SS George M. Cox: Operational History

USS PURITAN sailing with flags prominent at bow and stern.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. Navy

Operational History

Graham and Morton Co. was anxious for the delivery of the new vessel. When Puritan left Toledo for Chicago on June 15, carpenters were on board completing their work. The ship was placed on the daily Chicago-to-Holland run shortly after the company took title on June 28, 1901. Typically, Puritan remained on this run until the end of the fruit season, when it sometimes ran from Chicago to Benton Harbor during the winter (Hamilton, n.d.).

Puritan was reboilered in 1905. The Roberts boilers were replaced with four newer 11x10-foot Scotch boilers built by Johnston Bros. of Ferrysburg, Michigan (Hamilton, n.d.). Recent field observations of these boilers reveal they were constructed with steam drums, an unusual feature for Great Lakes vessels.

PURITAN with a temporary bulkhead in place to allow passage through canals for ocean service in World War I.

Lake Superior Marine Museum

Passenger steamers were principally used to bring U.S. troops back home after the Armistice (U.S. Department of the Navy, 1970:5:405). Puritan was modified for naval service at the Krafts Shipyard in South Chicago, where it was fitted out for ocean service and camouflaged.

Most Lakes passenger vessels had to be structurally altered to allow passage to the ocean. Contemporary photographs indicate the bow of Puritan was severed to allow passage through the canal system to the Atlantic. The cut was made immediately forward of the pilothouse, and both sections were apparently bulkheaded to make the passage, or perhaps the smaller bow portion was simply loaded and carried through the passage.

USS Puritan: World War I

PURITAN was one of several Great Lakes ships summoned to serve in World War I. There were at least five of the Lake Michigan passenger-steamer fleet called to U.S. Naval service: THEODORE ROOSEVELT, CITY OF SOUTH HAVEN, VIRGINIA, MANITOU and PURITAN (Fort William Daily Times Journal April 9, 1918). PURITAN was purchased by the U.S. Navy in April, 1918 and commissioned November 20 of the same year (U.S. Department of the Navy 1970:5:405; Lake Carriers' Association Annual Report 1918:149). The ship's enrollment papers were surrendered October 23, 1918 ("Consolidated Certificate of Enrollment and License." PURITAN. July 7, 1920). In Naval service, PURITAN was designated SP-2222. It was the third vessel of that name to serve in the U.S. Navy.

The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships (U.S. Department of the Navy 1970:5:405) indicates the ship served as a troop transport, and it was later reported that the ship had spent some of its time operating in the English Channel (Toledo Blade May 29, 1933). Some sources state that PURITAN, along with other Lake passenger steamers, served as a mine-layer in the North and Baltic Seas (Lake Carriers' Association 1933:35-36). Dana Thomas Bowen recorded that PURITAN was used as a training ship for recruits (Bowen 1952:308). Another writer stated that PURITAN saw no action or service at all, but spent the time laid up in the Boston Navy Yard (Hamilton n.d.).

SS GEORGE M. COX

Kenneth E. Thro Collection

After Puritan was decommissioned, it was sold to a private company and rebuilt to resume the Lake passenger trade. The newly rebuilt passenger steamer was chartered to the Michigan Transit Co. of Chicago, which purchased the vessel outright in May, 1924 ("Consolidated Certificate of Enrollment and License." Puritan. May 23, 1924).

In the severe storm of December 6, 7 and 8, 1927, Puritan broke from its moorings in Muskegon Harbor and drifted around with no one aboard. Buffeted by 65-mile-per-hour winds, Puritan dragged its winter moorings - steel cables fixed to large concrete blocks that had been buried 6 feet deep - and came to rest against an abandoned pier at East Lake. The huge concrete blocks that were dragged by the ship prevented serious damage to the hull when the ship hit the pier (Detroit Free Press December 9, 1927). The same storm sank the canaller Kamloops on Isle Royale.

The resort and passenger cruise vessel PURITAN was idled in 1929, just before the demand for recreation cruises and passage to the northern Michigan resorts was virtually eliminated by the Great Depression. The ship was docked at Manistee (Hamilton n.d.).

After the idle time at Manistee, Puritan was purchased by Isle Royale Transportation Co. The Enrollment Document for the purchase (May 22, 1933) registered the name change from Puritan to George M. Cox. The Isle Royale Transportation Co. was an Arizona corporation headed by the man for which Puritan had been renamed.

George M. Cox was a millionaire ship builder and brewer from New Orleans, and a large stockholder of the Duke Transportation Company. The new owner had refitted PURITAN in a grand manner.

George M. Cox quoted in the Manistee News Advocate May 25, 1933

"I never had to shine shoes, but if I did I would try to do it better than the other fellow, and I am going to follow this same procedure with these boats," he said after the refitting and renaming of his company's newest boat was complete. "The boats are elegantly equipped and everything that can possibly be done will be offered for the passenger's pleasure. The ships, however, are going to remain clean - there'll be no gambling or disorder - if we have to sink them first. Our purpose is to supply two ships, and perhaps more, where every facility will be offered for clean and wholesome amusement and plenty of good times."

There was much excitement regarding the newly appointed George M. Cox. On May 23, the ship, decorated with a new coat of white paint and carrying the International Code of Signals, left the moorings at Arthur Street in Manistee to move down to the Michigan Transit docks. Hundreds of people visited the ship as it lay at the dock, the crew finishing last-minute preparations for departure on Cox's first voyage in more than two years. The ship was slated to leave for Chicago the next morning with George Johnson as captain and Arthur Cronk (appears as Kronk in most other references) of Houghton or Hancock, Michigan, as first mate. The refurbished vessel met with approval from its many visitors and well-wishers. "Entirely repainted, inside and out, the fine appearance of the ship won the favorable comment of those who inspected it" (Manistee News Advocate, May 24, 1933).

Shipwrecks of Isle Royale

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