Built in 1872 as a 200-foot long schooner-barge, William McGregor (later Transfer) spent the first 39 years of its career as a consort hauling cargos of ore and coal from ports on the eastern Great Lakes to the ports of Chicago, Illinois, and Escanaba and Marquette, Michigan (Detroit Free Press 1883, 1895, 1900, 1905). The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company purchased the vessel in 1911 for use in the Milwaukee River, renaming it Transfer. Following its purchase, the vessel’s upper works were cut down and Transfer was used as a barge for transporting coal. After a few years of service, the company converted Transfer into a self-unloader to increase productivity and reduce costs (Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company 1914:24). Today Transfer lies in 110 ft. of water, 6.5 miles off of Milwaukee. During its abandonment, the vessel violently struck the bottom of Lake Michigan, and its remains now lie broken on the lakebed.
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