Viewing Manitowoc, Wis., at night from aboard the SS Badger inspires visions of space exploration. The harbor lights flicker and dance off Lake Michigan’s dark waters, while a bright star-lit sky makes the shoreline look like a distant galaxy.
The Badger, the last of the car ferries on Lake Michigan, crosses the lake from mid-May to mid-October, carrying up to 620 passengers and 180 vehicles on a 60-mile journey that could be made on U.S. Highway 10 if the lake weren’t in the way. The Badger, the fastest steamship on the lake, runs between Ludington, Mich., and Manitowoc.
As the Badger draws nearer to Manitowoc harbor, Capt. Dean Hobbs, 42, takes command.
In the pilot house, the ship appears to hover and glide toward the harbor. To the unschooled observer, the entrance appears to be impossibly small for a 4,400-ton steamship.
The stillness is interrupted by clangs and rings as Hobbs deftly issues a series of orders and the engine room answers. The ship responds on cue and steams into the harbor.
There, Hobbs guides the steamer into a 90-degree turn heading away from the wharf. The anchor is dropped and the ship hesitates momentarily before backing into its dock. A line is thrown ashore.
By now Hobbs has moved the ship’s command to the pilot house at the stern of the vessel. There he directs the final mooring operations.
Once the ship is moored, passengers will disembark while the crew unloads their cars, vans, trucks, motorcycles, motorhomes and semi-trailer trucks. After the unloading is complete, the crew will begin loading vehicles for the “red eye” return to Ludington. Each trip takes four hours, and the ferries makes two round trips a day.
Hobbs, who has been around ships since his childhood in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., admits his fondness for steamships. Steam gives a ship life, he said. The air on a steamer smells fresher and cleaner. Steam engines are quieter and their sound is not annoying, he added.
“We make 15-knots (on the cruise),” Hobbs said, which is about the same speed steamships traveled 100 years ago. He quickly adds that the Badger is fully equipped with modern electronics, radar, navigational and depth-finding gear.
“The problem with people today is they go too fast. This is the way to go. Put your feet up and relax. You can leave automobile anxiety behind. No one is shaking their fist at you out here. You can enjoy the ride, and we’ll have you across the lake in four hours.”
Hobbs, a generally affable man, turns serious when he talks about sailing the ship. Though the Badger travels between only two ports, velocity and directional changes in wind and current make each landing different, he said. Most of the time, the changes can be very small.
“Today coming out of Ludington harbor, the wind came out of the south. It blew sand across the mouth of the harbor, making the water white. The river current pushed out creating little eddies, going in circles and pulling sand into them,” he said. This influences steering the ship. “Each voyage you learn something.”
“When I graduated from high school, like most kids, I didn’t think I needed any more education. I thought I knew everything.”
Though he wanted to work on the Great Lakes, there were no jobs for inexperienced, uneducated, deck hands. So, Hobbs hit the road.
In New Orleans, he talked his way into a job as a deckhand on a tramp tow boat working the Mississippi River. He readily took to the work because of skills he learned as a Boy Scout. “I knew how to tie knots,” he said.
After a few months, he noticed the boats never stopped at shore and he needed new boots. Still, he was prepared to gut it out. That is until a December day when a stop in Lake Peoria in Illinois changed his attitude and his life.
The temperature had dipped to 10 below zero, which on the surface is not that cold for someone who grew up in Northern Michigan, Hobbs readily says. But there is a difference between the (Upper Peninsula) and Lake Peoria, he points out, “the humidity.” “Lake Peoria has the coldest 10 below zero you’ll ever want to know.”
“Here I am outside giving instructions to the ship’s pilot. I’m cold. He is inside. My boots have holes in the soles. He’s working in his shirt sleeves. My feet are wrapped in plastic bread wrappers to keep them dry. He’s drinking coffee and having a polite conversation . . . with a female cook.
“That’s when I saw the light,” Hobbs said. Within a month, he started classes at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, Mich.
After graduating in 1976, he spent a few months working in the Gulf of Mexico before Amoco Oil summoned him to the Great Lakes. He has been working on the lakes since. In the off season, Hobbs teaches at the Maritime Academy and does consulting work for ship builders.
“The vagaries of the sea (Lake Michigan) keep this work from being boring. . . . You respect it (Lake Michigan) or you pay the price,” Hobbs said.
There is a big difference, Hobbs said, between storms on the Great Lakes and larger bodies of water. For instance, the waves on the Gulf of Mexico might be a mile apart, whereas, the waves on the Great Lakes might be 200 feet apart. This means they hit the ship more frequently.
“I watch the weather very closely. I’ve sailed in heavy weather, and I’ve sailed in calm weather. I know how to deal with rough (weather) but I like smooth weather better,” Hobbs said.
When asked whether he had any experience with seiches, Hobbs said, they are most likely to occur at the southern part of the Lake.
“They’re more like a flood (rather than a mini-tidal wave),” he said. As an example, he cited Indiana Harbor. There water levels can change six to eight feet in an hour, he said. “That’s pretty dramatic.”
The Badger’s route doesn’t get that kind of weather, he said. For some reason, storms tend to blow up farther north or south. “We see them on radar before they hit. We have time to prepare for them,” Hobbs said.
He said he was very confident about the skills and abilities of his 60-member crew. As an example, he cited the experience of his wheelman Tom Gilliand (who steers the ship). “He’s been making 1,000 crossings a year for 45 years.”
For the passengers aboard the Badger, a thunderstorm out on the Lake is like watching Mother Nature’s light show from a “theater in-the-round,” Hobbs said.
Many passengers install themselves in deck chairs to watch the water and the sky. They come from all over the country.
Doris Hadeler, of Coventry, N.Y., said this was not her first cruise. She said she hoped to make another crossing next year.
“I love this (taking the ferry). It’s like a one-lane highway on the sea,” Hadeler said.
“My wife has been after me to take a (ocean) cruise but I’m not real comfortable with water,” said Bob Carty, of Stillwater, Minn., who sat alone at the stern on this, his first, voyage. He said he was on his way home from a business trip to Detroit and “I thought I’d try the ferry” as a way of getting used to water.
“This is good. I finished up a lot of business work. I relaxed and I didn’t have to make that (expressway) drive through Chicago,” Carty said, adding that his wife now has a good chance of getting him on a cruise.
Sandy and Shayne Smith, of Greenville, Mich., also expressed enthusiasm for their first ferry ride.
“Hey, let the ferry do the driving,” Shayne said.
Sandy Smith said they were driving to Hardin, Mont., to visit relatives. She said they had traveled the northern and southern routes around Lake Michigan. She said she wished they had taken the ferry in the past. Her husband agreed. “This is better than all the other ways,” he added.
A Naperville man, Ken Hathaway said he learned about the car ferry “from the internet.” Accompanied by his wife, Randi, and son, Josh, Hathaway said he thought the ferry would be fun and he wasn’t disappointed.
Randi Hathaway agreed. She said they were coming from Benton Harbor, Mich., on their way to Minnesota to visit relatives.
Though the SS Badger has been steaming across Lake Michigan since 1953, the ship experienced a brief retirement when the crossings were suspended when the company went broke in November 1990. The Badger resumed service in June 1992 when Charles Conrad, founder of Lake Michigan Carferry, purchased the Badger; its sister ship, the SS Spartan; and the City of Midland.
Conrad grew up in Ludington and lived in Holland, Mich., as an adult. He accompanied his father, a chief engineer for the Pere Marquette Railroad, on many lake crossings.
Conrad became a successful businessman, specializing in the design, development and construction of test chambers used by aircraft manufacturers and the space program. He founded Thermotron Industries in 1980. When most men retire, Conrad became an entrepreneur. He believed that the car ferry always should be part of Ludington. He died in 1995 at age 78.
In its first year back, the Badger transported 115,000 passengers and 34,000 vehicles across Lake Michigan. Since then, the number of passengers and vehicles has increased each year, said Thom A. Hawley, director of public relations and marketing, Lake Michigan Carferry.
“We know destination dictates a travel route most of the time but the car ferry provides a unique experience. It’s an opportunity for quality family time. People can relax and avoid a white-knuckle expressway drive (around the lake),” Hawley said.
Word-of-mouth advertising has been very successful for Lake Michigan Carferry, Hawley said. Most passengers are vacationers who use the ferry once a season.
“Charles Conrad was a very friendly man. He set the standard of providing the very best service possible. He wanted people’s experiences to exceed their expectations. That was part of his vision and it continues to be our vision today,” Hawley said. Robert A. Manglitz, who succeeded Conrad as president and chief executive of Lake Michigan Carferry, shares that vision.
Lake Michigan Carferry puts a considerable amount of energy into customer service, Hawley said. The Badger has a crew of 60 on each voyage. Most are involved in customer service. This formula has been successful. More than 50 percent of the Badger’s passengers return, Hawley said.
The car ferry is part of a tradition dating back more than 100 years, said Hawley. In its early years, Lake Michigan Carferry hauled rail cars across the lake.
“Lake Michigan has always been an obstacle,” Hawley said, talking about the region’s historical development.
“If you go to Michigan, it’s not on the way to anywhere (because) it’s surrounded by water. Most roadways in Michigan and Wisconsin go north and south, the car ferry provided an east and west connection.”
THINGS TO DO ON BOARD
As supervisor of customer service for the Lake Michigan Carferry, John Sherburn, 23, of Ludington, Mich., takes each voyage in stride.
Customer needs vary but each voyage has little crises. Someone may need to get something from their vehicle; a passenger may get an urgent phone call (the Badger has a cellular pay phone) or questions need to be answered.
Sherburn also keeps passengers posted when the Badger passes another ship. He usually announces the name, cargo and size of other ships sighted.
Some passengers think it’s neat when they learn that the Badger, which is 410 feet 6 inches long and 59 feet 6 inches wide, is not the largest ship on Lake Michigan, he said. A 1,000-foot freighter is “2 1/2 times longer and almost twice as wide,” he said.
Sherburn and his staff of 25 also provide live entertainment. This includes song and dance routines, a children’s story time, games, free “Badger bingo” and on some cruises a puppet show.
Other entertainment includes family movies shown in two lounges, a video arcade, a maritime museum with car ferry exhibits and a boutique where souvenirs, reading material and sundries are sold.
Food and refreshments are also available. The Upper Deck Cafe serves a cafeteria-style breakfast throughout the season and lunch and dinner in the summer.
At dinner ($7.50 for adults and $5.50 for children), passengers have a choice of three hot entrees–beef, fish or pasta–which includes bread and butter, mashed potatoes, salad and steamed vegetables. Soft drinks and beer are extra.
Snacks, sandwiches, salads and soft drinks can be purchased at The Badger Galley on the main deck. The Portside Bar also serves beer, wine and cocktails.
