Great Lakes passenger steamers

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.

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 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, increased Great Lakes steamboat traffic from Detroit through the straits of Mackinaw to Chicago.

|Burning of the Steamship Erie, 1841. Wood engraving published by Huestis & Craft, NYC circa 1841

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.

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