The USS Michigan was the US Navy’s first iron-hulled warship and was designed by shipbuilder Samuel Hart. The ship was built in pieces at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1842 and was shipped overland to Erie, where she was put together. While being launched on 5 December 1843, the Michigan slipped down the ways but stopped short of the water. Hart and the builders tried to force the ship into the water throughout the rest of the day, but the ship would not budge. As darkness came, everyone gave up and left. But when they returned the following day, they discovered that during the night the Michigan had slid down the remaining section of the ways and was floating peacefully some distance offshore in Lake Erie! The ship was retrieved and final construction began on the steamer. The USS Michigan was commissioned on 29 September 1844 and was almost 164 feet long, 27 feet wide, and had a crew of 88 officers and men.
The Great Lakes Patrol was carried out by American naval forces, beginning in 1844, mainly to suppress criminal activity and to protect the maritime border with Canada. Only a small force of United States Navy, Coast Guard, and Revenue Service ships served in the Great Lakes throughout the operations, though they were involved in several incidents with pirates and rebels. The patrol ended in 1920 when the Coast Guard assumed full command of the operations as part of the Rum Patrol.
The USS Michigan led the patrol, mostly singlehandedly, from its beginning on October 1, 1844 until the ship was retired in 1912. Michigan was the only American gunboat to patrol the huge Great Lakes and she was the navy's first steam-powered, iron-hulled warship. The Michigan was built to defend the lakes due to the construction of two British steamers during the Canadian rebellions in 1837. Based out of Erie throughout her career, the gunboat was commissioned on September 29, 1844 under Commander William Inman. Because the Great Lakes are vast inland seas in the north of the continent, during every winter parts of the lakes would freeze over or icebergs would make navigation extremely hazardous and difficult. The Michigan usually sailed from about March to December before heading back for Erie for the winter where a type of house was built to protect the ship from the elements. The officers and crew of the ship either stayed at their homes in Erie or at a government owned hotel near the wharf.
In 1853 the USS Michigan was assigned to operate against criminals who were ravaging the logging industry. These so called timber pirates were involved in the illegal cutting of timber on federal land then smuggling it out of the area in order to sell it. The areas most affected were in the western Great Lakes region along the coasts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota where much of the forested areas were reserved for the building of new warships. The illegal timber trade centered around Chicago and Milwaukee and was nearly as violent as the alcohol trade which was carried out over the same waters during the Prohibition era. In 1851 the government sent timber agents from the Department of the Interior to survey the land and work with local police and naval forces to stop the crime. When loads of wood were found to have been acquired illegally, the agents confiscated it and auctioned it off to the public, and later, in foreign markets. This upset the timber barons of the Great Lakes, who were involved in the illegal trade, and they began stealing back the wood or burning it before it could be shipped away.
There was also conflict between the timber agents and smugglers on the northern Mississippi River as well as a whole separate United States Navy operation in the Calcasieu River of Louisiana. In 1852 one agent was killed by the pirates while sailing a raft loaded with stolen timber to Dubuque, Iowa. Newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Democratic Press openly advocated armed resistance against the agents. One article in the Chicago Tribune read as follows; "if they [the agents] regard their personal welfare, they had better keep clear of a such transactions as that which they are about to engage in. If men cannot have a law protect their property, they will protect it themselves." The newspapers also pointed out that most of the timber smugglers were from Wisconsin and Illinois, and usually raided Michigan's timberlands and apparently caused much damage to the reserves. Agent Isaac W. Willard was sent to the Great Lakes in 1853 and he observed gangs of timber pirates defy and intimidate federal authorities and burn government owned property, including boats loaded with logs at Grand Haven as a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
At this time the only American warship on the Great Lakes was the USS Michigan under Commander Abraham Bigelow. The only other vessel in the lakes which could have been used against the pirates was the revenue cutter USRC Ingham, described by one Detroit newspaper as being burlesque and unfit for duty. Because the Ingham had no steam engine, and was propelled solely by sails and wind, the more advanced steam powered vessels, used by the smugglers, could easily escape her. In late April the Michigan headed for Buffalo to resupply before her yearly patrol. After that Commander Bigelow sailed west across Lake Erie and passed Detroit on Thursday, May 5, 1853 and then went into Lake Huron via Saint Clair River. On the following morning, at about 2:15 am, a lookout sighted a light in the darkness ahead of the Michigan. The officer on duty, Lieutenant George M. Ransom, ordered the helmsman to steer north by northwest, so as to avoid the light, but by 2:40 am the light was still ahead and close upon us according to one sailor. At 3:00 am the two ships were only a few hundred yards from each other and appeared as though the two would pass closely by. However, suddenly the unknown ship turned ninety degrees to port side and headed straight for the Michigan 's port bow.
Lieutenant Ransom had only a few seconds to react and he ordered the ship hard to port but just as he was ringing the ship's bell to alarm the crew, the unknown ship then crashed into the Michigan. Damage to the gunboat was heavy, though because of her iron hull, there was no leaking and the ship was not in danger of sinking. Commander Bigelow later said to Secretary of the Navy James Cochran Dobbin; "Had the Michigan been built of wood instead of iron, there is no doubt but that she would have been cut down before the water's edge and sunk." The other ship bounced off the Michigan 's metal hull just after impact and her commander turned his ship back onto course and continued on without stopping. This angered Bigelow, who then proceeded in giving chase to the fleeing steamer. After a brief pursuit the American gunboat was shortly behind the steamer in order for her crew to read the vessel's nameboard. The steamer proved to be the Buffalo and at the time she was the largest steam-powered timber ship to sail the lakes. She was owned by a Mr. Walbridge and was headed for Chicago.
Though Lieutenant Ransom felt the ramming was deliberate, Commander Bigelow thought it must have been an accident so he then moved his ship alongside the Buffalo and asked if the crew of the steamer needed any assistance. The crew answered to the negative so Bigelow let the ship go but he followed it into Chicago for repairs. While it is not certain that the ramming was intentional or not, Bigelow endeavored to find evidence that it was. The commander then filed a lawsuit against Mr. Walbridge on the account that his ship was either neglectfully manned at the time of the incident or was indeed trying to sink the Michigan. The crew of the merchant ship Republic witnessed the Buffalo swerve off course to ram the gunboat and the ship's captain submitted his report in writing, however, because all the gathered evidence was circumstantial, the case never went to trial. USS Michigan was put out of action for two months for repairs which cost $1,674 to complete. Over the course of the next few weeks after refitting, the Michigan captured several timber pirates with the assistance of Agent Willard and a Marine Corps detachment. These operations are credited with ending the 1853 Timber Rebellion in a federal victory though the illegal logging trade continued on as late as the 1870s.
The second notable incident involving the Michigan was that of the Beaver-Mackinac War. James Strang crowned himself the king of Beaver Island, at the head of Lake Michigan in 1850 but eventually he began forcing his radical beliefs on some of his mainstream Mormon followers, known as Strangites. So to deal with the problem, the commander of the Michigan was ordered to arrest Strang in May 1851 which was done without conflict. The king was held for some time and then released but on Monday, June 16, 1856, he was assassinated at St. James, in front of the Michigan. Captain Charles H. McBlair, commander of the gunboat, had invited the king aboard the ship and he accepted only to be shot in the back with a pistol at close range as he was waiting on the docks. The assassins, Alexander Wentworth and one Dr. J. Atkyn [sic], who were said to be blackmailing the Strangites, fled to the Michigan for sanctuary and were later released at Mackinac without being charged. Strang was shot three times, once in the head, but survived for three weeks before dying on July 9 from his injuries.
The Mormons assumed that Captain McBlair knew about the plot beforehand and others accused him of being in on it. On July 5, a large mob from Michigan landed on Beaver Island and forcibly removed nearly 3,000 inhabitants with small steam boats. Many people were robbed first in what Byron M. Cutcheon later called "the most disgraceful day in Michigan history". The Mormons were taken to Voree, where some of them stayed while most others dispersed across the country. Beaver Island was later reoccupied by Irish-Americans who established their own colony that flourished in the 1860s and 1870s.
During the American Civil War, Michigan was armed with a 30-pounder Parrott rifle, five 20-pounder Parrott rifles, six 24-pounder smooth-bores, and two 12-pounder boat howitzers. The Confederate States of America considered launching attacks against the North from Canada. Early in 1863, Lieutenant William Henry Murdaugh, CSN, planned to lead a group of Confederate naval officers to Canada where they would purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians and steam to Erie to board Michigan and use her against locks and shipping on the Great Lakes. However, Confederate President Jefferson Davis didn't approve the plan.
Michigan cruised on the Great Lakes during most of the war providing an element of stability and security. On 28 July 1863, a short time after New York City had been seriously shaken by riots, Commander John C. Carter commanding Michigan reported from Detroit, "I found the people suffering under serious apprehensions of a riot....The presence of the ships perhaps did something toward overawing the refractory, and certainly did much to allay the apprehensions of the excited, doubting people." During August 1863, Michigan was called on for similar service in Buffalo, New York.
During 1864, rumors of Confederate conspiracies in Canada were heard again. In March, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Michigan to be prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit. In the autumn, the Confederates finally struck. Led by Acting Master John Yates Beall, 20 Confederates embarked on the steamer Philo Parsons as passengers and soon seized her. They next captured and burned the steamer Island Queen. Meanwhile, Captain Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate agent in the Lake Erie region, was attempting to gain the trust of Michigan's officers as the Michigan lay off Johnson's Island helping to guard Confederate prisoners. However, Commander Carter discovered Cole's duplicity and had him arrested before Beall reached Johnson's Island on Philo Parsons. When the prearranged signals from shore were not made, Beall reluctantly abandoned his plan and retired to Sandwich (now Windsor, Ontario) where he stripped and burned Philo Parsons.
After the Civil War, Michigan remained in U.S. Navy service, and was the ship which intercepted and interned the army of the Fenian Brotherhood as it returned from its invasion of Canada near Buffalo in 1866. Michigan was renamed USS Wolverine on 17 June 1905 to free up the name Michigan for use by the new battleship USS Michigan (BB-27).
Wolverine was decommissioned on 6 May 1912, when she was turned over to the Pennsylvania Naval Militia, which she served for 11 years, making training cruises in the summer for the United States Naval Reserve. For the 1913 centennial of the War of 1812, Battle of Lake Erie, Wolverine towed the brig USS Niagara from port to port as part of the celebrations. In mid-1920, when the U.S. Navy adopted its modern alphanumeric hull number system, she was classified as a "miscellaneous auxiliary" and designated IX-31.
On 12 August 1923, a connecting rod of Wolverine's port cylinder broke, ending her active career.
In 1927, Wolverine's hulk was pushed up onto a sandbank in Misery Bay on the Presque Isle State Park Peninsula and loaned to the city of Erie as a relic. She was sold to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Original USS Michigan, Inc., on 19 July 1948. But when fund-raising efforts failed to acquire sufficient money for her restoration and preservation, she was cut up and sold for scrap in 1949 to the Ace Junk & Salvage Company. Sam Tanenbaum, proprietor, donated the prow back to the city of Erie.
In 1950, Wolverine's prow was erected as a monument in Wolverine Park in Erie, near the shipyard where she had been built. On 22 February 1988, the prow was moved to the Erie Maritime Museum for restoration. On February 26, 1998, the prow was moved once again to its new home on the First Mezzanine Level of the Erie Maritime Museum. The prow underwent an extensive restoration that included welding, scraping, painting, and refitting of her scrollwork. The Wolverine exhibit is certain to be popular with Erie residents, naval enthusiasts, and historians.
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| The crew of the USS Wolverine drills at the Erie Public Dock. |
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| USS Michigan - USS Wolverine, Misery Bay (late 1920s) |
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| The Wolverine is shown steaming out of Erie's harbor (1910) |
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| USS Wolverine pushed onto the banks of Misery Bay (1927) |
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| Erie girls dreamed of receiving invitations to parties held aboard the USS Michigan/Wolverine. So many crewman married local women, that the city of Erie earned the nickname, "Mother-in-Law of the Navy." |
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| For the 1913 centennial of the War of 1812 Battle of Lake Erie, Wolverine towed the brig USS Niagara from port to port as part of the celebrations. |
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| The USS Michigan-Wolverine’s football team. When the ship was underway, the team was in high demand in all the ports for games with local teams. The crew played more than just football; they had skilled teams in baseball and rowing as well. |
