Updated May 21, 2013
The Great Lakes Maritime
Institute’s fundraising project will focus on
the recovery and exhibition of the 6,000 pound
bow anchor of the S.S. GREATER DETROIT at the
Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority building.
The project calls for a tug boat, barge and
crane to be stationed out in the Detroit River,
and after the recovery of the anchor to be
cleaned and preserved, then mounted on a new
concrete base.
This project is similar to
the one that was carried out by the GLMI in July
1992 when the anchor of the S.S. EDMUND
FITZGERALD was recovered from the bottom of the
Detroit River. That anchor is currently resting
in the yard of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on
Belle Isle.
By using the Detroit River webcam that is mounted
on the top of the William Clay Ford Pilothouse
you will be able to see the anchor from the S.S.
EDMUND FITZGERALD on Belle Isle.
The GLMI’s last anchor fundraiser also provided
the funds to send a recovery team to Baltimore,
Maryland where the S.S. SOUTH AMERICAN was being
scrapped in 1992. The group recovered a number
of artifacts from the vessel just before it was
dismantled. Our group was fortunate to have the
opportunity to recover a number of port holes
and document the condition of the vessel before
it was destroyed in a fire while it was being
scrapped.
The GLMI also helped pay for the installation of
the S.S. WILLIAM CLAY FORD pilothouse, a thirty
by thirty foot steel and glass addition to the
Dossin Great Lakes Museum. This artifact was
taken off the vessel intact before it was
scrapped. When one visits the Dossin Great Lakes
Museum you will be walking into an actual
working pilothouse from a Great Lakes freighter
that was built at the Great Lakes Engineering
Works at River Rough/Ecorse, Michigan.
The Detroit River webcam was
one of the projects that the GLMI was able to
help fund. It allows an individual to actually
control the camera that is mounted on the mast
of the S.S. WILLIAM CLAY FORD pilothouse.
The current GLMI Anchor
Fundraiser has two levels of donations:
Every donor of $1,000.00 or more will receive a
special Detroit Riverfront Grouping of limited
edition prints by the marine artist William
Moss. The grouping includes the 26 x 40 inch
signed and numbered print of ‘The City of the
Straits’ showing the Detroit skyline in
1949. The view shows the Bob-Lo Boat, the
S.S. Columbia in the foreground, on the left
background the S.S. CITY OF CLEVELAND III at the
D & C Dock, and in the right background is
the S.S. PUT-IN-Bay behind the Veterans Memorial
Building.
Just a note when the S.S.
CITY OF CLEVELAND III was taken out of service
the bell of the vessel was purchased by a local
man. Later his wife allowed the GLMI to auction
off this significant artifact to benefit the
GLMI’s maritime heritage projects. Click on the
link on the right for the story of the bell
auction.
The second limited edition print in the
Detroit Riverfront Grouping is a 24 by 30 inch
view of the Georgian Bay Lines Dock with the S.S.
SOUTH AMERICAN secured to the dock, entitled
‘Detroit Riverfront Memories’. This area is just
east of Woodward Avenue and shows the area where
the new Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority
building is currently sitting. The area beyond the
Georgian Bay Line building was the dock for the
Detroit Fireboat John Kendall and the beyond that
area was the Robin Hood Flour silos where the
RENCEN building was constructed in the 1970s.
The third print in the
Detroit Riverfront Grouping is the 20 by 26 inch
limited edition print of the ‘Steamer Greater
Detroit - Beneath the Ambassador Bridge’. In
1950 the oil burning Steamer GREATER DETROIT was
painted all white for the season and was placed
on the Detroit, Michigan to Buffalo, New York
route.
In addition to the three limited edition prints
the donor will receive an original Detroit &
Cleveland Navigation Company stock certificate
showing a side profile of the S.S. GREATER
DETROIT.
A donor of $250.00 will receive the limited
edition print of the ‘Greater Detroit – Beneath
of Ambassador Bridge’ and an original Detroit
& Cleveland Navigation Company stock
certificate showing a side profile of the S.S.
GREATER DETROIT.
The donors of $1,000.00 or more will receive
eight invitations to the anchor dedication
reception, and the Detroit River cruise.
The donors of $250.00 will
receive two invitations to the anchor dedication
reception, and the Detroit River cruise.
To
learn more about the history of the SS GREATER
DETROIT, Click Here
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