Robert Logan (naval architect)

Robert Logan (March 14, 1861 – July 22, 1918) was a Scottish naval architect. He was a university graduate of mathematics, science, and engineering. Logan designed and constructed several large ships for various shipbuilding firms worldwide. His first ones were passenger cruise excursion boats. He later constructed freighter ships for the American Shipbuilding Company that carried railroad trains across Lake Michigan. He designed the world's first steel train ferry. This was followed by several more Logan boats that ultimately developed into the world's largest carferry fleet that operated out of Ludington, Michigan.

Robert Logan
Robert Logan, circa 1911
Born(1861-03-14)March 14, 1861
Glasgow, Scotland
DiedJuly 22, 1918(1918-07-22) (aged 57)
Cleveland, Ohio
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
Royal College of Science and Technology
OccupationArchitect
PracticeNaval architect[1]


Early life

Logan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 14, 1861. He was a graduate of the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh.[1] He attended the Royal College of Science and Technology in Glasgow. In 1882 he won the Queen's Prize for mathematics for a college scholarship.[2][3]

Mid life and career

Logan became chief draftsman for the shipbuilding firm of Mansell and Aiken in Glasgow after college graduation. Here he gained shipbuilding experience on the River Clyde, where the firm was located.[4] Logan immigrated to Canada in June 1888 and settled in Owen Sound in Ontario. There he got a job as the superintendent of construction of vessels for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).[2] One of the steamships he was involved with on its construction was the SS Manitoba built in 1888–89. This passenger steel ship was 320-foot (98 m) long and one of the first large metal ones built in Canada. It was in connection with the building of the steamer Manitoba that A.O. Rankin met Logan, who had gone to Canada in the interests of the CPR to superintend the building of this steamer.[4]

Logan eventually opened his own design firm with A. O. Rankin in Toronto after working for the railroad for several years. The naval architect firm name was Logan & Rankin and they became marine engineers. Logan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1903 and got a job at the American Shipbuilding Company eventually becoming their general manager. He designed large freighters for the Pere Marquette Railway to use on the Great Lakes to transport their trains across Lake Michigan. The Pere Marquette ferry service for the railway out of Ludington proved to be a great success. It ferried some 27,000 railroad freight cars in 1900 and about 75,000 in 1904.[5]

Logan designed several ships of railroad transport freighters until his retirement in 1910.[2] A series of these developed into the world's largest carferry fleet that operated out of Ludington, Michigan.[6] The entire fleet was in port and photographed on October 29, 1930. They were the Logan designed steel ferries S S Pere Marquette 15, S S Pere Marquette 17, S S Pere Marquette 18, S S Pere Marquette 19, and S S Pere Marquette 20. The S S City of Saginaw 31 (1929) and the S S City of Flint 32 (1930) as part of the fleet were there also on that date as sisterships added later after Logan's death. These later vessels constructed were patterned after his boat designs.[7]

Logan boats
S S Pere Marquette No. 15 in 1899

The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad ("F & PM") ordered in the late nineteenth century train transport carferries to be constructed to carry their trains across Lake Michigan.[8] Their first carferry was given the company's name to keep their name out front in public view.[9] The SS Pere Marquette was the first steel train ferry in history.[10] Logan was specifically selected to design it in 1895.[11] This carferry was constructed in 1896 as a cross-lake ferry to endure the extreme weather conditions of Lake Michigan with the ice.[4][12] The "Logan boats" had pilot houses with open upper levels and elevated bridge wings, twin smoke stacks with a slight angle slant, and no sea-gate.[4][13]

The Pere Marquette Railroad merged with two other railroad lines in 1900. The newly formed conglomerate company was called the Pere Marquette Railway company. It renamed and renumbered their freight ships in 1901.[14] They started their numbering system with number 15.[15] The first Logan boat constructed thereby received the number 15 designation. The ship's crews referred to her by just the number at the beginning. The name change which involved both the name with its number wasn't actually done until 1924. From then on it was officially known as the S S Pere Marquette No. 15.[13] It was originally owned by F & PM and had departed on its maiden voyage out of Ludington on February 19, 1897.[16]

The merged companies brought in a wooden ferry from one of the other companies called Shenango No. 2. It was renamed the Muskegon since its' original travel route across Lake Michigan was out of the town of Muskegon in Michigan and went to the city of Milwaukee in Wisconsin. It was the railway's fourth boat and renamed again later the S S Ann Arbor No. 4 with the "S S" standing for steamship. It ultimately received the name S S Pere Marquette 16 when F & PM's new numbering system took place in 1901.[5] The system started with the number 15. At that time there was already an order for a new all steel ferry that was placed with Logan in 1895. This boat while in construction had been referred to as the No. 15 as it was the first in a series of boats designed by Logan and the new numbering system started with 15.[13]

The Pere Marquette Railway company ordered in 1901 a steel ferry from American Shipbuilding Company to be designed by Logan. it was the first freighter for the new railway. F & PM was pleased with the performance of their first steel ferry constructed by the naval architect in 1896. This second steel boat ordered from Logan of American Shipbuilding received the designation S S Pere Marquette 17 since the number 16 had already been taken. This steamship was an upgraded version from the previous Logan boat. The steel craft was 338 feet long, 56 feet wide, and had a depth of 19.5 feet to the main deck. This steamship was constructed with extra strength metal parts and lavish luxury accommodations. It had triple expansion engines powered by four boilers like those on the modern Scottish ships at the time. They were thirteen feet high and twelve feet in diameter and generated 175 pounds per square inch of steam pressure giving 2,300 horsepower. The transport ship could carry thirty standard railroad freight cars on its' four track internal platform. It had luxury passenger staterooms with better facilities than the first Logan launch. The vessel was 2,775 gross tons and officially registered as US #150906.[13]

Sinking of Pere Marquette #18 in 1910 and coming to
the rescue is Pere Marquette #17 in the background.[17]

The third railroad train car ferry ordered from Logan, designated S S Pere Marquette No. 18, was launched at the Cleveland shipyard dock of the American Shipbuilding Company on August 1, 1902. She was christened by Miss Beatrice Logan, the daughter of Robert Logan, the design engineer of the all steel vessel. The new steamship was 350 feet long, 56 feet in beam, and had a depth of 20 feet from keel to top of the shell plating. She had six boilers and triple expansion twin engines. The engines were triple compound vertical jet condensing and were equipped with air and cooler pumps. All the engine parts, including shafts and propellers, were extra heavy duty for service in working through the thick lake ice. The boilers worked at a pressure of 175 pounds per square inch. They were 13 feet in diameter, 12 feet long and had furnaces three and a half feet in diameter. The entire hull had inch thick steel shell plates. They were doubled for 75 feet from the keel to a line three feet above the water line as extra protection against ice.[18]

The No. 18 ferry was not only a railway freight-car delivery vehicle, but also a cruise ship that could accommodate 5,000 excursionists. It had fifty state-rooms and additional berths for sleeping 250 passengers overnight. It ran at fifteen miles an hour in two regular twenty-four hour round trips on her Lake Michigan route from Ludington to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Flint & Pere Marquette Railway superintendent William L. Mercereau authorized Logan's all steel transport cost of $400,000.[19] It was claimed to be one of the fastest boats on Lake Michigan.[20] The first No. 18 sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan with 31 people perishing out of its 64 crew members.[21] A second No. 18 was built in 1911. Ships No. 17, No.18, and No. 19 followed the general Logan boat layout design of Pere Marquette No. 15 ferry.[6][5]

Personal life

Logan was a Thirty-second Degree Mason, Mystic Shrine, Scottish Rite, and a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.[2] He married a Miss Eliza Boyd in Scotland in 1883.[1] Logan was general manager for the American Shipbuilding Company until his resignation in 1910. He then maintained a private office in Cleveland as a consulting engineer, which he operated until his death.[2] He died in his home in Cleveland on July 23, 1918.[22] At the time of his death he was survived by three daughters; Mr. B. R. Pearse, Mrs. Alton A. Smith, and Mrs. H. E. Gaines. He was also survived by a son, Corp. Edmund A. Logan. Logan also had two sisters living at the time in Scotland.[23]

References
  1. "Naval Architect Dead". The Buffalo Commercial. Buffalo, New York. July 24, 1918. p. 7.
  2. Naval Architects 1919, p. 309.
  3. Penton 1911, p. 159.
  4. Peterson, Paul S. (March 18, 1997). "Scottish man designs six of the local fleet". Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. p. 3.
  5. "Lake ferryboats steeped in history". Manitowoc Herald-Times. Manitowoc, Wisconsin. August 20, 1978. p. 30.
  6. "60th Anniversary of Sailing of PM 15". The Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. February 19, 1957. p. 3.
  7. "World's Largest Carferry Fleet In Port". Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. November 23, 1930. p. 1.
  8. "Seven Have Directed Freight Operations across Lake". Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. October 23, 1952 – via Newspapers.com .
  9. "First Steel Carferry Made Voyage 55 Years Ago Today". The Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. February 19, 1952. p. 1.
  10. "Item-by-Item Story of First Carferry from Ludington Record for 1897". Ludington Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. June 2, 1953 – via Newspapers.com .
  11. Car Ferry-Boat Pere Marquette, The Railroad Gazette, p. 113, Robert Logan of Cleveland who has supervised her construction was the architect.
  12. Mac Laren, Agnes E. (January 4, 1957). "This and That from History". Daily News. Ludington, Michigan – via newspapers.com . The Pere Marquette, which was the widest steamer on the Great Lakes, was the first steel carferry in the world. She was designed by Robert Logan of Cleveland.
  13. Bagley, Les (June 7, 2007). "Autos Across Mackinac: Pere Marquette Makes New Home in St. Ignace". St. Ignace News. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  14. "Several Changes of Names". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. April 12, 1901. p. 7.
  15. "Several Changes of Names (second part)". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. April 12, 1901. p. 7.
  16. "First Steel Carferry Made Maiden Voyage 55 Years Ago Today". Daily News. Ludington, Michigan. February 19, 1952 – via Newspapers.com . She had been designed by Robert Logan of Cleveland.
  17. "Rail car ferry sinks, leaving dozens dead". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. September 9, 2012. p. A16.
  18. "Finest Car Ferry on the Lakes". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. May 28, 1902. p. 9.
  19. "New Car Ferry". The Daily Herald. Port Huron, Michigan. May 28, 1902. p. 5.
  20. "Car Ferry Launched fleet". The Times-Herald. Ludington, Michigan. August 18, 1902. p. 7.
  21. Donahue, James (September 11, 1988). "Answers to ferry's sinking went to bottom with ship". The Times Herald. Port Huron, Michigan. p. 6.
  22. Penton_Steel 1918, p. 345.
  23. "Robert Logan dead in Cleveland". Buffalo Courier. Buffalo, New York. July 25, 1918. p. 2.

Sources
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