Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Sheboygan Steve - Make that bdfd36atyahoodotcom - don't even know my own address.

Sheboygan Steve. Please contact me at BDFDatyahoodotcalm

re: the forties

My parents sailed on the Presque Isle in 1948, he as Steward and she as Porter. They had great stories from their sailing career throughout the 40's and always said the Presque Isle bobbed like a cork in rough weather. We toured her several times as the E.M. Ford in Milwaukee during the 80's. It is sad to see this happen. Progress can be very disheartening but precious memories take away the pain.

I have been a member of a few HOBBY groups for Years,I was President of 4 out of the 14 coonhound clubs in Minnesota,and Vice President of the Minnesota Coon Hunters association,and it"s the same all over,(Your doing this and that wrong)but when I needed help,(to busy) or promise the world,and they never got it done. Well I gave up on that and joined a fire department,now You have to keep Your numbers up on calls and fundraising. Well if You are not as eager as the ones signing Us up for every thing,your ut on the bottom a list,and outed if You don't pick it up, I had to remind them.( Yes it's frusterating,But Most signed up to have a Hobby,not a full time Job!)

Last Fall I contacted the White Pine Steam Show in regards to The EM Ford Engine.The Langenbachs, owners of the show ,said their father worked on the Lakes.They have a old pilot house they set up on the grounds. They have the building to house the engine.In discussions with them on what it would take to get the engine there.The funds to do that are not there.They said that they were asked by a Museum to try to get it.

[quote="Guest II" I had a friend who was oiler on the the Presque Isle in the 40s by the name of George Erbe .He told me stories about the ship and said he should of stayed on the boats. He has since passed away .I wish I would have wrote down his stories.

"We often are nostalgic about the things we are financially unwilling to support."

As a volunteer & board member for the SS City of Milwaukee, I can attest to the fact that we get a lot of pat's on the back & a 'Good Job', but when it comes to volunteer work and donations ( be it money, artifacts, materials for restoration), well not so much. It's very easy for people to say "Some one should do something" but it's pretty darn hard to get anybody to do anything. You can make a small fortune running a museum....provided you started out with a large one!

Was anything saved from this boat for museum purposes? One would think that this floating museum would contain a wealth of artifacts. I made summer trips on her as a child back in the forties when she was the Presque Isle. (getting close to museum quality myself)

Just talked to Jack Purvis. There were a couple parties that had shown interest in the engine, but things didn't happen in the right sequence. It was in the way of operations and was cut up some time ago. He, as a steam guy, was sad to make the decision, but business is business.

Business often runs at a much faster speed than non-profits do. This appears to be the case here. We as conservators need to react quickly when opportunities like this come along. We also need to be the spreaders of leads like this, as the sharing of leads on historical equipment can't be left for "someone else", else things like this happen.

Before you chime in about "that's too bad" or "Someone should have done something", ask yourself what you did to spread the word ?

Pete