Maritime Index
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement
Cocktails and Inspiration
Nautical & Maritime Terminology
Great Lakes
Tribes of the Great Lakes
Acknowledgement
This menu came together with immense help from our neighbors at the Chicago Maritime Museum here in Bridgeport. We cannot thank them enough for all their help in our research and connecting us to the maritime community. We would also like to thank all of the Great Lakes Sailors who took the time to talk and guide us, with a special thank you to Tony Woodruff of Washington Island, Wisconsin.
Cocktails and Inspiration
Alpena’s Ghost
By: Alex Jandernoa
The PS Alpena, a sidewheel steamer, operated in a triangle from Muskegon, Michigan to Grand Haven, Michigan, to Chicago. It went down during The Big Blow of 1880 en route from Grand Haven to Chicago off the Michigan coast. Tragically, every soul onboard was lost. When it sank, it was carrying a large load of apples picked up in Grand Haven. Many ships report still seeing the ghost ship and hearing its whistles announcing the passage while going over the wreck.
Dauntless 45
By: Gina Hoover
This French 75 adaptation is a homage to the WWll planes that trained, flew, and occasionally crashed in Lake Michigan during training for the war. An estimated 70-100 of these planes still lay at the bottom of the lake.
False Ironsides
By: Alex Jandernoa
The SS Ironsides was a transport steamer between Milwaukee, WI, and Grand Haven, MI. While named ‘ironsides’, the steamer was actually made of wood. The SS Ironsides sank on September 14, 1873, 4 miles southwest of Grand Haven Harbor. The ship was carrying wheat, flour, and pork. Everyone was evacuated as the boiler gave way and caused the Ironsides to catch fire and sink. Unfortunately, the lifeboats tipped, leading to many casualties who could not escape to the beach due to the waves and current. The wreck is located just off the beach near my childhood home, where my parents still live. Today, the wreck marks a popular fishing spot used by the local community. When the area is filled with boats and lines in the water, we know it's a calm day. If it is vacant of fisher people, we know the rip current is strong, and the lake is not worth toying with that day.
Long Standoff
By: Maria Torres
Inspired by George Streeter, who “crashed” his steamship ‘Reutan’ where Streeterville is today. He claimed the land on either side of his crashed ship as his own with a fake deed. To fund all of George's legal battles, he would sell alcoholic beverages to the visiting people who were genuinely curious about him. “A piratical ambition, perhaps, but still an ambition”.
Louisiana Cocktail
By Gina Hoover
The SS Louisiana is yet another ship to meet its demise in November. It was a fire onboard and not ‘The White Hurricane' that did it in, forcing the crew to jump into a lifeboat to make it to shore, which they all did. The Louisiana caught went up in flames just after making it past Death’s Door Pass in 1913 in an all too literal series of events represented by a smoked Vieux Carre Blanc.
Mackinaw Ice Breaker
By: Nat Froikin
The USCGB Mackinaw (WAGB-83) has a really interesting history. It was finished by women when there weren’t enough men during WWII. Built very specifically for the Great Lakes, both longer and wider, and with milder steel than the similar class (Wind) ships for the ocean. It took on its first female crew in 1991. After being decommissioned, it was turned into a museum and has an amateur radio station on board. It is succeeded by USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB-30), which, interestingly, struck a seawall in Grand Haven, MI in 2005 while on the way to her home port. The captain was temporarily relieved of duty but served as an advisor and representative for the welcoming celebrations in Cheboygan, MI. However, he ended up out at a bar afterwards and partied hard enough that it was “unbecoming of an officer”, and he was permanently relieved of duty.
The Lake Effect: Midway Broach & 85 Meters
By: Nat Froikin
A cocktail study on the effects of sailing and sinking on Lake Michigan.
There are conflicting reports on which ship, named the North Shore, sank. One of the North Shores was the first 100% electrically welded steamer on the Great Lakes, and the other was a rebuilt wooden steamer. Almost all reports say the steel ship was the one that met an untimely demise. The crew tried to turn and run in a terrible windstorm, but broached in the middle of the lake and sank. 10,000 baskets of grapes were on board, washing up on shores on either side of the lake. It has not been definitively located, but there is an estimated area of the lake bed it rests within, and no doubt about its fate, based on bodies and found flotsam and jetsam. 85 meters is the average depth of the lake in the region the North Shore supposedly sank.
The Natchez: Guest Shift
By: Alex Utter
The flavors and aromas of this cocktail were collected in such a way that it might invoke a sense memory of luxuries that were afforded to Chicago by way of the Mississippi River in the early to mid 1800s. The “Natchez” name graced many a steamboat that may have carried such goods, and symbolizes the prosperous connection between the great Port of New Orleans to the Windy City, thanks to the Illinois & Michigan Canal.
Queen of the Lakes (Spencer’s Rescue)
By: Gina Hoover
This cocktail is dedicated to the tragic loss of SS Lady Elgin, the worst loss of life on the Great Lakes and highlights the heroism of Edward Spencer who has been said to have pulled as many as 18 survivors from Lake Michigan following the wreck. The decadence of the passengers traveling from a Chicago political rally is echoed in the wine and cheese within the cocktail while the dried prosciutto mimics the waves they were rescued from.
Schooner City
By Gina Hoover
A term used to describe Chicago in the nineteenth century. In the same year of the Chicago Fire, more ships arrived in Chicago than in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Mobile combined. These sailboats were well-suited to both the city’s port and the narrow Chicago River. They were maneuvered by tugboats up as far as our neighborhood here in Bridgeport. Businesses and industry crowded the banks as the former thrived on the patronage of sailors and the latter thrived on access.
Tony’s Layup
By: Gina Hoover
A cocktail built to celebrate docking the boat for the winter season, crafted from the favorite flavors of a seafaring uncle. Tony was out on Lake Michigan the day the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost and his ship was called to search for any remains. This cocktail is crafted to celebrate making it through the season to lay up, something that should never be taken for granted.
Vanishing Griffon
By: Gina Hoover
Le Griffon was built by Robert de la Salle and was the first full size sailing vessel on the Great Lakes, it disappeared after leaving The Green Bay carrying furs in September 1679 yet to be found till this day with many conflicting theories as to what happened. The homage is found between the Martinique rhum which retains its French AOC to represent the ship and Michigan Aquavit to represent the lake where it was last seen.
Nautical Terminology
Barque (or bark): a sailing vessel with at least three masts, featuring square-rigged fore and main masts and a fore-and-aft rigged mizzenmast (stern mast).
[The] Big Blow: aka the Freshwater Fury and the White Hurricane, was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes November 7 -10,1913. The storm was at its most powerful on November 9, battering and overturning ships on four of the five Great Lakes.
Broach: a sudden, involuntary turn of a vessel into the wind caused by a loss of steering control, usually while sailing downwind in high winds or heavy seas.
Gales of November: aka Witch of November, or November Witch, refers to the strong winds that frequently blow across the Great Lakes in autumn. Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" refers to the Witch of November: the storm that wrecked the Edmund Fitzgerald, which has led to the association of this particular storm with the term
Icebreaker: a specialized vessel designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, creating a safe path for itself and other ships. These ships feature a unique, sloping bow, a heavily reinforced hull, and powerful engines that allow them to ride up onto the ice and crush it with their immense weight.
Layup: To dock one’s boat for the winter.
[The] Mataafa Storm of 1905: The name of a storm that occurred on the Great Lakes on November 27–28, 1905. The storm, named after the Mataafa wreck, ended up destroying or damaging about 29 vessels, killing 36 seamen, and causing shipping losses of millions (1905 dollars) on Lake Superior.
Sidewheeler: a ship powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. Earlier ships that were driven by a paddle wheel under manual power are known as paddle wheelers.
Steamship: often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move via propellers or paddlewheels.
Schooner: a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of 2 or more masts and, in the case of a 2-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast.
Tug Boat: a strongly built, powerful boat used for towing and pushing other vessels.
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are the largest source of fresh water in the world. Often underestimated by sailors of oceans, the lakes are powerful and require a mastery of sailing and navigation unlike any other.
Lake Michigan
The second largest Great Lake by volume with just under 1,180 cubic miles of water, is the only Great Lake entirely within the United States. Approximately 118 miles wide and 307 miles long, Lake Michigan has more than 1,600 miles of shoreline. Averaging 279 feet in depth, the lake reaches 925 feet at its deepest point.
Lake Huron
The third largest of the lakes by volume, with 850 cubic miles of water. The Huron lakeshore extends 3,827 miles and is characterized by shallow, sandy beaches and the rocky shores of Georgian Bay. The lake measures 206 miles across and 183 miles north to south, with an average depth of 195 feet.
Lake Superior
The largest of the Great Lakes, with the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. It contains almost 3,000 cubic miles of water, and has an average depth near 500 feet, Superior also is the coldest & deepest (1,332 feet) of the Great Lakes. The lake stretches approximately 350 miles from west to east, & 160 miles north to south, with a shoreline almost 2,800 miles long.
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes in volume (119 cubic miles), measuring 241 miles across and 57 miles from north to south. The lake’s surface is just under 10,000 square miles, with 871 miles of shoreline. The average depth of Lake Erie is only about 62 feet (210 feet, maximum). It therefore warms rapidly in the spring and summer, and frequently freezes over in winter.
Lake Ontario
The second smallest of the Great Lakes, Ontario has a length and breadth of 193 miles by 53 miles. Yet with its greater average depth (approximately 283 feet), Lake Ontario holds almost four times the volume of Lake Erie (395 cubic miles).
St. Lawrence River and Seaway
The St. Lawrence River and Seaway is of vital geographic and economic importance to the Great Lakes system, connecting the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and providing navigation to deep-draft ocean vessels.
Tribes of the Great Lakes
Anishinaabeg Confederacy:
The Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi with their "Council of Three Fires"
Odawa
Ojibwe
With numerous bands including the Red Cliff, Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, and Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin; Fond du Lac, Leech Lake, and White Earth in Minnesota; and Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan.
Potawatomi (Bodéwadmik)
Including the Forest County Potawatomi and Hannahville Indian Community.