Our Lakefaring History

Essexville — "The old salt just crusts off his shoulders," teases U.S. Navy veteran Michael J. Kegley about his friend and fellow veteran Richard J. Janke.

The Bay City pals not only trade jokes — they're also set to present one of four upcoming lectures designed to "float your boat," according to Karen Savage of Essexville-Hampton Community Education.

The Wednesday-night series at Garber High School will offer historical insights while helping nonprofit groups — which provide the speakers — raise funds for their community projects.

Kegley and Janke will discuss "Warships Built in Bay City" on Wednesday, January 27, while Dom Comtois of the Saginaw River Marine Society opens the series with "Saginaw River Logging: Tugboats at Work."

Also featured are "Diving and Great Lakes Shipwrecks" with underwater diver and photographer Ric Mixter on February 3, and "Great Lakes Lighthouses: Keepers and Their Families" with Bonnie Reno of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association on Wednesday, February 24.

Each lecture — followed by a question-and-answer session — runs from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 24 at Garber High School. To register, call (989) XXX-XXXX by the Monday prior to the talk.

The Essexville-Hampton Community Education Office will split the $8 admission fee with the nonprofit group providing the lecture.

Next week, history buff Dom Comtois, 55, will discuss how Michigan lumber traveled from the woods to the sawmills — and the ships that carried it there.

"I don't own a boat, but I've researched the history of shipbuilding in Bay City, looking at old newspapers and articles," said Comtois, a Dow Chemical Co. retiree.

"I've indexed this information and more for the Bay City Library for 30 years," he explained.

"The Saginaw River was one of the largest shipbuilding areas in its heyday. More than 600 commercial vessels were built, from St. Charles to Sebewaing and Au Gres — and that's not counting the 400 to 500 ships built by Defoe Shipbuilding Co. in Bay City and all the yacht companies, like the Eddy Co. in Saginaw. Lumbering is what brought them all here," said Comtois, a Bay City native.

Comtois added that tugboats were once used to tow logs down the river, sounding a whistle to clear smaller boats out of the way when the logs were on the move. His group hopes to eventually open a maritime museum to preserve that heritage.

Meanwhile, Kegley, 59, and Janke, 62 — members of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum Committee — are "consumed" by their efforts to bring a former U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2), to Bay City from a Pennsylvania shipyard.

Their committee has compiled a comprehensive list of all the vessels built by Defoe Shipbuilding Co. from its founding in 1911 until it closed in 1977.

"We have pictures and we'll talk about the ships — including a 1937 yacht that was originally called the Lenore, later renamed the Honey Fitz when it became President John F. Kennedy's yacht," said Kegley, who served as an aviation sailor during World War II and now works as a Mutual of Omaha representative.

"We'll also talk about our project," added Janke, noting that the committee has raised $75,000 of the $2 million needed to bring the ship to Bay City and maintain it.

"We've got all the engineering down, and the city has donated a slip at the old Davidson Dry Dock in Veterans Memorial Park."

If successful, the Adams would become the newest of 104 ship museums in North America, featuring a nearby building to house and display additional Great Lakes maritime artifacts.

Although it isn't one of the seven destroyers constructed at Defoe, the ship still holds historical significance, Janke said.

"This guided-missile destroyer was the first ever built in America," explained Kegley, "and it would be the only one of its kind — and the newest ship museum on display."

Of the seven destroyers built at Defoe, Kegley noted, "Three are in Australia and still sailing, and four have been reconverted into power barges that now supply electricity to small cities. We wanted one of those seven, but we couldn't get it."

"We're putting out a plea to all Navy vets across the nation to just donate $1," said Janke, owner of Valley Industrial Products in Bay City. He served on a World War II destroyer.

"Our mission is education, education, education — then tourism. A lot of the freedoms we enjoy today are due to the efforts of vets, and youth today don't know what price it came at. Freedom is not free."

Those wishing to make a tax-deductible donation toward the ship museum may send contributions to the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum Committee.

Those interested in the Saginaw River Marine History Society are welcome to attend its monthly meetings. The group plans to host "Ships of Duluth, Minn." this month, a Great Lakes author in February, and an artifact "show and tell" in March.