Boatnerd News – April 3, 2023

Historian and author Joel Stone is Detroit group’s Historian of the Year

DETROIT –  Joel Stone, a public historian and curator emeritus at the Detroit Historical Society, has been named Historian of the Year by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.

He was presented with a plaque Saturday at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, OH, by MHSD President Roger LeLievre. The award is conferred annually.

Raised in the Detroit area, Stone learned the love of boats from his parents, and by extension his grandfathers – one a sailboat enthusiast, the other a professional photographer who captured the passing parade on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Joel began sailing competitively after college and worked foredeck on more than a dozen Bayview-Mackinac competitors. For the last 20 years, he has crewed on a Capri 25 out of the Grosse Pointe Boat Club.

He holds degrees and certificates in journalism, history, archaeology, and archival management from the University of Detroit, Wayne State University, and the University College Cork, Ireland. During his time at UofD, he sought out MHSD charter member Fr. Edward Dowling – like so many others – for studies in Great Lakes research. He spent a summer spinning records on the Bob-Lo boats, and while in Ireland became interested in the culture of coastal trading.

Following his undergraduate years, Stone enjoyed a rewarding stint in music retail before moving into his first career as a graphic artist, designer, and fabricator. Clients included Detroit’s automotive Big 3, as well as cultural institutions, national healthcare organizations and numerous marketing firms.

Stone was hired by the Detroit Historical Society (DHS) initially as a maritime docent in 2006. A year later, he became curator for the Detroit Historical Museum, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, and the Collections Resource Center. In 2012, he was named Senior Curator, and in 2013 participated in a full renovation of both museums. He later helped develop an internationally recognized community history project related to Detroit’s 1967 racial uprising.

Stone is a past president of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History and co-editor of its Great Lakes Art Database. He currently edits Telescope magazine as a member of the Great Lakes Maritime Institute. Joel belongs to the International Ship Masters’ Association Lodge #7 and the Prismatic Club of Detroit and has been a volunteer reader at the Detroit Radio Information Service, an audio news carrier for the print-impaired, since 1986.

He authored “Floating Palaces of the Great Lakes: a History of Passenger Steamships on the Inland Seas” (University of Michigan Press, 2015), and more recently “100 Years of the Detroit Historical Society” (Wayne State University Press, 2021). He also wrote and illustrated “Grandpa’s Big Book of Boats” (Bishop’s Gate Publishing, 1993). Edited works include “Detroit1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies” (Wayne State University Press, 2017), “Interpreting Maritime History at Museums and Historic Sites” (AASLH/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), “Border Crossings: The Detroit River Region in the War of 1812” (Detroit Historical Society, 2012), and “Revolutionary Detroit: Portraits in Political and Cultural Change, 1760-1805” (Detroit Historical Society, 2009).

Joel lives with his wife, Linda Mast Stone, in Bloomfield Township near Detroit, and has been known to get paid to sing chanties and sea songs in public.

 

Group says Kingston is SS Keewatin’s best option for survival

Moving the SS Keewatin to Kingston is the best way to save the ship from the scrapyard, the man who led the effort to bring the ship to Port McNicoll and restore it over the past decade said.

“It is the only option and, trust me, we tried them all,” said Eric Conroy, founder of Friends of the Keewatin and part of the group that brought the ship back to Canada from Michigan in 2011.

“The problem is everybody these days is protecting their waterfront,” Conroy said. “Nobody wants, you know, a 118-year-old ship on their waterfront.”

Nobody, except for the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, that is. It made attaining the ship as a tourist attraction a key part of its renewal plan after returning to the Ontario Street location.

The land surrounding the Keewatin’s current location has been sold for residential development, so even if the ship were to stay in Port McNicoll, there would be no site available to accommodate it.

It’s a similar story in nearby communities that have been offered the chance to accept the ship but declined, Conroy said.

While Conroy admitted many in Port McNicoll are sad to see the ship go, the volunteers who helped restore the Keewatin in recent years are helping prepare it for the move and are training marine museum volunteers.

In late May, the ship is to be towed to a shipyard near the Welland Canal to undergo about $2 million worth of cosmetic refurbishment before being moved to Kingston in the late summer.

Among the work to be done on the ship is replacing the promenade decking, reinforcing the funnel, painting the ship’s two masts and rebuilding the wheelhouse.

“The ship itself inside is absolutely immaculate, including the engine, which is similar to the two that were on Titanic. It works,” he said. “The Smithsonian Institute is prepared to buy the engine, which would mean we’d have to scrap the ship to sell them the engine, which is worth $4 or $5 million on its own.”

Conroy said the plan to have the ship on display in Kingston is fitting, given its connection to Sir John A. Macdonald, who was instrumental in the creation of both the dry dock adjacent to the marine museum and the construction of the Keewatin and its sister ships.

Having the ship in Kingston will also mean many more people will see it compared to how many visited it in Port McNicoll.

“Even the best summer we ever had, which was the last one (2019), we got 10,000 visitors, so 10,000 visitors won’t pay the bills. It’s an expensive thing to keep,” he said. “If you live in an old house, you know you’re always fixing something. You get a great big ship like this and, boy, it’s expensive to operate.”

Conroy said he is confident the marine museum will be able to attract many more tourists to the ship.

In the next few weeks, volunteers in Port McNicoll, with the help of some from Kingston, are packing up the artifacts on board the ship for its trip down the lakes.

Conroy said donors have been offered the opportunity to have items returned prior to its departure, but the vast majority of the artifacts are staying with the ship.

Ottawa Citizen

 

Great Lakes Maritime Academy open ship details

TRAVERSE CITY — The community is invited to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy’s “Open Ship” showcasing the training ship State of Michigan from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 22.

The day will include:
· Self-guided tours of the T/S State of Michigan
· Interaction with current Maritime cadets
· An opportunity to learn more about the Maritime Academy, Maritime careers, how to become a chef on a ship and Navy commissioning options.

Tours will begin at the pier security gate entrance on the north side of NMC’s Great Lakes campus, 715 E. Front St. Low-heel, closed-toe, soft-soled shoes are highly recommended. The event will occur rain or shine.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
maritime@nmc.edu
(231) 995-1200

GLMA