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In 1892, Chicago was rebuilding from its disastrous fire, the world was wildly anticipating the Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham was advising city leaders to make no little plans, and a group of yachting enthusiasts organized what became formally known as Columbia Yacht Club.
Within months, those founding members built their first clubhouse, a one-room shed built atop an 18 by 35-foot barge. More importantly, they set a tone of camaraderie and the foundation for a lively calendar of social activities, racing, and cruising for members. Over the next few years, Columbia Yacht Club became so popular that membership outgrew this first facility. By 1898, the Club moved into a second barge measuring 2,700 square feet. With a larger structure, complete with veranda, full galley, and bar, the membership feted notable guests such as Sir Thomas Lipton.
It wasn't long before Columbia needed to increase its square footage a second time. In 1902, funds were raised to construct an elaborate, floating two-story structure, complete with a ballroom to accommodate lavish feasts and parties where members danced to the accompaniment of full orchestras. Season after season, members enjoyed racing, cruising, and celebrations until 1914 and the onset of World War I. The Club, like the rest of the country, fell on hard times; loyal members left Chicago to join the fight. Sadly, through lack of use and loss of membership, the physical club house was lost.
Despite this misfortune, Columbia Yacht Club members continued to gather together. They chose the Aviator's Club on North Clark Street, where they hosted social events and made plans for a new Club Ship. Ultimately, the membership purchased the Pere Marquette, a 193-foot wood and iron-plated steamboat.
The first on-board gathering was held May 13, 1925 and, in short order, Columbia regained its reputation as the club for serious sailors who were also serious about having fun. By the time Chicago hosted the World's Fair, "A Century of Progress," in 1933, Columbia was billed as "the most unique meeting place for tired and hungry yachtsmen."
The Pere Marquette proved a worthy and accommodating home for Columbia until January 1937, when she was towed six miles into Lake Michigan and sunk under a barrage of Coast Guard shell fire. To replace the old girl, members purchased a 213-foot, former side-wheel excursion steamer, the S.S Florida, and upgraded her to house the Club and its many popular parties and events.
As the nation recovered from the Great Depression through the 1930s, a full calendar of on and off the water events entertained members and their guests. In fact, many of the parties that first began during this period continue as annual events today: Columbia's first Christmas party was held in 1939 and the Beachcomber Ball of the late 1940s has evolved into a series of summer dock parties today.
In May of 1955, a galley fire ignited and rapidly spread through the Florida, causing her to sink at the dock. A date that should have held special honor as the anniversary of the Pere Marquette opening to members, Friday, May 13 suddenly became a fateful date of disaster. But with the same spirit that members had shown after the Great War, members rallied and raised the Florida, restoring her for another nearly 30 years of service.
By 1982, the 100-year old S.S. Florida could no longer house the ever-growing membership and its popular parties. The Flag officers, Board and membership purchased an even larger Club Ship, a 372-foot former ice-cutting Canadian ferry, the Q.S.M.V. Abegweit. After several months of renovation by member volunteers, the Abby began welcoming members and their guests in the summer of 1983.
Since then the Abby has provided a fine home for those who, not unlike those first members in 1892, share a passion for sailing and camaraderie. After more than 120 years, Columbia Yacht Club retains the vital and energetic spirit that began with that small group of sailors envisioning a yacht club on a tiny scow.
- Voyage of the Abby
Enjoy this video detailing the adventure of bringing our beloved Abby to Chicago.
The MV Abegweit began service as an icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferry that operated across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, connecting Port Borden, Prince Edward Island to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, from 1947-1982.
The word "Abegweit" is derived from the Mi'kmaq word for Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. The Mi'kmaq called the island "Epekwit'k," or "cradled on the waves."
The MV Abegweit was laid down as hull 144 in November 1944 and launched in 1946 from Marine Industries limited shipyard in Sorel, Quebec. Her designers were the famous Montreal design firm of Germand & Milne. She was owned by the Canadian National Railway, operator of the Borden-Cape Tormentine service from 1918-1977.
The vessel was the most powerful icebreaker in the world at the time of her commissioning on June 28, 1947. She was also reportedly the heaviest vessel ever constructed in Canada. Her patron at the time of commissioning was Mrs. J. Walter Jones, the wife of the premiere of Prince Edward Island. The vessel entered service on August 14, 1947, and earned her place in the hearts of the PE Islanders, who affectionately called her the Abby.
The Abby measures 372 feet in length and displaces 7,000 tons. While in ferry service, her eight main engines generated 13,500 brake horse power (10MW) and drove propellers at both bow and stern. She carried 950 passengers and 60 cars, or one complete passenger train of 19 railway cars.
The growth of vehicle and rail traffic by the 1950s soon made the Abby obsolete. Subsequent vessels introduced in the 1960s and 1970s could carry more vehicles and rail traffic, as well as load and unload with greater speed.
The replacement for the Abegweit was the MV Straightway. But while she was under construction, the CN Marine decided to carry on the name and call the new vessel the MV Abegweit as well. To accommodate this change, the original MV Abegweit was renamed MV Abby in the fall of 1982 and she maintained this name through the end of her ferry service. After finishing service on the Borden-Cape Tormentine route, the MV Abby was moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia, and listed for sale.
In the winter of 1982-83, Columbia Yacht Club purchased the MV Abby as our new Club Ship. The Abby left the Northumberland Strait for good in April 1983 and remains "in service" today, hosting our members and their guests on the scenic Chicago lakefront at the foot of Randolph Street.
- Voyage of the Abby
Enjoy this video detailing the adventure of bringing our beloved Abby to Chicago.
- Important Visitors to Columbia
Abby's Last Senior Master
This past winter, I had the privilege to meet the final Senior Master of the Abegweit, Roy Coffin. His daughter, Kathy, emailed the Club in hopes of visiting the ship. She stated her father had previously worked on the Abby, and they are life long “islanders.” As always, we accepted them with open arms.
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Thomas O'Grady's Reflection on the Abby
We’re proud that Columbia members often go out of their way to welcome back old friends of the Abby, and to share with passers-by what a special place the Club Ship is.
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- ABOUT: Captain Abby
Over the years, new club members (and even some that
have crossed the Abegweit threshold for years) have asked quite a few questions
about the history of our club ship, the Abegweit (the “Abby”) as well as the
Columbia Yacht Club. Additionally, our yacht club has been fortunate to
occupy a wonderful gem of a lakefront location. How long has the
Abby been here? How did it get here? When was Columbia Yacht Club
formed? Where did the Abby come from? It was an ice-breaker that
carried rail-cars, automobiles, and passengers … really? And a few more.
One of our resident old salts, Captain Abby, took on many of these
questions and attempted to provide answers in the articles on this page.
- 11.20.2020 The Board Room
There are at least two important features of this Abegweit
upper deck Boardroom that make it extra special. One is the type of wood used and the other is
each panel. Let's explore each.
First, the wood. The
panels in this room are cut from North American Chestnut. If you like it and hope to put some in your
home today, you'd have a rather difficult time finding it. You probably won't be able to get it at a
lumber store or even one of the big boxes.
Why? Well, not too long after
this room was constructed, the North American Chestnut became nearly
extinct. Here's why (according to our
friends at Wikipedia):
The chestnut blight was accidentally introduced to North
America around 1904 when Cryphonectria parasitica was [brought] into the United
States from East Asia [with] the introduction of Japanese chestnut trees for
commercial purposes. In 1905, American mycologist William Murrill isolated and
described the fungus responsible (which he named Diaporthe parasitica), and
demonstrated by inoculation into health plants that the fungus caused the
disease, noted shortly before at the Bronx Zoo. By 1940, most mature American
chestnut trees had been wiped out by the disease. In the first half of the 20th century it
killed an estimated four billion trees.
And that's why our Abby House Committee watches over this
room with great care -- if any panel were to be damaged, it could not be
replaced.
But wait, there's more.
What else is so uniquely special about these panels? Take a look around you. Look at any panel. Notice a knot in the panel closer to the top. Additionally, notice that the knot is
mirrored on the other side of the panel cut.
As if a tree was sliced with the knot at the end of the board.
Now notice that the boards with the knots were cut and
mounted like a mirror image of each other.
It's referred to as "book-matched" (like opening a book). Amazing, huh?
You don't get to see craftsmanship like that very often nowadays. Well, here's where this amazing craftsmanship
turns into a masterpiece. Take a look at
every panel around the room. They are
nearly identical. In fact, you might
imagine that every panel is this room was cut from the same North American
Chestnut Tree.
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- 8.7.2020 “Most Maneuverable of Kind”
CAPT'N ABBY
“Most Maneuverable of Kind”
From Capt’n Abby’s Library, an archived web
article on the Abegweit’s first skipper, Captain John Maguire, challenging the
Montreal Harbor tugboats to stand clear as he deftly steered the Abby into her
dock.
When she was launched
in Sorel, Quebec in 1947, the rugged ice-breaking railcar ferry MV Abegweit was
claimed to be the most maneuverable vessel of her size ever built.
The huge 7,000-ton ferry is equipped with four 13-foot nickel propellers - two
aft, and two in her heavily plated bow - to enable her to fight the
vicious ice of the Northumberland Strait.
The four screws, driven by variable current electric propulsion motors powered
from eight huge diesel engines capable of 13,500 brake horsepower, make the
big ferry as agile as many of the fish in the waters she sails.
With typical island devilry, Captain John Maguire, the Abegweit’s first
skipper, demonstrated this dramatically on her first refit trip to
Montreal in 1948.
As the proud vessel’s powerful green hull neared the berth in Montreal, several
local tugboats swung out into the channel to help her dock.
Impishly, the veteran Maguire waved them off, indicating that he didn’t need
their help.
“Don’t be a fool”, one of the tugboat skippers yelled through a loud hailer,
“you can’t make it on your own”.
“Can’t I?” Maguire yelled back “Just watch.”
Chuckling to himself on the bridge, the master mariner eased back two levers
controlling the big ferry’s propellers, and gently moved two others
forward.
On the port side, one screw turned ahead slowly, the other astern. To
starboard, the same thing happened, but in reverse.
While the tug boat crews and nearby dock workers watched in open-mouthed
astonishment, the super powerful icebreaker slid gently into dock -
sideways -nosing up to the wharf with a gentle kiss as Maguire
demonstrated her responsive handling.
In the 30 years since she slipped gracefully into the quiet Richelieu River
dripping champagne from the newly christened bows, many crewman and passenger
have said silent thanks for the big ferry’s ease of maneuverability as she
has twisted and side stepped her way through the crushing power of winter
ice in the more forbidding waters of Northumberland Strait.
"In the 30 years
since she slipped gracefully into the quiet Richelieu River dripping champagne
from the newly christened bows, many crewman and passenger have said silent
thanks for the big ferry’s ease of maneuverability..."
This article was
copied from HERE, which is a link from THIS site.
- 6.18.2020 How Did We Get Our Location?
- 4.13.2020 Abby's Engines
Capt'n Abby: The Abegweit
is a pretty big ship. And it had to overcome massive winter ice dams in the
Northumberland Strait. Where did the power come from to turn those four huge
and heavy propellers?
Capt'n Abby: The quick
answer to your question is that the Abby's propulsion power comes from diesel
generators and electric motors, which at it's 1947 launching was "state of
the art". However, that barely touches the surface of the whole answer. In
the explanation following, we'll take an imaginary tour through the engine deck
that holds the components that together answer your question.
The engine deck is pretty
close in length and height to the rail deck above it (where you enter the
ship). If you ignored the walled partitions on the rail deck, you've got over
300 feet of length. Well, the engine deck below is probably just as high and
just as long. So, let's start our imaginary tour of the engine deck.
After descending from the
rail deck about a dozen steps, you'll come upon an engine deck mezzanine-level
engine control room. Gauges, levers and switches there can monitor and control
much of the ships engine power plant. There are windows in the control room
facing the stern where one can view a part of the forward engine room.
Notice in the picture above
that the engine control room has four throttle controls on two pedestals nearly
identical to those on the bridge. They were there "just in
case". The Abby could be blindly powered ahead or astern from
the engine control room while still being steered or helmed from up on the
(navigation) bridge.
Above the controls and
suspended from the ceiling of the engine control room are four
"telegraphs" very similar but inverted to telegraphs located up on
the bridge (depicted in the picture to the right). When a helmsperson on the
bridge moved the bridge telegraph lever to indicate a speed and direction
(ahead or astern), a corresponding lever action is reflected in the engine
control room. Keep in mind, though, that these telegraphs only did exactly what
they are called. They 'telegraphed' or transferred a navigation command order
from the navigation bridge to the engine control room. It was a visual queue
from the bridge to the control room. An engineer in the control room would
acknowledge this command by first echoing it back on the control room telegraph
(which would be reflected on the bridge) and then control the propulsion of the
Abegweit directly using the four control room pedestal throttles. Each of these
throttles individually control massive electric motors (more on this coming
up).
In the following picture,
two expert helmsmen - one (left) on a telegraph and the other on a throttle --
are taking the Abby for an imaginary spin. Notice the two throttle pedestals
similar to those in the engine control room.
Now let's go over the diesel
electric power plant that makes the Abby move. First and most important is the
Dominion Sulzer (D-S) TS-29 diesel engine. This engine has twelve cylinders,
divided into two banks. Mounted between the two banks is another crucial
component, the electricity generators. The diesel engine works in conjunction
with this generator -- the diesel turning the generator shaft, which in turn
produces electricity. More on this later. This Dominion Sulzer (D-S) power
plant is pretty big. You can see about a third of this engine in the classic
picture below with Merchant Mariner Jules Traut standing in front (who by the
way, worked the engine room on the Abby's memorable trip to Chicago in 1983
which has been chronicled on YouTube HERE.
To give you another
perspective of how large these diesels are, a single piston is about a foot in
diameter and just over four feet long. For comparison, the piston in your car
might be smaller than a can of frozen juice concentrate with a Popsicle stick
sticking out of it. And remember that there are twelve of these pistons in each
D-S diesel.
Now that you might have an
idea of how large one D-S diesel engine is, consider that the Abegweit had
eight (8) of them. That's right, eight! Four each in two bulkhead-separated
engine rooms. That's quite a bit of power. Did these eight engines drive the
propellers that moved the Abby? Well, kinda, but not directly.
Simply put, the Abegweit's
eight huge 12 cylinder D-S diesel engines ran at a pretty high "RPM"
with its primary purpose to turn the generators, which produce the electricity
that the Abby needed to move. That's pretty much what the diesels job was -- to
produce lots of electricity. Now we'll cover why the Abegweit needed so much
electricity to move as well as the real power behind the Abby's propulsion.
Near the stern of the
Abegweit, there's a whopping 3,850 HP electric motor on the port side. It's
attached to a highly forged 16 inch steel shaft and that shaft goes out the
stern and is directly attached to the 13 foot port propeller. How big is this
motor? It's partially shown in the picture below along with it's propeller
shaft-- it's close to twenty feet tall and about twelve feet across as well as
twelve feet deep. That's just one motor! It's huge! And at maximum cruising
speed of just over 16 knots (~18 mph), this motor turned that nickel steel
propeller about 155 revolutions per minute.
But wait, there's more!
There's another identical motor on the starboard side, also attached to a 16
inch forged steel shaft, which goes out to the 13 foot starboard stern
propeller. And once more, there's more. Remember that the Abegweit's bow also
has two propellers? Well, there are two more identical motor-shaft-propeller
assemblies up there as well. All four electric motors are remote controlled
from the navigating bridge (at the bow) or docking bridge (at the stern) or
from the engine control room using those four throttles on the two pedestals.
Normally, two generators
drove each motor, but if necessary three generators could drive any of the
motors and the control room could reassign them providing even more power to
that prop. As pointed out earlier, combining diesel and electric power to
provide ship propulsion was quite "state of the art" back in the
early 1940's. What was its advantage? What a diesel electric brings to the
table is its ability to provide it's maximum torque (rotational power) at zero
RPM (from a stand-still).
So, I can finally answer
your question -- how did the Abegweit get around? It was able to move with
agility using four propellers, each independently driven by massive electric
motors. And the source of that electricity was two engine rooms, each
containing four Dominion Sulzer diesel-electric engines. Furthermore, utilizing
this diesel-electric technology an experienced captain could make the ship move
in circles, sideways or other ways by controlling the four props and what
direction each was turning and what speed it rotated.
Capt'n Abby
(Sheltered in Place) April 2020
- 3.11.2020 Gryocompass
What's that big black tub sitting in the little room on
the starboard (right) side of the passageway to the bridge?
It's built on the simple concept of the classic
gyroscope, shown above.
It tells the crew up in the Bridge where TRUE
NORTH is. It also provides this information in a display just to the left of
the wheel (so the crew on the helm doesn't have to run down the stairs every
time they want a heading). A magnetic compass (which of course shows
Magnetic North) does not behave well in a large iron ship like ours. The
reading would be thrown off by all the iron.
So, mariners had to come up with an alternative.
One common solution was the Gyrocompass. Taking a long Wikipedia page of explanation and reducing it to a
sentence or two, as the gyroscope inside the gyrocompass turns, the friction on
the axis is measured. There is virtually no friction when the axis of the gyrocompass
gyroscope is in line with the earth's rotational axis and that friction
increases as the axis turns away from the earth's axis.
Throw in some math, cables, gears, plus pixie dust and that
measurement of friction is translated to the directional heading displayed at
the helm (on the bridge) and based on True North.
- 2.19.2020 Abegweit's First Docking in Chicago
When the Abegweit first arrived in
Chicago, where did she dock?
The Abegweit arrived from a stormy Lake
Michigan at Port Chicago and docked at Navy Pier mid April, 1983. The next day,
the Abby took a short tour around the 4 Mile Crib before going through the
Chicago River Locks and mooring on the south wall of what was then a turn-around
basin just inside the lock. That was the last time the engines of the Abegweit
ran. She was secured to the dock and perpendicular to the Florida. See
the photo below of the two Club Ships, perpendicular to each other. The Club
members then began renovation and prepared for Abby's next move to her new
home. About two years later, the Abby was towed back through the
Chicago River locks and eventually docked where she remains today. By the
way...did you know that the Abby was initially intended to be docked pointing
North & South, in place of the Florida in the picture below, and that she
might have lost about 71 feet off her stern to do so? Well, that's a story for
another day."
- 2.12.2020 Why does the ship rock?
Why is our Club Ship rocking
lately like a drunken sailor?
Well, here's what's happening
to our 370' long and about 40' above the waterline lakefront ship. The ship is
floating. A lot of people think we are attached to the bottom; we are not. We
are afloat. The ship is very high, and our largest side often faces gusts. The
ship is relatively very light (no heavy rail cars on the rail deck, no autos
filling the deck above). Therefore, when the wind is North or Northeast, the
Abby starts rolling and wiggling (yawing). It takes a while to stop. Make
sense?
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