Barge #1

Version 1.1. Metadata and presentation revised September 8, 2026; original evidence review retained.

Selected appearance

Original rail-ferry service, c.1895–1910. Original four-track rail-ferry form, before conversion to bulk cargo service. Twelve example period freight cars illustrate operation; they are not a documented load. No propulsion engine or propeller. A small auxiliary steam plant operated deck machinery.

Documented evidence

Wooden car-ferry barge built by James Davidson at West Bay City in 1895. NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Barge #1

NOAA wreck dimensions 309×44 ft; the model uses the survey’s rounded 310 ft baseline. NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Barge #1

Reasonable interpretation

Hull lines, draft, colors and small fittings

Deck layout and machinery proportions

Example railcars/stores are illustrative, not a historical loading manifest

This model depicts the original rail-ferry service of Lake Michigan Car Ferry Barge No. 1, c.1895–1910. NOAA identifies a wooden car-ferry barge built by James Davidson at West Bay City in 1895, with 309 ft wreck length and 44 ft beam. It later carried bulk freight and was lost November 8, 1918. NOAA vessel record.

NOAA’s 2014 sanctuary assessment specifically describes four tracks and capacity for 28 railcars. That capacity does not establish a particular load in any photograph. NOAA boundary-expansion assessment, p.33.

The 2016 Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago survey of the sister vessel, Car Ferry No. 2, identifies Nos. 1 and 2 as identical, gives rounded dimensions 310 x 44 x 12 ft, and reproduces a photograph of No. 1 on page 32. It records no surviving original plans. The sister’s remains support longitudinal steel reinforcement, deck beams, rail equipment and steering construction. The report describes auxiliary steam machinery at the forward end, without propulsion machinery. These are sister-vessel analogies, not measurements taken from the Thunder Bay wreck. UASC survey report, pp.18,32–35.

The hull measures 94.488 m by 13.4112 m using the rounded 310 ft baseline in the workbook and report. It has four tracks at standard 1.435 m gauge, an open loading stern, side reinforcement, small forward machinery house, auxiliary stack and steering quadrant. Stations, cabin form, underwater shape, draft and colors are inferred. The auxiliary stack must not be mistaken for propulsion: this barge has no engine driving a propeller.

Twelve generic period wooden boxcars illustrate the rail-ferry function, three per track. Their designs, colors, positioning and tie-down details are illustrative; they are not the documented 1895 inaugural load or the vessel’s 1918 cargo. setRailcars(boolean) controls the railcars group and exposes the four-track deck. This is not the later lumber-and-chickens loss configuration. The NOAA 309 ft wreck length and rounded 310 ft hull baseline are both retained as source distinctions. Wreck position remains approximate.

Unresolved uncertainties

No complete original lines plan is claimed. Exact loaded draft, concealed surfaces and fine fittings remain interpreted. The earlier research context below retains the source distinctions used for this reconstruction.

Sources

• NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Barge #1
• UASC archaeological survey of Car Ferry No. 2, February 2016
• NOAA sanctuary boundary expansion assessment, 2014

Illustration conditions

Lake, shoreline, lighting and weather are artistic staging, not evidence of a specific historical voyage. AI artwork is supplemental; the GLB and direct renders establish the delivered geometry.