Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company

Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company, often abbreviated as D&C, was a shipping company on the Great Lakes.

The main route was between Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio. Routes also lead to Buffalo, New York with the purchase of the Detroit and Buffalo Steamship Company in 1909. Charters and day-trips were also offered. Most scheduled sailings were overnight sailings, landing in the morning after departure. Each ship was painted with a black hull and white superstructure and white lettering. By 1949, the ships wore all-white paint with blue lettering. The popular line operated from 1868 to 1951 and is often referred to as the owner of many of the Great Lakes' best 'Floating Palaces' and 'Honeymoon' ships.

In its heyday, the D&C Line was among the most well-known shipping companies in business on the Great Lakes, with its vessels being among the largest and most palatial ever seen. Two of them, the SS Greater Buffalo and the SS Greater Detroit, were both built in 1923, and, being 7,739 tones and 518 feet (158 m) long each, were known as the largest side-wheeler passenger ships in the world. Frank E. Kirby was the noteworthy naval architect who designed many of the D&C ships. As ferry and cruise ships, all of the ships of D&C were a success, with various civic groups and companies often chartering each ship on account of their reputations for excellent services and good cuisine. Upon reaching Buffalo, happy honeymoon couples would connect to Niagara Falls. In the late 1930s, the increasing use of the automobile caused passenger numbers to slowly fall.

During World War II, the Greater Buffalo, along with the Cleveland and Buffalo Line ship SS Seeandbee, were both converted into training aircraft carriers for use on the Great Lakes. Many of the pilots that were trained on these domestic ships later fought in combat in the Pacific. In the meantime, the Greater Detroit and her fleetmates saw an increase in passenger revenues, with the ships being reasonably full as Americans rationed gasoline for the war effort and therefore chose to travel between cites on the D&C liners, among other lines operating then.

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