Uphshur, A. P. Steamer Building on Lake Erie. Doc. No. 238. Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, in reply to The resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th ultimo, in relation to the steamer ordered to be built on Lake Erie, &c. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1842. [11657]
Removed, 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches, 15 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
27th Congress, Second Session, House of Representatives, Navy Department.
Reports on the progress of building an iron steamer for the defense of Lake Erie. There are seven parts consisting of letters; complete charts of the iron used for the different parts of the steamer, the iron for the gun deck beam fastenings; descriptions of the boilers, engines, water wheel, &c.; a minute accounting of every piece to be made for the steamer; and the contract with Samuel Stackard and Joseph Tomlinson, of Pittsburgh, and the Board of Navy Commissioners, for the construction of the steamer.
We find a New York Times article from July 24, 1927, about the "old Michigan, rechristened Wolverine, the first iron boat ever launched on the Great Lakes, and an old-time war dog of the United States Navy." Her adventures included capturing James J. Strang on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, in 1851. Strange set up a community as claimant of the mantle of Joseph Smith, of Mormonism. He was tried for treason by the US Government and acquitted.
The Michigan was the only armed American vessel on the Great Lakes during the first American Civil War, and guerilla tactics and bribery were used by Confederates in Canada in failed attempts to gain possession of her.
She was renamed Wolverine in 1906, when the name Michigan was assigned to a dreadnought. Her prow now is on display in the Erie Maritime Museum.
