2006 Meteor Restoration Project

One of our favorite historic museum ships is in dire need of your help. The whaleback SS Meteor museum ship is located in Superior Wisconsin near Barker's Island Marina. It was built in Superior Wisconsin 110 years ago by the well known shipbuilder Alexander McDougall and has been a museum ship in her home town since 1971. In 1896, there were nearly 40 of her type afloat, while today she alone represents her whole class. The ship is in generally good condition, in spite of widespread rumors to the contrary, but it needs a great deal of cleaning, painting and routine maintenance. Superior does not have the resources to properly care for the ship, and volunteers are badly needed to undertake some of the necessary tasks. Chipping and painting of deck equipment and engine room spaces are planned and an overhaul of exhibits is scheduled for Spring. Superior Public Museums is seeking grant money to drydock the ship sometime in the next two to three years to undertake more ambitious hull maintenance work. The goal is to complete that work before the ship reaches its 110th birthday in 2006.

WUAA, Wisconsin Underwater Archeological Association, is planning a work weekend on April 29, 2006 and has invited us to roll up our sleeves to help. Last year, they spent the weekend scrapping and painting in the engine room and the results were encouraging. For those of you who want to get involved in some of the activities of the society and haven't been able to get out to help on our boat, this is an great opportunity to get involved in a worthy cause. It is also a chance to really learn a lot about the inside of this unique type of ship. And you don't need any special skills. All you need is to be willing to get a little dirty and exchange some sweat equity for an interesting and fun experience. We have worked with WUAA on other projects including the Pretoria Boiler PIB project and have always had a fun time with them.

The Meteor engine room needed some TLC and a general scrape and paint job.

It was encouraging to see the improvement after one weekend of work.

Details: The current plan would be to leave Friday night April 28, stay in Phil Kerber's comfortable pop-up camper or aboard either the Preservation or Heyboy, work Saturday on the Meteor then Sunday on the Preservation, and return Sunday night. We will be meeting at the Meteor at 8:00 AM Saturday if you prefer to drive up yourself and not stay overnight. Phil Kerber is in charge of the arrangements for GLSPS so call or email him if you are interested. Email is pkerber@glsps.org or he can also be reached by phone 763.420-2059.

Project Report

If you were following our website and mnscuba.com, you would have had the opportunity to join the GLSPS on April 29 and 30 for the Preservation project aboard the S.S. Meteor. This was a joint effort by WUAA (Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association) and the GLSPS. Together, 15 volunteers scraped old paint and re-painted two stairways, one short and two long hallways, and eight rooms on the upper deck of the S.S. Meteor.

At the same time we were scraping and painting, Susan Anderson, Director of the S.S. Meteor, had a Marine Surveyor from the East Coast (Joe Lombardi) performing a survey to determine the condition of the ship museum. They needed to determine if the ship would be accepted as a National Historical Monument and whether it is in satisfactory condition to receive the Grants to assure restoration and preservation of this historical and one of a kind ship. Bob Olson, Karsten Nelson, and a few others assisted the marine surveyor in his needed tasks to accurately assess the condition of this fine historical ship.

The best thing about this project is having the opportunity to look around the other parts of the ship tourists don’t normally see. It was great!

The participants of this very worthy cause should be recognized for their time and hard work in getting the ship museum ready for the 2006 tourism season. The hard working souls attending the S.S. Meteor Project were:
Bob Olson, Karston Nelson, Rick Schmidt, Ken Merryman, Ken Knutson, Steve Daniel, Bob Nelson, Tom Brueshaber (GLSPS); Randy Beebe and Corey Daniel (GLSPS Duluth Chapter); Russel Lietz and Danny Aertz (WUAA); Susan Anderson, and Don from the maintenance department of the S.S. Meteor.

The Saturday night festivities organized by Elmer Engman were great. He organized a buffet and speakers at the Holiday Inn Express in Duluth. Elmer gave his superb presentation on the whaleback ships. Joe Lombardi talked about historical military ships. The third presentation was from one of our very own GLSPS Board members Ken Merryman. He presented a video on one of the latest shipwrecks he and his colleagues found in Lake Superior.

A heart felt thanks from the personnel and supporters of the S.S. Meteor goes out to all that helped on this project.

Phil Kerber

The 2006 Meteor work crew.	Phil Kerber and Randy Beebe paint the crew's mess hall.
Karsten Nelson vacuums one of the crew's quarters in preparation for painting.	Steve and Corey Daniel scrape the doors for the crew's quarters.
A lot of scrapping goes into the job as Rick Schmidt will attest to.	Bob Olson, Phil Kerber, Karsten Nelson, and Randy Beebe assist the marine surveyor in lifting bilge plates for the hull inspection.
GLSPS members learned a lot about hull inspections from the inspector Joe Lambardi (right).