Steamship William J. Mather

When walking to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the hubby saw a big ship in the harbor. I thought it was just there after unloading cargo, which seems odd now that I think of it. It turns out it was the Steamship William G. Mather – an freighter that was used on the Great Lakes. It is part of the Great Lakes Science Center but you can tour the freighter without going to the museum.

Since the hubby likes touring old ships like this and we had time, we headed over to the William G. Mather. It was $9 a person for a self guided tour of the freighter. It was well worth the price of admission.  There is a lot to see and explore with a hands-on section in the cargo hold.  Up in the navigation room and I believe in the engine room, there is a guide that will answer any questions you have. For the most part it is self guided with a lot of signs to read. It is hard to get lost as there is an orange line on the floor to follow. There are stairs to climb up and down as you navigate through the various parts of the ship.

 

 

Back in the day when the William J Mather was in service the crew had open each of the cargo hold doors by manually cracking these vises. Each door probably had at least 2 dozen clamps.

As we were exploring the steam, we ran into two couples from Wisconsin. You never know where Packer fans are going to be. We chatted for a few minutes and took the required “couple” photos of each other.

For an unplanned stop, The Steamship William G. Mather was a great choice. It was fun, informative, and relatively inexpensive. Not everything we do on a vacation gets planned or is even on the bucket list and there is usually some wiggle-room for things that happen to look interesting. I am glad we are both flexible enough to enjoy spur of the moment activities like touring an old freighter.