ALMOST CHRISTMAS, BALMY, BLIMEY!

A Christmas-time scene at the Ferry Dock, 1994.  L to R:
Arni Foss (who now sails as a Captain for the Interlake Fleet on the
Dorothy Ann/Pathfinder); Jon Gunnlaugson (deceased);  Mark Dewey
(Scottsdale, AZ);  Dave Johnson (retired); Erik Foss (Ferry Captain, active);
Bill Schutz (Office Manager, active); and Al Thiele (retired).

WASHINGTON ISLAND, WISCONSIN -

After pestering from Erik Foss to put out another blog, and then another, it so happens we've featured him several times in recent posts, and now once again.

The crew that posed that day by the old Ferry Line office had their photo taken in a setting of fresh snow covering the roof, garland and ground.

Arni and Erik are two of four Island brothers.   Dave (not shown) sails as an Engineer for Interlake.  With the dumping of foreign steel and lessened demand by U. S. mills, a number of Great Lakes freighters are tying up early this season, rather than running into January or early February as has become customary in recent decades.   Arni and Dave are home now, enjoying the Christmas holidays with their families.  Kirby, the fourth and oldest brother, who is retired from his career with the Wisconsin DNR in park management, is a Town of Washington Supervisor and farmer.

With unexpected warm weather, the past two days having been an exception, there is hardly any ice in the shallows of the harbors, and none to speak of around the bay of Green Bay.   Three days ago the NOAA water temperature map for Lake Michigan reported a large section of warm water that extended from mid-lake to the shoreline near Traverse City, Michigan, a substantial warm pool of water with water temps between 46 and 48 degrees F.  This wasn't only a warm topmost layer, but apparently a consistent temperature top-to-bottom.  (Hoyt noted this wasn't too far off summertime temperatures.)   Quite extraordinary to see such temperatures in early winter, and its a sure sign that even if the lake temperatures cooled dramatically starting tomorrow (which isn't in the forecast), we should not see floating or solid ice for several more weeks, at minimum.  Such a warm winter start would have made for relatively easy, late season sailing for the lakers, especially those occasions when they transit the narrows, shallows,  and sometimes ice-choked currents of the St. Mary's River while on their typical upper lake runs.

See more detail and additional Lake Michigan information
at:   GLERL.noaa.gov

Generally speaking, mild December weather doesn't mean a lack of wind altogether, and so we still anticipate weather patterns with strong winds, such as Christmas Eve may bring a few days from now.   Best advice to Christmas ferry travelers?  Plan ahead and travel early to avoid possible difficulties with sailing delays or cancellations.    Ferry reservations become effective tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 21st.

Another Foss photo

On Thursday, I greeted Rev. James Reiff as he stepped off the ferry Washington for a brief Island visit.  Jim was Trinity Lutheran Church pastor from 1981 to 1985, and this was one of only a couple of Island visits since his tenure here decades ago.  My invitation for this visit had to do with the Stavkirke 20th anniversary year since its dedication, and with the instrumental involvement Jim had in getting that idea off the ground.

We drove to the Stavkirke where I took several photos and Jim refreshed his memories.  While we visited, Erik Foss dropped in.  Erik was one of Jim Reiff's confirmands back in the early 1980s.   When details came reluctantly to mind for Jim Reiff, Erik was able to complete a name or date quite easily, prompting further memories of the project.  This sort of recall isn't surprising for one who frequently displays the Foss family trait of a steel trap mind where local or maritime history is concerned.

Erik Foss with former Trinity Pastor Jim Reiff.

Needing to warm up from the chilly air, we walked over to the church itself and met Trinity's current Pastor Alan Schaffmeyer, Church Secretary Joan Hansen, and other familiar faces, before making a quick swing through the nave.   Hanging above the pews there is a beautiful model of the Island freighting schooner, Madonna, hailing port of Detroit Harbor on its transom.

This model was dedicated as a memorial to the young Kelly Jess, son of Karen and Butch Jess, and Jim Reiff was instrumental in obtaining the model, a symbol very typical in Scandinavian churches, Jim said, and something often positively commented about by visitors.

Some years later another sailing ship model, a Mackinac schooner made by carpenter John Herschberger as a memorial to his wife Patty's sister, Deborah, was hung in the knave of the Stavkirke.

With background information from Jim Reiff, and with details provided by others closely associated with the planning, construction and use of the Island Stavkirke, my goal is to assemble photos and supporting information into booklet form, to be available for the 2016 summer tourism season.

-  Dick Purinton

PUMP DESIGNED FOR THE AGES

Washington Island, Wisconsin -

Back on September 17, I had posted information about a piece of old machinery, thought to be associated with a steam vessel that might have repowered at Richter's Point on Detroit Island.

That location is where it was uncovered in sandy soil by Dr. Rod Johnson, property owner, who then offered it to the Jackson Harbor Maritime Museum.   It would be, judging from old photos, at least 100 years old, as that was when this tip of Detroit Island directly across from the present island ferry docks was active with fishermen and their craft.

We could only guess at how the heavy cast iron piece was used, and so I asked if readers had any ideas.

Responses came from several people, each with experience and background in marine matters (well, one is a lawyer with an avid interest in all things maritime, old and new).

David Foss, engineer for the Interlake fleet and retired Senior Chief Engineer, U.S. Navy, identified it as a steam pump, and went further to guess it might have been removed from the L.P. Hill.   I suspect David might have had a photo that identified the Hill moored at the Detroit Island dock.  There are several old Detroit Island photos (copy machine copies, actually) I have that show many fishing craft moored to the Richter Point fishing docks, and in one, a very large steam tug.  Other, much larger, cast iron parts are half-buried beneath the existing dock, too heavy and awkward to move.

Lew Clarke, retired attorney with a great deal of time on the water as a kid riding along with Chris Anderson on the Wisconsin, did recognize it as a pump, and he recited some working pressures that passed me by.  Lew did not think such a piece was ever used as a boiler feed water pump, however, and for that we will give him only a B+.

Eric Bonow, also a Great Lakes sailor and mate on Interlake ships, looked up some helpful information and sent along copies from that literature describing the type of pump found on Detroit Island.  Most surprising is that this design is apparently so timeless in marine applications (and elsewhere, too) that nearly the identical pump to the one now at the Jackson Harbor museum can be ordered from the internet.  According to a Gardner Denver site, this Duplex Steam Pump can be air, steam or gas driven, and has application for boiler feed, oil service, water service, or general service, with pistons and valves of different materials depending upon specific intended use.

The topmost illustration was copied by Eric from the Audel Power Plant Engineers Guide c. 1945, 1948.

From pages of a book titled Practical Marine Engineering, c. 1918, also sent by Eric, we learn more about this type of pump and why it was versatile in steam application:

   "DIRECT ACTING PUMPS

In early marine practice the flywheel pump was a favorite type, and was used for all ordinary purposes where an independent pump was required, as for boiler feed, fire purposes, or for general purposes on shipboard.  This pump consisted essentially of horizontal steam and water cylinders with the piston and plunger on a common rod and moving together.  Attached to the rod was a crosshead with connecting rod leading to a crank and shaft carrying a fly wheel.  The fly wheel served to carry the pump past the dead points, and the shaft served to carry an eccentric which actuated a simple slide valve on the steam cylinder.
  This type of pump, however, has almost entirely disappeared from modern practice, its place being taken by the direct acting pump with its greater compactness of form and better adaptation to the conditions of service.
  Now consider briefly the essential features of this type of pump, with a few examples drawn from modern practice.
  As illustrated in Fig. 325, the pump is horizontal and consists of two cylinders, one for steam and one for water, carried on a common piston rod.  The steam end is operated by means of a suitable valve gear as a simple reciprocating engine, and this communicates the same movement to the pump plunger or piston.  Each end of the water cylinder is provided with both inflow and outflow valves, as shown, and thus the pump becomes double acting --- that is delivering on each stroke alternately from one end and then the other.
  For operating the steam ends of pumps of this type, a great variety of ingenious valve gears have been devised.
  The need of especial devices arises from the fact that there is no rotating part and no chance to use an eccentric, and that the valve cannot be operated directly from the main piston rod.  Where it is thus required that a single set of principal moving parts be self operating, the valve gear usually consists of the following features:   (listed) ..."

Complete copies of the literature provided by Eric were passed along to Kathleen Morris, Director for the Jackson Harbor museum.

There you have it:  more than you ever cared to know about this steam pump, a design for the ages!
  -  Dick Purinton