Wisconsin Marine Historical Society, 814 W Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI (2026)

06/07/2026

Elmer Engman, our Duluth correspondent, reports that on Saturday, June 6th, they finally had a nice warm sunny day in the Twin Ports. The GREAT REPUBLIC was leaving the Duluth harbor after unloading a cargo of limestone in Superior, Wisconsin. She was then on her way to Silver Bay, Minnesota, to load a cargo of taconite.

The GREAT REPUBLIC was built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in 1981 and is 634 feet long.

Photos by Elmer Engman
----------
Elmer Engman is a long time resident of the Duluth area. He started scuba diving in 1968, because of an interest in maritime history, and wrote the first dive guide for the area called, Shipwreck Guide to the Western Half of Lake Superior. He is a past board member of the SS Meteor Maritime Museum and the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association. He is also the founder of the Maritime history program called "Gales of November". This program is usually held on the second weekend in November

06/07/2026

Long Ships Passing – Monster Garage By Chris Winters - The former USS CHIWAWA now the LEE A. TREGURTHA receives new dual-fuel Bergen diesel engines, July, 2006. Interlake’s decorated WWII veteran became the first vessel on the Great Lakes with a fully automated engine room.

The LEE A. TREGURTHA was launched on June 25, 1942 as the CHIWAWA by Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point, Maryland, under a Maritime Commission contract as the SS SAMOSET. As the CHIWAWA she received two battle stars for her World War II service and was decommissioned on May 6, 1946. Idle for years, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company purchased her in 1959-60 and rebuilt her for Great Lakes use. In 1961, basically a new ship having been lengthened and widened, she was christened WALTER A. STERLING in honor of Cliffs’ chairman. In 1978 she was converted into a self-unloader. Cleveland Cliffs sold her in 1985 to the Ford Motor Co. (later Rouge Steel) who renamed her WILLIAM CLAY FORD. In 1989 she joined the Interlake Steamship Co., for whom she still sails, and was renamed LEE A. TREGURTHA in honor of the wife of Interlake’s vice chairman.
-----------
Chris Winters is a Trustee and Vice President of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society, a well-known author and has been a photojournalist for over 25 years. He and his cameras have enjoyed a privileged glimpse into the lives of merchant mariners aboard some of the Great Lakes best-known and best-loved vessels.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

06/06/2026

A SHIP IN MUSKEGON HARBOR PARTICIPATED IN D DAY
By James Heinz - The Navy called them Landing Ship, Tank or LST. Their crews said that LST stood for Large Slow Target or Large Stationary Target. One of them is a museum ship in Muskegon, Mich.

Wikipedia tells us: “The design of the Landing Ship, Tank (LST) was born out of a contradictory set of requirements: the vessel needed to be highly seaworthy to cross oceans, yet possess a sufficiently shallow draft to deliver heavy armor and personnel directly onto unimproved beaches. By flooding extensive ballast tanks, the ship could achieve a deep draft for stability during ocean transits; upon approaching a landing site, the water was pumped out, allowing the flat-bottomed hull to ride high in the water and safely run aground.”

Photo posted here: LST 393

“The bow had a large door that could open, deploy a ramp, and unload vehicles. The LST had a flat keel that allowed the ship to be beached and stay upright. The twin propellers and rudders were protected from grounding.” The flat keel made for a very difficult ride in rough weather.

When LSTs wanted to get off the beach, they pulled themselves off using a stern winch to pull them towards an anchor they had dropped during the run into the beach.

1,051 LSTs were built. One of them was LST-393. WMHS files show that she was built in 1942 in Newport News, Virginia. She displaces 2,860 tons, is 311.7 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 21.6 feet high. She had two diesel engines that could make 12 knots.

She had a crew of about 9 officers and about 110 crew. She was armed with one 3 inch gun, five 40 mm guns, six 20 mm guns, and 6 machine guns.

In her career, LST 393 sailed 51,817 nautical miles, stopping in 38 different ports, transporting 9,135 soldiers and 3,248 vehicles. She carried 5,374 enemy POWs and 817 U.S. casualties. She participated in the Occupation of Sicily and the Invasion of Italy at Salerno in 1943.

On June 6, 1944, The Longest Day, she landed her cargo of Sherman tanks on Omaha Beach. According to Wikipedia, there she stayed for the next 2 days under enemy fire the whole time due to the failure of Allied planners to fully understand the complex tides and currents of Normandy. LST 393 made 30 round trips to Normandy, as I reported in a previous story: https://wmhs.org/on-this-day-a-ship-built-in-wisconsin-led-the-normandy-invasion/ .

Photo: The plane hanging from a crane shows the Brodie landing system courtesy of www.lst393.org

After the European campaign ended, LST 393 was transformed into an aircraft carrier. She was equipped with the Brodie arresting system, which enabled light aircraft to land on her decks.

Photo posted here: HIGHWAY 16 at Milwaukee, November 27, 1948

In 1948 she was transformed again, this time into a Great Lakes auto carrier. She was sold to the Wisconsin and Michigan Steamship Company, who brought her up the Mississippi River through the Illinois Waterway to Chicago, where her name was changed to HIGHWAY 16. Her bow doors were welded shut and she was modified to carry 195 new cars from Muskegon to Milwaukee, where Highway 16 began.

Photos:
color post card of HIGHWAY 16
December 1963
July 1965
HIGHWAY 16 trapped in ice about 2 miles outside of Muskegon on February 11, 1971

Veteran Great Lakes sailors were skeptical of the experiment. One said that HIGHWAY 16 could not handle the weather of Lake Michigan, which he compared to that of the English Channel. He had apparently forgotten that as LST 393 she had already survived at least 30 round trips across the Channel. He was proven wrong when the experiment lasted until 1975.

After that she was apparently sold to the Sand Products Corp., for whom she worked until 2000, when restoration began. Today she floats in Muskegon Harbor, one of three existing LSTs that participated in D-Day. 26 LSTs were lost to enemy action in World War II and 13 to other causes. You may also read of another D-Day ship on the Great Lakes: https://wmhs.org/a-tugboat-in-kewaunee-harbor-today-participated-in-the-d-day-landings/

On this June 6, remember her and all who sailed in her, as a monument to the Greatest Day of the Greatest Generation.
----------------------------------
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

06/03/2026

On June 3, 1891, the wooden bulk carrier CITY OF LONDON was launched from James Davidson’s shipyard at West Bay City, Mich. She measured 297 feet in length, 41 feet in beam and 20.5 feet in depth.

The LONDON was the last of four sister ships known at the time as the “Big Four” – CITY OF BERLIN, CITY OF GLASGOW and CITY OF PARIS, which were all launched within a month. At that time, a new boat would be completed and away from her dock within a week or ten days from the time of launching. Davidson’s first “sister” was still at her dock when the LONDON was launched. It was rumored that the four were built for other parties who backed out in the end.

The LONDON sailed for Davidson her first two years and then for the Chicago Steamship Company until her loss.
On September 30, 1913, the wooden LONDON was sunk in heavy fog off Pelee Island by the steel steamer JOE S. MORROW. The LONDON, of Chicago, was bound down on the Canadian side of Lake Erie with a cargo of grain. The MORROW, of Duluth, also loaded with grain, was bound up.

The CITY OF LONDON went down shortly after the collision and the MORROW had to be beached. The LONDON’s crew of 17 were rescued by the steamer BRITON. She was valued at about $25,000 and carried insurance of about $10,000. Her cargo of wheat was valued at $9,000

Submerged in the shipping lane, the LONDON was lying near the west side of the channel about a mile and half west of Pelee Island Middle ground light in 34 feet of water, her main deck under 9 feet of water, her forecastle deck awash and the top of the pilot house spars and stack above water. Great caution was urged in the vicinity to passing vessels. Her cargo of grain was salvaged and her boilers, engine, etc. were eventually removed. Her hull was dynamited in 1914.

Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

05/30/2026

On this day May 30, 1942, the Michigan built FRED W. GREEN was sunk by three German subs in the South Atlantic taking her master and eight other crew members with her.

The GREEN was built in 1918 at Ecorse, Michigan, by the Great Lakes Engineering Works as the CRAYCROFT for the US Shipping Board. The CRAYCROFT was a steel cargo steamer built for World War I service but was launched about six weeks before peace was declared. She measured 253.5 feet in length, 43.8 feet in beam and 20.4 feet in depth. She did work on the Atlantic.

The CRAYCROFT was bought by John T. Roen of Charlevoix (Roen Steamships) in 1927 and rebuilt with a self-unloading conveyor, two 75 foot booms and a 1 ¼ ton clam. On May 22, 1927, the CRAYCROFT arrived in Milwaukee with a cargo of sugar from Philadelphia on her way back to the lakes. She was soon renamed FRED W. GREEN and worked in the sand and gravel trade being home ported in Sturgeon Bay. While still working in 1941, she was sold by the Northwestern Co. owners to the Maritime Commission for over $200,000 and sailed from Sturgeon Bay to New York on November 12, 1941.

An Oerlikon cannon and two machine guns replaced her deck gear for this service. On May 24, 1942, the GREEN sailed from to New York with army trucks, ammonia and jars of nitric acid for Sierra Leone, West Africa. After passing Bermuda the crew thought they were safe.

A very suspenseful story written by surviving crew member Duncan Anderton appeared in a Scottish paper and was reprinted in John H. Purves’ book The Roen Steamship Company – The Way it Was. He tells his version of what had happened and how a toy compass he bought for hiking in Scotland saved his life.

Anderton claims the longest voyage the GREEN had been on prior to this trip to Africa was 10 hours on a Great Lake. Her top speed was six knots and German U-boats could do twenty knots. The GREEN was so heavy with her cargo and cranes that her deck was always wet as she was only about three feet above the waves and she left a huge trail of black smoke for everyone to see.

Anderton tells of being torpedoed by three U-boats, crawling along the deck while under fire and the ammonia smell choking him. Crew were lowering the lifeboat which was made to carry 27 but in the end had 32 in it. The U-boats stopped shelling once they had abandoned ship. One U-boat rose out of the water and the Captain asked if they could help. Niceties were exchanged and good byes were said.

As the life boat moved on, the U boats closed in and continued torpedoing the GREEN until she sunk. The crew rigged a sail assuming it could take a month to reach land and used his toy compass for direction.

Fortunately, 36 hours later the USS LUDLOW appeared at dawn. Unfortunately the LUDLOW mistook their sail as a U-boat conning tower and started dropping depth charges. This stopped quickly when the LUDLOW got a closer look. The survivors happily climbed the nets onto the destroyer.

The GREEN’s Great Lakes career was mainly on Lake Michigan. She had worked on filling sand into the space between Milwaukee’s breakwater and the sludge tanks of the new aeration plant addition in July of 1934. She worked on other breakwater jobs but in the end was just hauling gravel, sand, crushed stone and coal. She could not compete with the bigger boats and thus was sold to the Maritime Commission.

Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

05/27/2026

LILY E. and South Shore Yacht Club Part V - “The conversion of the schooner from lumber to leisure began almost immediately and moved rapidly throughout the fall of 1915 and the spring of 1916. A new floor was placed in the hold, it was wired for electricity, and iron work was erected to support a hurricane deck which would serve as the dance floor on the LILY E. Even the rigging was restored with the replacement of the broken foretopmast and the addition of a raffee yard at the cost not to exceed $5 for the latter. Some of the renovation and repair was accomplished in the dry dock at the south yard of the Milwaukee Dry Dock Co., formerly Wolf and Davidson, located at the foot of Washington Street.
“Another strong driving force which carried the conversion forward was the establishment of the S. S. Y. C. Auxiliary. At a regular meeting on August 13, 1915, a letter from the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters asked permission to use the name of S. S. Y. C. Auxiliary for their organization. They also asked permission to use the schooner on a certain day each week, and wanted the privilege of selling lunch and refreshments on Labor Day. "A motion was made and seconded that we allow the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the members of the South Shore Yacht Club to use the name of South Shore Yacht Club Auxiliary." Motion carried. They sold lunch and refreshments on holidays and catered the club's private parties with the proceeds dedicated to the purchase of items for what was affectionately being called the "ship". Some of their initial donations included skylights, cups, saucers, plates, glasses and table cloths.
“By July 4, 1916, much of the work was completed and the LILY E. was triumphantly taken to the Milwaukee Yacht Club for the holiday celebration. The membership boarded the good "ship" at 8:30 a.m. and had a fine trip across the bay towed by Gillen's tug. There were flags at every angle and the whole code of flags was strung at the top of the mast. The yacht club was a colorful sight and an ideal subject for another emerging recreation, the moving picture. A movie man, Raymond D. Clifton, was busy all day and all the members of the club took part in the film. The "ship" was also used by a motion picture company of Milwaukee in a number of marine scenes.
“With the advent of World War I, the resources of the club were depleted by the call of arms and the maintenance necessary to sustain a wooden vessel was deferred. After the war, the club began to plan for a new land based club house and the future of the LILY E. became uncertain. The club considered at least one offer for the "ship" from another yacht club, but she was never sold. At a regular meeting on January 30, 1920, the Commodore told of visiting the Park Board regarding the location of a club house on park property, and the problem of repairing the main deck of the LILY E. was discussed but nothing definite was decided upon.
“In the meantime, the development of the lake front continued as the city had plans to fill in behind the pilings to the north, along the beach, in order to increase the amount of park land on the shore. Mr. Andrew M Heederick spoke on a new club house site at the regular meeting of March 11, 1921, and a motion was made and seconded "that the club go on record to procure the site which is to be filled in due east of the LILY E. for a new club house and the Building Committee was to take up the matter with the Park Board." Motion carried. In the spring of 1921, the fire insurance on the LILY E. was canceled and by the fall it was a major task just to keep her afloat. At an informal meeting following the regular meeting of September 9th, the group discussed ways and means to keep the "ship" afloat after Shipkeeper H. Diederich had informed the Commodore that the pumps had been working for several hours with no apparent result. But, as in the case of thousands of her predecessors, the nemesis of all Great Lakes vessels, the equinoctial gale was about to deliver the final blow.
“Throughout the fall what seemed to be a never-ending gale battered the LILY E. in her anchorage at south shore. With her seams opened, the "ship" rested on the bottom and worked into the sand as she had done many years before just a short distance to the north. It was obvious to all by the winter of 1921-22 that the LILY E. could no longer serve as a floating yacht club. The membership of South Shore Yacht Club had so many fond memories of the "ship" that they had great difficulty in even thinking about her remains.
“The time for the final disposition of the LILY E. had arrived of necessity. The "ship" was to be consigned to the boneyard; or given over to flames at her moorings; or, as suggested by the harbor commission, relegated to still another role played by many of her contemporaries; i.e., being hauled down the beach and allowed to settle as a breakwater where the currents were rapidly eating away the shore line south of the city limits. The knowledge that the city was going to fill in the Gillen's point and the cost of releasing the vessel were deciding factors in the decision.
“On a still, cloudy day in midsummer of 1922, there was a Suttee in Milwaukee. A dozen mourners wended their way to where the funeral pyre was to flame, poured on the oil, and then stood still to watch and remember, as the fiery, clutching arms reached up and wrapped their victim in hot embraces. When it was over, there was little left of the LILY E., and as if to make sure that she would not become another "Ghost Ship of the Great Lakes", she was buried in fill by the city. In 1936, the present S. S. Y. C. was built on the point of land over the former anchorage and in 1976 a gate was built at the bow of the LILY E., ex-LOUISA McDONALD.

(Schooner Days in Door County, by Walter & Mary Hirthe, p 71-80)

Suzette Lopez

Photo Credit: Great lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. First photo courtesy of John Ebersol.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

05/26/2026

The LILY E. and South Shore Yacht Club Part IV - “Another attempt was made to get the LILY E. afloat on the 27th. The pumps were kept constantly going to free her of water and the holes made when she was scuttled were closed, but at 2 p.m. the sea again became so heavy that the vessel had to be scuttled a second time. All nineteen members of the vessel and station crews working on board the schooner were taken ashore in the surfboat.
“On the 29th steam pumps were placed in position on board and on the 30th the LILY E. was pumped out, raised, and towed into the harbor at Manistee where she was laid up for the season. During the assistance rendered by the U. S. Life-Saving Service, the surfboat was used 41 times and landed 27 persons without mishap except that the keeper had one of his fingers badly injured but continued to perform his duty. The estimated amount lost of the vessel and cargo was $8,400; however, this seems too high as the LILY E. was not severely damaged and the value of the cargo was only $1,200 with about three-quarters of the oats being saved.
“The LILY E. was sold to John Greilick of Traverse City, Michigan as the principal owner for the season of 1887 and from May 26, 1888 to January 11, 1900, the enrollments record that she was owned, at least in part, or sailed by the Gundersons; Gustav, Nels, Fred, and Louis, of Sheboygan. From this point in time the record of the LILY E. is best related in terms of her Norwegian owners and masters whose resourcefulness and ingenuity extended her life, and the lives of many other sailing vessels, well beyond their time.
“James Gunderson was born on January 27, 1831, in Kragero, Norway and sailed on salt water for some years before he came to America in about 1855 to make his home in Sheboygan. In 1859, he married Miss Anne Gurine Thompson and they had six sons: Gustav, Martin, Nels, Fred, Louis and Theodore; and one daughter Martha Maria. The Gundersons were well known and respected sailors who owned a number of schooners including the LIBERTY, TRANSIT, INDUSTRY, H. D. MOORE and J. A. HOLMES as well as fishing tugs and propellers. They rebuilt the LILY E. in 1892 which restored her rating according to Inland Lloyds to A-2, the rating she was given when only six years old.
“In the winter of 1899-1900, the Gundersons sold the LILY E. to Claus S. Jorgenson of Racine and Samuel Jorgenson of the same place as equal owners. Claus was born at Langesund, Norway on August 14, 1866 and came to Racine in 1887. On October 9, 1906, the LILY E. sprung a leak off Kewaunee while bound for Milwaukee from Manistee with a load of bark and a crew of five but managed to reach Milwaukee harbor where Capt. C. Jorgenson requested assistance of the life-saving crew. They boarded the schooner and manned the pumps to keep the LILY E. afloat until she could be docked. The estimated value of the vessel was reported at $700 and the cargo of bark $425.
“Helpful encounters with the U. S. Life-Saving Service were the rule rather than the exception for most of the old schooners during the twilight of the sailing ship on the Great Lakes. The LILY E. Capt. Jorgenson, delivered a cargo from Racine to South Manitou Island in April of 1908 and, while lying at the dock one mile northwest of the station on the 27th, a shift of wind into the east started a heavy swell which pounded the schooner against the dock with great force. The station crew boarded the vessel, manned the windless and assisted her crew of five to work the LILY E. clear of the dock and to a safe anchorage in the harbor. On May 22, 1908, surfmen at the Charlevoix station took lines from the LILY E., the schooner MAJOR N. H. FERRY, and the steamer J. S. CROUSE and assisted them to safe moorings in the harbor.
“Jorgenson sailed the LILY E. until 1909 when he sold his one half interest in the schooner to another Norwegian captain, Anthony Bolster of Chicago, and retired from the lakes. Bolster had been owner and master of the schooner EBENEZER, ex-WATTS SHERMAN for three seasons, 1896 through 1898, and the schooner LOMIE A. BURTON for the season of 1899. He then sailed the schooner CHARLES E. WYMAN for the Michael Hilty Lumber Company of Milwaukee until he supposedly retired from the lakes in 1905 to establish a grocery business in Chicago. His purchase of the LILY E. in the spring of 1909 represented a return to the marine scene but it is not known whether he actually sailed the schooner.
“On April 29, 1911, the Chicago Transportation Company officially became the last owner of the LILY E. as a commercial vessel. After the season of 1912, she was laid up for the winter in Sturgeon Bay with a broken foretopmast and later towed to the boneyard south of the shipyard where she was to remain in the mud for several years while events in Milwaukee began the dawn of a new career for the old lumber schooner.
“The city of Milwaukee began to develop the lake front on its south side from Russell Avenue to just south of Nock Street in 1913. J. E. Hathaway & Company drove a wooden pile revetment along the shore which curved to the east between Iron and Nock Streets to form a protected anchorage intended for sailing yachts and motor boats. The weather in the fall of 1913 was typical for the area as a series of storms slowed the construction of the pilings and breached them at several points. A severe storm struck the south shore area on November 11th, damaging the construction equipment and halting the project for the season.
“This development of the lake front for recreational purposes encouraged a group of local Bay View residents to form a corporation in 1913 to be known as the South Shore Yacht Club. The new club rented a house at 342 Beulah Avenue (South of Shore Drive) owned by James R. Williams, a steel worker in the rolling mills just to the north, but vacated this property on April 23, 1915. That same evening the membership met in the residence of Commodore William Barr at 388 Beulah Ave. to discuss a new home for their club. The Commodore read a letter from Daniel B. Starkey, a member, stating that he could get a schooner free for the club and the towing also done free of charge. The homeless yacht club quickly passed a motion to accept Starkey's offer and the decision to convert a lumber schooner, the LILY E., to a yacht club had been made.
“Starkey inspected the LILY E. in Sturgeon Bay and reported that it was in good condition and had better lines than the Lincoln Park Yacht Club in Chicago, the ex-schooner CARRIER. The LILY E. was not acquired without cost, but a special meeting held at the Bay View Public Library on May 29, 1915, which was called to consider her purchase. "A motion was made and seconded that the Board of Trustees be authorized to enter into a contract with the owners of the schooner (the Chicago Transportation Company) according to the terms of $50 down and the balance of $300 to be paid in one year and the secretary be authorized to draw a check in payment for it." Motion carried. A letter from Leathem & Smith Towing and Wrecking Co. said that the schooner was still on ground but that they expected to have it released soon.
“The LILY E. was pulled from the mud of the boneyard in Sturgeon Bay and taken to the Leathem & Smith dock for temporary repairs before the trip to Milwaukee. Starkey and Edward E. Gillen arranged for the tow from Sturgeon Bay to the anchorage at south shore where she arrived on July 5, 1915. They were elected life members of the club at the regular meeting on July 9, 1915 in consideration of time and money they gave for the schooner. The tug employed in the tow was the EDWARD E. GILLEN, ex-J. J. HAGERMAN which together with the WELCOME had pulled the LILY E. from the sand off Jones Island in the spring of 1883, thirty-two years before.”
READ ABOUT THE LILY E.’S NEW CAREER IN PART FIVE
(Schooner Days in Door County, by Walter & Mary Hirthe, p 71-80)

Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

05/25/2026

ON MEMORIAL DAY, REMEMBER MILWAUKEE’S SINGING MAYOR By James Heinz - Memorial Day is about remembering those who gave their lives for this country. One of those was Carl Zeidler, Milwaukee’s singing mayor.

Zeidler was born in Milwaukee in 1908. He attended West Division High School and graduated from Marquette Law School in 1929. In 1931 he became an assistant city attorney and was noted for many successful prosecutions of local N***s and also for banning pinball machines.

Photo posted here: Carl Zeidler courtesy of Milwaukee Public Library

In 1940 he ran for Mayor against 6 term incumbent Daniel Hoan. His campaign manager was Milwaukee native author Robert Bloch, who later wrote the thriller Psycho. Zeidler ran mostly on his good looks, charm, and ability to sing popular songs in five different languages. His campaign also invented the modern balloon drop. He won in a landslide.

Carl Zeidler resigned as Mayor of Milwaukee and was commissioned a lieutenant junior grade in the Naval Reserve on April 8, 1942. Wikipedia says he asked to be assigned to the most dangerous duty there was. The Navy assigned him to the U.S. Navy Armed Guard.

The U.S. Navy Armed Guard was established to provide crews to man the guns aboard civilian merchant ships. Wikipedia tells us that “The assignment as an Armed Guardsman was often dreaded because of the constant danger. Merchant ships were vulnerable, being slow and unwieldy, while lacking armor and having light firepower at best.”

Photo: SS LA SALLE courtesy of American Battle Monuments Commission

Carl Zeidler was assigned to the merchant ship SS LA SALLE, a 5,462 ton steam freighter launched in 1920 in Mobile, Alabama. She had a civilian crew of 8 officers and 32 crewmen. Carl Zeidler’s 20 man Naval Armed Guard was aboard to man her one four inch gun, four 20 mm guns, and two 0.30 caliber machine guns.

In 1942 she left New York for Cape Town, South Africa via the Panama Canal with a cargo of 6,116 tons of steel, trucks, and ammunition. She was unescorted when she left the Canal Zone on September 26, 1942, and was told to maintain radio silence to avoid giving her position away. She was expected to arrive in Capetown on November 1.

Nothing was heard from the LA SALLE again. No trace of her or her crew was ever found. The ship was declared missing on November 7, 1942.

On December 11, 1944, Carl Zeidler was declared missing and presumed dead. WMHS files say that as late as 1947 the Zeidler family resisted having a ship named for Carl in the hope that he was somehow alive somewhere.

The mystery was resolved after the war when an historian came across the log of a German U-Boat. At about the same time the LA SALLE set sail, the German naval high command began diverting U-Boats away from the heavily defended North Atlantic convoy routes into less well defended areas like the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. One of these was U-159, a type IXC submarine. The IXC U-Boat has a Midwestern connection: The famous U-505 U-Boat on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is a Type IXC U-Boat.

Photo: U-159 on right courtesy of Wikipedia

U-Boat.net tells us what the U-159 log revealed: “At 22.50 hours on 7 Nov 1942 the unescorted La Salle (Master William Arthur Sillars) was hit by one torpedo from U-159 about 350 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope…The torpedo ignited the cargo of ammunition and the ship exploded, creating a fireball hundred meters (300 feet) high and completely destroyed the vessel. Bits of wreckage fell around the ship for several minutes afterwards and slightly wounded three men on watch in the conning tower of the U-boat. It is reported that the explosion was heard clearly at Cape Point Lighthouse over 300 miles away.” The position was given as 40° 00'S, 21° 30'E - Grid GR 7599

There were no survivors.

Milwaukee’s Forest Home Cemetery photo by James Heinz
A cenotaph at Milwaukee’s Forest Home Cemetery commemorates Carl Zeidler. When I visited, a small American flag had been placed in front of Carl’s name. Carl Zeidler is remembered someplace else as well:

New York City

His is one of the over 4,600 names engraved on one of the 19 granite pylons of the East Coast Memorial in Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan Island. The Memorial commemorates “in proud and grateful remembrance” Americans who died in the Atlantic in World War II.

Photo: Battery Park courtesy of American Battle Monuments Commission

This Memorial Day, proudly and gratefully remember Carl Zeidler and all our other Carl Zeidlers from all of our wars.
Postscript: In 1943 U-159 was sunk by a U.S. Navy patrol plane south of Haiti. Like the LA SALLE, there were no survivors.

--------------------------------
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.

ALL photos are emailed to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society members with the story. Help keep history alive. Join the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. As a member you will receive these stories and much more. For information email us at [email protected] or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

Wisconsin Marine Historical Society

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

06/06/2026

06/03/2026

05/30/2026

05/27/2026

05/26/2026

05/25/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category