On the Great Lakes

From the 1870s through the 1890s, most of the world’s ships not built in British shipyards were built on the North American Great Lakes, a vast interconnected yet isolated inland sea system. Of the vessels built during that period and for the first two decades of the 20th century, many, including the best designs, came from the mind of naval architect Frank E. Kirby.

The Great Lakes Ships of Frank E. Kirby: America's Greatest Naval Architect is Richard Gebhart's biography of the man and a history of his ships. It charts his career, and follows the course of the shipyards he ran and the ships he built.

Kirby was born in 1849 into a shipbuilding family in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Stephen, and older brother Fitzhugh were formidable naval architects and shipbuilders in their own right. Father Stephen started as a sailor, evolved into a shipbuilder, creating some of the earliest steamships on the Great Lakes. Eventually he would start shipyards in Detroit and Wyandotte, Michigan, building in iron as well as wood.

Originally working with his older brother at the family’s Wyandotte yards, Frank soon surpassed his brother and father as a naval architect. Gebhart lists some of the innovations Frank Kirby introduced. He pioneered steel-hull construction in the Lakes. He introduced bow propellers to Lakers, an innovation that lifted a ship’s bow, improving icebreaking ability. He designed and built some of the most important car ferries (railroad cars) on the Lakes. He pioneered techniques to speed up the loading of bulk carriers.

His designs covered every aspect of Great Lakes seafaring. He designed package freighters, bulk carriers, passenger liners, icebreakers, and excursion boats. Kirby also participated in the design and supervised the construction of the World War I Eagle boats, also known as submarine chasers.

He was best known to the public for his passenger liners. They were side paddlewheel designs, known for speed and comfort. They were also magnificently finished, filled with carved wood and elaborate paintings. Three of his best-known ships still exist: the passenger sidewheeler Tashmoo, and the beloved Boblo Island boats Columbia and Ste. Claire.

This is a long-overdue biography of a consequential turn-of-the-century engineer who has been largely forgotten today. Encyclopedia entries about Kirby are sparse, belying the changes he introduced to American naval architecture. Gebhart has restored Kirby to the prominence Kirby merits, revealing the man behind the design as well as the ships he created.

“The Great Lakes Ships of Frank E. Kirby: America's Greatest Naval Architect,” by Richard Gebhart, Michigan State University Press, May 2026, 231 pages, $59.95 (Hardcover), $29.10 (Paperback), $29.95 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.