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

behind us are the two major boilers of the schoonmaker.efore its conversion to a steam turbine, you would've had men with shovels from the coal bins and taking coal and heating the water to create steam. the ultimate end of the commercial career for the schoonmaker was more about demand for steel and industrial products like coal, and limestone, and salt on the great lakes then it was for the condition of the boat. in the late 1980's, the city of toledo developed an idea to bring an attraction to the downtown area. the boat was laid up in toledo, so it had not been used in seven to eight years. it was called a long-term layup. the company was waiting for some condition to change that might justify it being brought out again, but the city of toledo purchased it for a couple hundred thousand dollars, and begin the process of turning it into a museum ship. it's a great way to get people to think, i'm going to go on one of those things that i've seen or my father saw when he lived up here on the great lakes, to get them involved in history. th