View source for R. J. Hackett (steamer)

{{Short description|Historic shipwreck in Lake Michigan}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image               = RJ Hackett.jpg
| Ship caption             = ''R. J. Hackett'' under steam c. 1900, showing the second deck installed in 1881.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header               =
|Ship country              =
|Ship flag                 = {{USN flag|1867}}
|Ship name                 = ''R. J. Hackett''
|Ship operator             = Northwest Transportation Company; Vulcan Transportation Company
|Ship ordered              =
|Ship builder              = Peck & Masters
|Ship yard number          =
|Ship laid down            =
|Ship launched             = November 16, 1869
|Ship completed            =
|Ship acquired             =
|Ship in service           =
|Ship out of service       = 
|Ship fate                 = Sank November 12, 1905
|Ship notes                =
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header              =
| Header caption           =
| Ship type                = [[Great Lakes freighter]]
| Ship tonnage             = 749 [[Gross register ton|gross]] as built; 1,129 after 1881
| Ship displacement        =
| Ship length              = {{convert|208|ft|1|in}}
| Ship beam                = {{convert|32|ft|5|in}}
| Ship height              =
| Ship draught             =
| Ship draft               =
| Ship depth               = {{convert|12|ft|6|in}}
| Ship decks               =
| Ship deck clearance      =
| Ship ramps               =
| Ship ice class           =
| Ship sail plan           =
| Ship power               = {{convert|380|HP}}
| Ship propulsion          = [[Triple-expansion steam engine]]
| Ship speed               =
| Ship capacity            =
| Ship crew                =
| Ship notes               = American #21934
}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| embed        = yes
| name         = ''R. J. Hackett'' (steamer) Shipwreck Site
| nrhp_type    =
| image        =
| caption      =
| coordinates  = {{coord|45|21|28|N|87|10|55|W|display=inline,title}}
| location     = Whaleback Shoal in [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]], 9.5 miles southeast of the Cedar River in [[Menominee County, Michigan]].
| locmapin     = Michigan#USA
| built        = 1869
| builder      = Peck & Masters
| architect    = Elihu Peck
| architecture =
| added        = May 21, 1992
| area         = {{convert|1.4|acre}}
| refnum       = 92000464<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
}}
|}

'''''R. J. Hackett''''' (official number 21934)<ref name = "mh3">{{cite web| title = R. J. Hackett (Propeller) | work = [[Maritime History of the Great Lakes]] | url = http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/results?fsu=R%2E+J%2E+Hackett+%28Propeller%29 | access-date = February 29, 2012}}</ref> was a steamer built in 1869 in [[Cleveland, Ohio]], by Peck & Masters. When the ship was first launched, both its wide cross-section and long midships hold were unconventional. The design's clear advantages in moving cargo through the inland lakes quickly resulted in many imitators. 

The ''Hackett'' is recognized as the first [[Great Lakes freighter]], a vessel type that has dominated [[Great Lakes]] shipping for more than 100 years.<ref name = "queen"/> In 1905, the ''Hackett'' caught fire and sank on Whaleback Shoal in [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]], {{convert|9.5|miles}} southeast of the Cedar River in [[Menominee County, Michigan]]. The wreck site was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1992 because of the importance of this ship.<ref name = "nris"/>

==Shipbuilder Elihu M. Peck==
Elihu Monroe Peck (1822&nbsp;– May 8, 1896) was a pioneer in shipbuilding and passenger and freight hauling.<ref name = "cyclopedia">{{citation | title = Cyclopedia of Michigan, Historical and Biographical | publisher = Western Publishing and Engraving Company | year = 1900 | pages = 153–154 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zsIcRmwJmYUC&q=peck}}</ref> He was born in [[Butternuts, New York]]<ref name = "cyclopedia"/> in 1822.<ref name = "queen">{{citation | title = Queen of the Lakes | author = Mark L. Thompson | publisher = Wayne State University Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-8143-2393-6 | pages = 22–26 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=irtD2o_uQ88C&pg=PA22}}</ref>  

When Peck was 16, he began working in the profession of ship's carpenter.<ref name = "cyclopedia"/> He moved to [[Cleveland, Ohio]] and apprenticed to shipbuilder Philo Moses.<ref name = "queen"/> 

Early in his career, in 1845 Peck married Susan Ettling Rogers of [[Bedford, Ohio]]. The couple had two children, both of whom died young.<ref name = "cyclopedia"/>  

In 1847, Peck at 25 started his own shipyard in Cleveland. He built one new ship (the [[schooner]] ''Jenny Lind''), but focused on the repair of older ships.<ref name = "clevepandp">{{citation | title = Cleveland Past and Present | author = Maurice Joblin | publisher = Kessinger Publishing | year = 2004 | isbn = 1-4191-1340-2 | pages = 163–164 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tyC8RxMWj00C&pg=PA163}}</ref>  The schooner ''Jenny Lind'' expressed some of his innovative thinking: it had a blunt bow and almost square cross-section, unlike the more conventional sleek, raked schooners of the day.<ref name = "queen"/>  This design resulted in more cargo space, giving the ship an advantage over competing schooners.<ref name = "queen"/>

Peck later captained his own ship, the ''Fountain City'', in transporting iron ore.<ref name = "ironore">{{citation | title = Iron ore transport on the Great Lakes: the development of a delivery system to feed American industry | author = W. Bruce Bowlus | publisher = McFarland | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-7864-3326-1 | pages = 108–109 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nyGjHG1PaUEC&pg=PA109}}</ref> 

In 1855, Peck formed a partnership with Irvine U. Masters, beginning the firm of Peck & Masters.<ref name = "queen"/>  Their new firm focused on building new vessels.<ref name = "clevepandp"/>  When Masters died a decade later in 1866,<ref name = "cyclopedia"/> Peck kept the full name of the firm, as they had built a solid reputation.<ref name = "queen"/>

Peck also had business interests in Cleveland beyond shipbuilding. He served as president of People's Gas Light Company of Cleveland and a director of the Savings Loan Association.<ref name = "clevepandp"/> In 1855 he served as a delegate to his county [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] convention; in 1867 he ran for public office and was elected a waterworks commissioner.<ref name = "ech">{{cite web | title = PECK, ELIHU M. | publisher = The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History |url = http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=PEM | access-date = February 29, 2012}}</ref>

Peck had a reputation as a brusque but fair man, with a streak of unconventionality.<ref name = "queen"/>  When work was slow, he kept his builders employed by building ships on speculation;<ref name = "queen"/> these speculative builds were always eventually sold.<ref name = "queen"/>  

==Building the ''R. J. Hackett''==
By 1869, Peck & Masters was a highly regarded firm and had built more than 50&nbsp;ships, including the 1867 package freighter ''Nebraska''. At {{convert|280|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} in length and almost 1,500&nbsp;[[gross register tonnage|gross register tons]], it was the largest ship on the [[Great Lakes]] at the time. Most of the ships built by Peck & Masters were of a relatively conventional design. 

In 1869 Peck decided to push his design toward unconventional for a new vessel. For this project, he took on an investing partner, Captain Robert J. Hackett of [[Detroit]]. They designed and built the ''R. J. Hackett'' on speculation, launching the ship on November 16, 1869 in Cleveland. The ''Hackett'', like the ''Jenny Lind'', had a boxy hull, increasing cargo capacity.<ref name = "queen"/>

When Peck and Hackett could not find a buyer for the new ship, they organized the Northwest Transportation Company, along with Hackett's brother and Harvey Brown, an agent for the [[Jackson Iron Company]]. Hackett established the company headquarters in Detroit, and hired Captain David Trotter to sail the ''Hackett''. The ship was enrolled on March 31, 1870, in Detroit, and set off on her first voyage that spring.<ref name = "queen"/>

==Description==
The ''R. J. Hackett'' was a wooden-hulled propeller ship,<ref name = "ironore"/> measuring 749 gross tons, with a length of {{convert|208|ft|1|in}}, a beam of {{convert|32|ft|5|in}}, and a depth of {{convert|12|ft|6|in}}.<ref name = "queen"/>  The ship was originally powered by a {{convert|475|HP}} steam engine<ref name = "glh">{{cite web| title =  R. J. Hackett | publisher = Great Lakes Vessel History | url =  http://www.greatlakesvesselhistory.com/histories-by-name/h/hackett-r-j/ | access-date = February 29, 2012}}</ref> placed all the way aft and connected to a propeller.<ref name = "queen"/>  In an 1883 retrofit,<ref name = "glh"/> a {{convert|380|HP}} compound [[steeple engine]] was installed. 

The [[deckhouse]] with galley and crew quarters sat aft above the engine room, and a second deckhouse containing the captain's cabin and a [[pilothouse]] sat near the bow of the ship.<ref name = "queen"/>  The ''Hackett'' originally had two masts, which could be set with sail or used to support [[block and tackle]] when the ship was unloading. A line of hatches on {{convert|24|ft}} centers, granting access to the hold, ran the length of the deck.<ref name = "queen"/> A third mast was added in a later retrofit.<ref name = "jpmd"/> 

==Significance of the ''Hackett''==
The design of the ''R. J. Hackett'' was innovative. With its boxy hull, hatch-lined deck, and placement of the deckhouses, the ship was ideally suited for moving cargo through inland waterways.<ref name = "queen"/>  The fore and aft deckhouses gave the ''Hackett'' a single immense hold that could be easily accessed and filled with cargo.<ref name = "grave"/>  The boxy hull maximized cargo volume, and the hatch spacing lined the ship up perfectly with the ore dock chutes in [[Marquette, Michigan]] and elsewhere.<ref name = "ironore"/><ref name = "grave"/> Since the center section was free of rigging, loading the ship was much easier than with previous designs.<ref name = "ironore"/>  The forward pilothouse gave the captain better vision and enabled quicker reaction to dangers in the water.<ref name = "ironore"/>  The ''Hackett'''s design combined the best aspects of steam and sailing ships into a new class of vessel.<ref name = "grave"/>

The ''R. J. Hackett'' was capable of running {{convert|12|mph}}, faster than a comparable sail-powered cargo ship. Moreover, because of her design, the ship could carry a prodigious amount of cargo.<ref name = "queen"/> The construction of the ''Hackett'' coincided with the explosion of the iron industry in Michigan's [[Upper Peninsula]] and the corresponding jump in demand for freighters that could carry [[iron ore]] from the mines to the distant smelters, many located in Lake Erie ports.<ref name = "grave">{{citation| title  = Graveyard of the Lakes| author = Mark L. Thompson |  publisher = Wayne State University Press | year = 2006 | isbn =0-8143-3226-9 | pages = 32–33 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Tog_ll_MYrkC&pg=PA32}}</ref>

The success of the ''R. J. Hackett'' immediately spawned imitators,<ref name = "queen"/> completely altering the look of lake freighters thence forward.<ref name = "ironore"/> Over the next 25 years, freighters based on the ''Hackett'''s design (now called [[Great Lakes freighter]]s) became the most common type of ship found on the [[Great Lakes]]. Over the next 100 years, the design of the ''Hackett'' was the basis for nearly every bulk freighter built for use on the inland waterways of [[North America]].<ref name = "queen"/>  Even as construction shifted in the 1880s from wooden to iron and steel hulls, the basic design of the ''Hackett'' was still followed.<ref name = "grave"/>

==Later history==
In 1870, Peck added an operational innovation by experimenting with using the freighter for towing. He used the ''R. J. Hackett'' to tow the schooner ''Forest City'' (of a similar design to the ''Hackett'' but without engines<ref name = "queen"/>); both ships were laden with ore.<ref name = "cyclopedia"/>  This proved the utility of towing transport ships through the lakes, effectively doubling the cargo capacity of the single ship<ref name = "cyclopedia"/> without sacrificing maneuverability. In 1871, the ''Forest City'' was outfitted with engines to run independently<ref name = "queen"/> (and was assigned its own tow consort). After that the ''Hackett'' towed the schooner ''Harvey H. Brown''.

Elihu Peck gradually withdrew from shipbuilding, and dissolved his shipbuilding business in about 1872, before some of these changes.<ref name = "ech"/> Within a few years, he moved from Cleveland to Detroit to concentrate on the [[Northwest Transportation Company]] and its freighters.<ref name = "cyclopedia"/><ref name = "ech"/> Northwest eventually owned one of the largest transport fleets on the [[Great Lakes]].<ref name = "cyclopedia"/> Peck remained president of Northwest until his death on May 8, 1896.<ref name = "cyclopedia"/>

In the early 1870s, the ''R. J. Hackett'' was valued at $48,000. In 1881, the ship had another mast and a second deck installed, raising its height by {{convert|6|ft|4|in}}.<ref name = "jpmd"/> at a cost of $8000.<ref name = "mh1">{{Cite news| title = R. J. Hackett| date = May 18, 1881 | newspaper = Cleveland Herald | url = http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/35639/data?n=2}}</ref>  In 1883 the engine was replaced with a steeple compound engine<ref name = "glh"/> by the [[Detroit Dry Dock]] Engine Works. In 1889, the ship's boiler was replaced; at this time it was still valued at $50,000.<ref name = "jpmd"/>

In 1892, Northwest Transportation sold the ''Hackett'' to the Vulcan Transportation Company of Detroit.<ref name = "glh"/> In the spring of 1905, Vulcan in turn sold the ship to Captain H. C. McCallum.<ref name = "mh2">{{Cite news| title = Steamer Hackett Burns in Green Bay | date = November 13, 1905 | newspaper = Buffalo Evening News | url = http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/59213/data?n=9}}</ref>

==Wreck==
In November 1905, the ''Hackett'' was on its way from Cleveland to [[Marinette, Wisconsin]] carrying a load of coal. On the morning of November 12,<ref name = "door">{{citation | title = Door Peninsula Shipwrecks | author = Jon Paul Van Harpen | publisher = Arcadia Publishing | year = 2006 | isbn = 0-7385-4014-5 | pages = 82–84 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XC4ilyUmuIYC&pg=PA82}}</ref> a fire started in the ''Hackett{{'}}''s crew quarters.<ref name = "jpmd"/>  The fire soon spread to the oil in the engine room.<ref name = "jpmd"/><ref name = "state">{{cite web |url=http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/10168.htm|title=R. J. HACKETT Shipwreck Site |publisher= Michigan State Housing Development Authority: Historic Sites Online|access-date= March 13, 2011}}</ref>  

Captain McCallum ran the ship aground on Whaleback Reef off Washington Island in [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]],<ref name = "state"/> and the crew of 13 escaped in the lifeboats. A nearby fishing tug picked up the crew and took them ashore. Flames from the fire were seen by men from the nearby [[Plum Island Life-Saving and Light Stations]], who headed for the ship. By the time they reached the ''Hackett'', fire had consumed the aft of the ship, and soon the entire vessel was gone,<ref name = "door"/> down to the waterline. The ship at this time was valued at $20,000 but insured for only $12,000.<ref name = "jpmd">{{cite web | title = The First Bulk Freighter on the Great Lakes | author = Jon Paul Van Harpen | publisher = Jon Paul's Maritime Diaries | url = http://www.ppulse.com/Articles-c-2008-08-28-79875.113117_Jon_Pauls_Maritime_Diaries.html | access-date = February 29, 2012}}</ref>

The wreck has slipped slightly off the reef; today it sits in {{convert|10|-|14|ft}} of water. The wreck consists of large sections of hull along with the steeple engine, shaft, propeller and boiler,<ref name = "jpmd"/> cargo coal, and miscellaneous artifacts.<ref name = "state"/> The wreck site was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1992.<ref name = "nris"/>

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=33em}}

{{commons category|R. J. Hackett (ship, 1869)}}

{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{1905 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:R.J. Hackett}}
[[Category:1869 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Cleveland]]
[[Category:Great Lakes freighters]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1905]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Menominee County, Michigan]]