SS City of Midland 41
SS City Of Midland 41 leaving Ludington in July 1976
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| History | |
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| United States | |
| Name: | SS City of Midland 41 |
| Namesake: | Midland, Michigan |
| Operator: |
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| Route: |
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| Builder: | Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company |
| Cost: | $ 1.75 million |
| Yard number: | Hull number 311 |
| Launched: | September 18, 1940 |
| Completed: | March 1941 |
| Maiden voyage: | March 12, 1941 |
| Out of service: | November 1988 |
| Identification: |
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| Nickname(s): | Queen of the Lakes |
| Fate: | Cut to barge in 1997 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 3968 |
| Length: | 406 ft (123.75 m) |
| Beam: | 58.2 ft (17.74 m) |
| Installed power: | Steam (Coal-fired) |
| Propulsion: | Two Skinner Engine Company Unaflow engines |
| Speed: | 18 mph (15.6 kn; 29.0 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 72 staterooms, 50 automobiles, 34 freight cars on four tracks |
SS City of Midland 41 was a train ferry serving the ports of Ludington, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Kewaunee, Wisconsin, for the Pere Marquette Railway and its successor, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from 1941 until 1988. The ferry was named after the city of Midland, Michigan.
The vessel was built by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1940 at a cost of $1.75 million. One of the last coal-burning car ferries on Lake Michigan, she entered service for the Pere Marquette Railway company in March 1941 as the largest Great Lakes ferry ever built. Powered by two Skinner Unaflow steam engines, the City of Midland 41 was capable of speeds up to 20 miles per hour (17.4 kn) with a cruising speed of 17.6 miles per hour (15.3 kn).
The City of Midland 41 was unique for car ferries in that she also contained many amenities for the automobile and passenger traffic that crossed the lake in the warmer summer months. She had an extra passenger deck compared to the other ferries of her time, and frequently would run the Ludington–Manitowoc route during the busy summer months, serving as a moving connector of U.S. Highway 10. Because of her exemplary amenities as well as her size and aesthetic silhouette she was nicknamed the "Queen of the Lakes".
In addition to transporting railroad cars through the World War II years, the City of Midland 41 also served as a training vessel for United States Coast Guard and United States Navy enlisted sailors, since the vessel's Unaflow engines were similar to those used aboard the Casablanca-class escort carrier.
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