Construction The
Henry Cort was built by the
American Steel Barge Company. Her first frames were laid down on January 4, 1892 and, on June 25, 1892, she was launched as hull number #125. She had an
overall length of , and she was
between her perpendiculars, she had a beam of and her cargo hold was deep. She had a
gross register tonnage of 2234.49 tons and she had a
net register tonnage of 1571.65 tons. She was powered by a 1,400 horsepower
triple expansion engine which was fueled by two coal-fired
Scotch marine boilers. Designed by
Captain Alexander McDougall to carry
bulk cargoes like
iron ore or
grain economically around the Great Lakes. Whalebacks had a rather unique design. They had an unusual cylindrical, cigar shaped hull that when fully loaded resembled a whale's back. Their hulls were built of heavy steel plates double-riveted to steel angle frames. They were the predecessors of the Doxford
turret deck ships of the late 19th and early 20th century, just like whalebacks they had a rounded hull, but unlike whalebacks they had a conventional bow, stern and superstructure. A total of 44 whaleback vessels were constructed from 1888 to 1898, with most operating in the Great Lakes.
Service history The
Pillsbury entered service on August 17, 1892. She was commissioned by the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Buffalo Steamship Company which was a subsidiary of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway or the Soo Line. Her homeport was
Marquette, Michigan. In 1896 the
Pillsbury was renamed
Henry Cort On December 17, 1917, the
Cort was breaking ice near Colchester Reef on
Lake Erie when she was rammed by the larger steel freighter
Midvale. She sank into thirty feet of water approximately 4½ miles from Colchester Reef. Her crew walked across the ice to the
Midvale. Her wreck was located on April 24, 1918 four miles from where she sank in seven feet of water. She was raised on September 22, 1918, the fourth attempt at raising her was successful, she was then towed to
Toledo, Ohio where she was to be rebuilt by the
Toledo Shipbuilding Company. Later she was taken to
Conneaut, Ohio where she was rebuilt by the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Company; her superstructure was rebuilt and flattened so that a trunk deck could be added. On April 8, 1927, the
Cort was sold to the Lake Ports Shipping & Navigation Company of
Detroit, Michigan, she also had two new deck cranes installed by the
American Ship Building Company of
Lorain, Ohio. In March 1927 the
Cort stranded in Colchester Reef. She was abandoned to the underwriters as a constructive total loss, she was later sold and repaired. In 1933 the
Cort hull was punctured by ice in the
Detroit River; she sank while she was tied up at the
Nicholson Transit Company's dock in
Ecorse, Michigan. ==Final voyage==