looking snouts for bows, some observers called them "pig boats".〔〔 Google books has images of those pages in the chapter entitled (''The Turret Steamship'' ). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.〕 After McDougall was unable to persuade existing shipbuilders to try his designs, he founded the American Steel Barge Company in Superior, Wisconsin in 1888, and built them himself. McDougall actively promoted his design and company by sending the SS ''Charles W. Wetmore'' to London, and starting another shipyard in Everett, Washington, which built the SS ''City of Everett''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=(Washington State online history encyclopedia ) )〕 When the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, to be held in Chicago, Illinois, was in the planning stages, McDougall recognized another opportunity to publicize his design. The ''Columbus'', conceived as an elaborate ferry, was intended to demonstrate that the whaleback design would work well in passenger service,〔〔 and would be able to travel at high speed.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Marine Record October 1, 1891 )〕 The ship's name honored the explorer Christopher Columbus as did the World's Columbian Exposition itself, timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his first voyage to the New World.〔 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「SS Christopher Columbus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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