james m. schoonmaker ship, the national museum of the great lakes. the schoonmaker was a commercial freighter when it was built in 1911 until it went into long-term layup in the 1980's. it became a museum ship when the city purchased it from the owner around 1987. her main purpose was to deliver iron ore from lake superior down to lake erie to places like ohio where it was unloaded and put in railroad cars and taken to pittsburgh for a furnace company, which owned a fleet of boats, in order to support its steelmaking business. at the time, it was the largest carrier. it could carry more bulk material than any other from 1911 to 1927. which was a very long time when every year a new boat came out that was a little bit longer. because this boat was built so wide, it could carry more cargo for 16 years than any other boat constructed between that time. we are now in the pilothouse. often called the wheelhouse. it is where command's decisions were made to operate a commercial vessel. a captain, a first mate would be in here. as well as some other junior