MARINE ANGEL (McKEES SONS) --- largest ship on Chicago River as of 1953

The Cliffs Victory came through town in 1951, and it was just a foot shorter. And "large boats" talks about some more big ones.

Bowling Green Statue University
Chicago, IL; Western Ave. Bridge, 1953

From CALUMET 412 I learned about the ship Marine Angel. From BGSU, I learned the dimensions were originally 496x72x26.  It was built in 1945 as a troop transport. In 1952 it was converted to a bulk carrier. Then in 1953 it went up the Mississippi River to Manitowoc, WI to be converted to a self-unloader with "a 250-foot bow-mounted self-unloading boom that can be swung 120 degrees to port or starboard." (BoatNerd) When it made this trip in 1953 it was the largest ship to use the Chicago River. (The St. Lawrence Seaway was not opened until 1959.)

A comment for a reposting of the CALUMET 412 link:

Timothy Hinsdale The largest ship was the Medusa Challenger. It was specially built to navigate the Chicago River.

The Madusa Challenger was 551x56x31.

1953 might have been the last time the railroad swing bridges along the Sanitary and Ship Canal were turned.

University of Detroit Mercy

After its conversion to a Laker, it was rechristened McKee Sons. The conversion in Baltimore added 123 feet, so its length when it went through the canal and Chicago River was 620.4 feet. (UDmercy) But the locks on the Illinois River are just 600 feet long. So I'm confused. (Update: comments below explain that they opened both gates and used winches to pull her through the on rushing water. The difference in water levels is generally less than two feet.)

The stern of this boat is built up higher than the stern in the other photos.

The bridge in the foreground was the Metropolitan L Bridge.

Update:
Original Chicago also posted the above photo
Patrick King The Medusa was even longer, at 551 feet... the Marine Angel was 496 feet.

Frank Smitty SchmidtFrank and 838 others joined Original Chicago within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! This was in 1953. The St Lawrence Seaway didn't open until 1959. To get big ships in and out of the Great Lakes, they took via the Illinois Waterway and the Mississippi River. 
The pilot houses were often removed, or not installed yet. They were not loaded with cargo. Sometimes they were even raised on pontoons for the bottoms to clear the 9ft pool depth of the Illinois Waterway.

The Marine Angel was an ocean going ship that was moved to the Great Lakes.
MaryCarol Audy The Edmond Fitzgerald used to take on cargo at the old Rail To Water Transfer Corp. at 100th Street and the Calumet River. She would shift back and forth on the south dock while being loaded to stay in trim. I used to work there and clerked every time she was in town. She took petroleum coke blended with coal...depending on which steel mill or power plant she would be off-loading her cargo.

Jeff Bransky shared the above photo.
Jeff Bransky The construction project in the original photo was taking place on the east side of the river so the view was taken looking northeast.
Dennis DeBruler This photo was taken in 1953 when the Marine Angle made its trip from the oceans to the Great Lakes. The pilot house was removed to clear bridges along the Illinois Waterway and it is being towed backwards. https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../marine-angel...

Historic Photographs posted
In 1953 , the 600-foot-long, 70- foot-wide Marine Angel transited the Chicago River.
Steven Phillips: Ok, I just read about it. The short version is, it was working as a bulk cargo hauler on the Mississippi and was switching to the Great Lakes. The St. Lawrence Seaway didn't open till '59, so up the Illinois river to the Chicago river it was. It was also 620' and had 7" of clearance on each side in this turn.
Bill Meech shared
Historic Photographs posted a B&W copy of this photo
March 5, 1953: The 600-foot-long, 70-foot-wide Marine Angel transited the Chicago River. The freighter had only seven inches of clearance on each side at Van Buren Street, and was the largest ship to ply the river. More photos and backstory:  
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/marine-angel-vessel-chicago-river/
[This has a lot of photos of the freighter going through Chicago.]
James Stark: Over 100 years ago, the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal was blasted out of rock to change the course of the Chicago River so that commercial vessels could transit from Lake Michigan down the Illinois River to the Mississippi River just above St Louis; Mainly this was done to keep the Chicago River’s pollution from flowing into Lake Michigan (where raw sewage had been diverted to), & the Sanitary processing plant effluent/storm runoff was built alongside this canal; I worked on tanker & coal river barges tows up there between ‘77-‘83; Back then your vessel could not be over 17 feet tall from the waterline to its highest structure, because all of the many drawbridges just north of Joliet @ Lemont had been permanently locked down for highway & rail traffic; Once you passed Brandon Road Lock & Dam (where Interstate 80 crosses @ Joliet), you could not turn your “tow” around until you got to a turning basin near downtown Chicago on the Chicago River; There used to be warning signs up there telling you to get a tetanus shot if you fell overboard, & to not allow open flames near the oil sheens on the water surface; Fun fact; The sewage processing heat would cause condoms to swell up to the size of baloney sticks & float near the water surface like schools of jellyfish, near Brandon Road…
Brandon Jakubik shared
Nick Bettes: Still around today as the McKee Sons barge!
Aaron Nelson: https://www.pbs.org/video/web-extra-marine-angel-chicago-river-egxr00/
[The Marine Angle segment is at 54:09 in the full video, and it is part of a discussion of Chicago bridges that starts at 50:10. (Chicago has 122 bridges.)]
Jay B. Hornocker posted

On March 5, 1953, The Marine Angel freighter, became the largest vessel to transit from the Gulf of Mexico, north via the Mississippi River, and the Illinois Waterway, through downtown Chicago on the Chicago River, and out onto Lake Michigan, en route to her destination of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to be retro fitted with “self-unloading” equipment, and converted from a 

Salt water vessel to a Great Lakes freighter. 

This Library of Congress photo shows the Marine Angel passing under an upraised Michigan Avenue Bridge, and executing a tight right hand turn at the Wrigley Building.  

As the freighter navigated the relatively narrow Chicago River, it passed Van Buren Street with a mere seven inches of clearance on each side.  

(See other historic photos in comments)

The Marine Angel, a 634 foot, 

70 foot wide converted World War II freighter was built in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1945 as a type C4-S-B2 fast troop transport ship. 

During WWII, the ship customarily carried about 250 Army troops, and housed a 100 bed Naval hospital, making regular runs from the East Coast ports to Bombay and back.  Like many war veterans, the ship settled into more domestic responsibilities post war, 

Transporting grains and ore. 

After passing through Chicago, The Marine Angel arrived at Manitowoc Shipbuilding in Wisconsin on March 13, 1953.  Retrofitting was completed and the boat, renamed “McKee Sons”, (after the 11 McKee sons of the owner), and departed Manitowoc in October 1953.

The “McKee Sons” sailed as a Great Lakes steamer until 1979, and in 2014, she was moved to long-term storage at Muskegon, Michigan, where she sits today, and no doubt dreaming of that one day she passed through Chicago in 1953.

Alan Follett: So, how did they get a 634-foot ship through the 600-foot Chicago River Controlling Lock? Answer: they opened the west lock gate, took her as far forward as possible, then opened the east gate and winched her forward against the inward rush of lake water, closing the west gate behind her once her stern had cleared it. I was living in Chicago at the time, but, being six years old and deeply involved in First Grade at Nettelhorst, missed my chance to see this rare (perhaps unique) operation.

[The comments discuss how would a 600'+ ship get through the 600' locks of the Illinois Waterway with no resolution.]

The original photo for the above colorization.

Wisconsin Marine Historical Society posted

On March 5, 1953, the converted World War II cargo ship MARINE ANGEL oozed her way through downtown Chicago.  A photo taken from a downtown Chicago building immortalized this event.

          The MARINE ANGEL was built in 1945 at Sun Shipbuilding in Chester, Penn.  She was one of 14 class C4-S-B2 cargo ships known as Victory Ships built at Sun, out of a total of 75 of the C-4 class of ship. These were the largest cargo ships built in World War II by the U.S. Maritime Commission.

Wikipedia tells us that the MARINE ANGEL’s original dimensions were: 11, 1757 gross tons, 520 feet long, 71.6 feet wide, with a draft of 30 feet.  A 9,000 hp steam turbine drove her at 17 knots.

According to news reports in the WMHS files, a former crew member who viewed the ship inching down the Chicago River said that the MARINE ANGEL carried 250 soldiers and had a 100 bed hospital tended by doctors and nurses.  The ship never saw combat but at one point fired on Japanese fishing boats that were believed to be disguised warships. She was in service from April 1945 to March 1946 as part of Operation Magic Carpet, the return home of eight million World War II service members.

After the war, it appears that the MARINE ANGEL was placed in the reserve fleet.  However, the outbreak of the Korean War and the postwar economic recovery caused the demand for steel to rise so sharply that Great Lakes shipbuilders could not meet demand. 

According to WMHS files, the Cleveland-Cliffs shipping line announced that they planned to convert the MARINE ANGEL to a Great Lakes bulk carrier.  The Bethlehem Shipbuilding yard in Baltimore took 90 days to build forward cabins in the style of the classic Great Lakes bulker, add an additional 165 foot midsection, and rebuild the ship’s hatches to conform to Great Lakes standards. When they were done the MARINE ANGEL was 620 feet long and 62 feet wide. 

Since the St. Lawrence Seaway was not yet open, in order to get the MARINE ANGEL to the Great Lakes she was towed down the Atlantic coast and across the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River.

   The MARINE ANGEL’s cabins were dismantled and stowed in the hold so the ship could clear bridges on the river. Pontoons were fitted to the sides of the ship to add buoyancy to aid in passing shallow spots on the river.

Then, the ship was towed up the Mississippi to the Illinois River and then through the Illinois Waterway to the Chicago River.  This left the towing company with the problem of squeezing the giant ship through the bends of the downtown Chicago River.  An even bigger challenge awaited them just before they got to Lake Michigan.

Around 1900 the City of Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the river did not flow into Lake Michigan, but rather Lake Michigan flowed backward into the Illinois River. This was done so that Chicago would not have to drink the sewage it dumped into Lake Michigan. The city would flush it’s sewage down the Illinois River. The reaction from downstream communities can best be described as unenthusiastic.  The reversal was accomplished by building a 600 foot long lock that controls the flow of water from Lake Michigan into the Chicago River at the spot where the river meets the Lake. 

All the towing company had to do was fit a 620 foot long ship into a 600 foot long lock.

This was done by pushing the ship through the open land side lock gate until the bow just barely touched the inside of the lake side lock gate. The ship’s winches were connected with hawsers to land mooring posts. The lake side lock gate was then opened.

The ship then winched itself forward 20 feet against the force of the water rushing into the river from the Lake. When the ship had moved far enough forward for the stern to clear the land side lock gates, the gates were closed. The ship then moved into Lake Michigan. The towing company described the entire 3,000 mile odyssey as “a routine job”. 

The MARINE ANGEL then went to Manitowoc, Wis., where Great Lakes style self-unloading equipment was installed.  This was completed in October 1953 and the ship was renamed MCKEE SONS.

The conversion of a salt water World War II ship to a freshwater bulk carrier was so successful that five wartime tankers were converted to Great Lakes ships. However, these were done after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 made it much easier to move them to the Lakes. I profiled one of these ships that still sails the Lakes, the LEE TREGURTHA, in a March 9, 2021, blog post. 

The MCKEE SONS continued in service until she was laid up from 1979 to 1990. In 1991 she was converted to the barge component of an integrated tug barge unit at Menomonee, Mich., by the removal of her engines and a notch cut in her stern. The web site Vessel Tracker.com indicates that she has been tied up since 2014. 

James Heinz

Photos:

the MARINE ANGEL executes the tight turn past the Wrigley Building and narrowly misses the side of the river where the Trump Tower now stands Milwaukee Journal photo

McKEE SONS with INVINCIBLE in Rouge River, Dearborn, Mich., December 27, 2005. Photo by Craig Olson

McKEE SONS with INVINCIBLE in the Calumet River, August 19, 2004. Photo by Craig Olson

____________________________________

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 wmhs@wmhs.org or call 414-286-3074 or visit our webpage at https://wmhs.org/

 

Brian R. Wroblewski commented on the above post
Small "technical" detail here: her conversion was not to an ITB. Thats an Integrated Tug Barge, where the tug is locked in place. There was no ridged connection. When she was pushed by the Moore, it was a conventional wire connection system. She was an "ATB" after she was mated with the Invincible because the connection was articulated & not ridged. This was because they had the Bludworth coupler system installed.

Jeff Rueckert posted
Flash Back: Steamer Tug Reiss towing the Marine Angel through to Manitowoc Bridge 1953
[Since it is probably headed to the Manitowoc shipyard, that would be 10th Street in the foreground and 8th Street in the background.]

The first photo in this posting by Eric Dudi Huebner appears to be a copyright violation. So I'm not making copies. Please click the link to see the photos.

Michael Brandt posted
[The comments discuss the tugs. You can see the prop wash of the bow tug and the lead from the stern to another tug. The building with the BEAM advertisement on the wall is a Kraft building. As usual, the Wrigley Building is white, but the Tribune Tower seems to have a lot of coal soot.]

Lisa Binkowski-Stolt posted
The Marine Angel in Chicago River 1953. This 600 feet long, 70 feet wide freighter had only seven inches of clearance on each side at Van Buren Street and was the largest ship to ply the river.
Judith McGee I worked at the corner of Wacker and LaSalle and would watch the Medusa Challenger make that very tight turn. That was in the mid-1970s.
From my experience it usually took place on Friday afternoons in the summer.
Neil Gale At 634 feet, the MARINE ANGEL is the longest vessel ever to transit the Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway in one piece. Renamed McKEE SONS, she sailed the Great Lakes as a steamer until 1979.
Beth Finley What kind of cargo might she have carried?
Neil Gale She was a self-unloading barge built in 1945 as a type C4-S-B2 fast troop transport.
Chris Carson Where would it turn around???
Terry Suerth Chris Carson North Ave. Turning basin . North end of Goose Island.

Mike Harlan shared
Ian Ross Today shippers would see too much wasted space not used for cargo.

Steve Rowan shared

A different exposure.

Steven Neinke posted
Marine Angel. 600 Ft long 70 Ft wide. In transit on the Chicago river, 1953.
It missed the Van Buren bridge by 7 inches.

John Bell added four photos as comments on Steven's post

1

2

3

4

Frank Smitty Schmidt commented on a posting
This photo claims to be the Marine Angel in 1953. Note, no wheel house.
Now CBS Chicago has in it's archives some photos that label it as a barge in 1953, but this is not true. The pilot house was removed for bridge clearance but the engines were still intact and used up til 1990.
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/.../amazing-photo-of.../

Old Pictures of London posted

Stunning vintage photos of the Marine Angel vessel transiting the Chicago River, 1953

📽 FULL ALBUM: https://wp.me/pfs3SW-1OZ

In 1953, the biggest vessel to travel the Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (at the time) managed to wind its way downtown on the Chicago River.

This steel hull behemoth was nearly 634 feet long (193m) and 70 feet wide (21.3m) and according to a Chicago Tribune account, the freighter had only seven inches of clearance on each side at Van Buren Street.

Even now, one has to gasp and wonder how the hell that happened. Luckily, we have these amazing old photographs to document the undertaking.

In the above photo, the Marine Angel executes the tight turn past the Wrigley Building and narrowly misses the side of the river where the Trump Tower now stands

orinews, one of several photos of the freighter on the Chicago River