The Wexford. Paul Carroll

history, not unlike the Wexford, and bears an uncanny resemblance to that vessel. She, like the Wexford, was rebuilt, with a new Scotch boiler installed by the Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan, in 1918. In 1930 she was purchased by the Corunna Steamship Company, Fort William, Ontario. In this era, many ships of similar design were built at the shipyards at the River Tyne, just to the north of Sunderland and the River Wear.

      Courtesy of the C. Patrick Labadie Collection/Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Alpena MI, 39243-39256.

      The Wexford was built in the era that bridged the period between the great age of wooden sailing ships and the new era of large steampowered, freight-carrying vessels made of iron and steel. Her internal design, crafted of steel girders and ribs, was the best combination of engineering design that married the old traditions with new practices — state-of-the-art for this time. When her new spar deck was added in 1884, the builders used web frames instead of beams to support the new construction. The engineering combined new approaches to structure with old. The altered drawings from 1883 refer to tween decks space created after this addition.

      The Cherub. A steam-powered, sailing gunboat, stationed at Goderich in 1866, during the Irish-American Fenian Raids, carried a sailing rig quite different from the schooner-rigged Wexford. This image shows her bearing square-rigged sails on the forward main mast. The main power for both vessels was a coal-fired, steam-powered engine.

      Photo from the Paul Carroll Collection.

      The fact that she was built with two large masts, long booms, and a full suit of sails, and that part of her upper deck was crafted of pine, bore witness to the reluctance of her builders to leave entirely the traditions of a maritime age that was fast coming to a close. Ship insurers often preferred the additional safety factors afforded by carrying a suit of sails.

      The 250-foot keel was laid, beginning October 9, 1882, and she was ready for launch on March 24, 1883. After her decks were fitted out and interiors finished, her sea trials were completed by May 29, 1883. With only minor alterations, including some “machinery repairs,” she sailed away in the hands of her owners on that same date.

Table 1: Wexford Specifications

      Author’s Note: Readers will observe no less than three different lengths given for the Wexford. They are all essentially correct. The “B. P.” (between perpendiculars) is the length measured at the summer load line from fore side of the stem to the aft side of the rudder post. The “O.A.” (overall length) is the distance measured between the forward-most and aft-most extensions on a vessel. The minor variation in the O.A. length is most likely a function of using slightly different extremes as starting points.

      Information from Lloyd’s Register, 1904–05:

      Steel, screw steamer, 250’ x 40. 1’ x 16.7’

      Built 1883, W. Doxford and Sons, Sunderland, A&CP official # C87342, ex Elise, ex Wexford Registered at Port of London, classified in Great Lakes register special survey No. 3–11, 1895 Liverpool special survey No. 1, 1900, Dunkirk Steel deck, spar deck, web frames (yellow pine decking noted on Collingwood drawings) 2,104 gross tons; 2,043 under deck tons; 1,340 net tons Flat keel, cellular construction, double bottom, 5 bulkheads cemented water ballast after peak Tank new donkey boiler, 1901

      Engine 2 cylinder compound, 33” & 62” x 42”, 200 nominal horsepower Lloyd’s Register 1913:

      Engine 3 cylinder compound, 18”, 30” & 51” x 42”, 210 nominal horsepower new Scotch boilers 6/04 – 12d x 121

      Engine altered to triple expansion, 1904 at Collingwood, SB&E Co. Ltd., Ontario

      John O. Greenwood in Namesakes 1910–1913:

      Hull No. 145, 257” x 40’1” x 16’7”, Draft 23.7

      3 compartments – capacity 675, 825, 1175. 2800 gross tons Hatches 4 24 x 14 The Collingwood Bulletin April 16, 1903 (Marine News):

      Particulars of the steamer Wexford which Capt. W.J. Bassett has purchased in the Old Country for the Western Steamship Company have come to hand. The steamer is a steel ship 258 ft. 6 in. in length beam 40 feet and a depth of hole (sic) to upper deck 24 feet. The steamer is classed 100 A 1 by Lloyds. She is what is known as a flushed deck ship and has main and spar decks and is so arranged as to carry a large amount of water ballast when necessary. The steamer is also fitted with steam winches, steam steering gear and hand and steam windlasses. She has a carrying capacity of 3,000 tons of freight of 100,000 bushels of wheat which is greater than any canal size steamer at present on the lakes. Capt. Bassett will commence to load the steamer tomorrow on the Thames at London with a cargo for Hamilton, Montreal and Fort William and he expects to sail for Montreal on Wednesday next.

      Order Plan for the Wexford, showing the deck profile with spar deck, as added in 1884 by William Doxford & Sons Boatyards, River Wear, Sunderland. The ship plan for the Wexford was typical of many used at this time along the western seaboard of the British Isles. Photo scanned from Ships Particulars Book, held by the Tyne and Wear Archives of Sunderland, with permission of the Sunderland Public Library, England.

      Courtesy of Brent Bamford.

      There is evidence,⁵ in the form of handwritten, pencilled notes on the order sheet, that she returned to the Doxford yards 16 months later, in September 1884, for work on a seven foot high spar deck.⁶ Part of this new construction to convert her to a flush-deck steamer seems to have allowed for an increase in coal capacity in the reserve bunker and would have altered her forward deck arrangement in particular. The fuel capacity appears to have been increased by some 50 tons of coal after the deck modifications.

      There have been questions as to whether her galley was located midships or aft, with arguments posed to conjecture either position. It is generally assumed that the galley was located aft. According to diver Paul Schaus, “There were many broken and intact dishes on port side near the stern.”⁷ This observation would support the stern location of the galley and dining area for crew. There are secondary smokestacks or funnels in both locations. Early photographs show a large stack, sometimes casually but erroneously described as a “galley stack.” In one later picture, with the new name of the shipping company, Western Steamship Co. Ltd., added at the bow, under the name Wexford, a minor change appears to have been made in the midship coal-bunker ventilator configuration. She carried a directional ventilator as a cap instead of a rope-suspended canvas hood, as shown in one very early picture. It is also possible that this stack was part of some sort of venting system to draw methane off the coal stored in the bunkers below, to reduce or eliminate the possibility of explosion. Another possibility is that it simply provided a way to draw off heat, smoke, and fumes from the coal-fired boilers in the engine room that supported the secondary donkey boiler.

      These successive profiles show the configuration of the Wexford as she evolved. The first is as-built in 1883.In the second, the 1884 spar deck as added was normally constructed of lighter material than the main deck below, and consequently had to be given a lighter draft when loaded.Only passengers and lighter cargo would normally be carried here. In the third drawing, the probable alteration made in the 1904 re-fit at Collingwood is shown.

      Courtesy of Captain “Bud” Robinson.

      The Wexford was