The Sailing Adventures of Captain Roland J. Martin (1905 - 1994)
His Only Home in Bay View (1935-58)
3137 South California Street
His Ships and Sailing Adventures While Living Here
Above left: car ferry Grand Rapids, 1931-36 (total tenure aboard, moved to Bay View in 1935); Sailing adventures while aboard as first mate, 1935-36 after moving to Bay View (his father Edward had been captain of the grand rapids in 1933): On 21 February 1936, all of Lake Michigan was completely frozen over. Roland Martin recalled later in 1961, “The only open water was what the ship would make cutting through the ice, then it would close immediately…the lake was frozen solid for two weeks…” His father at age 91, a retired car ferry captain, living with Roland at the time and a 52-year veteran of sailing on the Lakes, stated that he could only recall one other time when Lake Michigan froze over: 1918. 23 In another later article about the ice in ’36 after his retirement, Roland stated, “We got wedged into a solid field. The ice coming from the south was piling up and listing us over. We had to pull the fires so the boiler wouldn’t explode. I organized the crew into groups of four and we were going to head over the ice for land 20 miles away. We were ready to abandon ship when the (icebreaker) Escanaba came into sight and started cutting circles around us and, as she cut, it relieve the pressure and the Grand Rapids had its second launching. Oh, the beatings the ships took in the ice…from full ahead to full astern and those engines took that. I think that’s when I ruined my eyes, working on the ice. There were no sunglasses then and my retinas are all shot. One eye, I can only see light and dark.” 24 Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
Above center: car ferry Grand Haven, 1937; Sailing adventures as captain: On 28 January 1937 (only a few months before taking command as captain of the Grand Haven), ran aground south of Milwaukee on a sand bar in Lake Michigan about 1,500 feet from the shore during heavy fog and was pulled off by two tugboats and the car ferry City of Milwaukee which he would take command of the next year, 1938. 25 On 11 January 1937, the Grand Haven was brought out of retirement (where it had been placed in 1931) to support a new contract between Grand Trunk and the Pennsylvania Road railroads so it wouldn’t have to route its rail cars through Chicago. The Grand Haven used Grand Trunk’s pier at S. Hilbert and E. Wilcox Streets in Bay View (later, 1625 S. Allis St.), 26 and its re-activation meant four car ferries now sailed daily between Milwaukee and Muskegon to meet the demands of both railroad companies. 27 Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
Above right: The car ferry City of Milwaukee, 1938-56; Sailing adventures while captain: On 11 November 1940, sailed in a storm that stirred up a “spray (that was) 100 feet in the air.” Captain Martin stated the storm was so alarming that, “I called on all hands to be ready to abandon ship.” 28 On 19 April 1947, had a passenger, a terminally ill mother of two children, commit suicide by jumping overboard. Captain Martin stopped the ship and put a small boat in the water to search for her to no avail. 29 On 14 January 1950, took 11 hours instead of the usual six hours to cross Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Milwaukee due to 73 miles-per-hour winds and a temperature drop of 50 degrees from 60 to 10. 30 On 04 February 1951, joined with the US Coast Guard Cutter Sundew to break ice around and then free the ship Milwaukee Clipper stuck in ice inside the Muskegon, Michigan, harbor channel. Captain Martin, already ahead of the Clipper in the harbor channel, uniquely went to its rescue in reverse, stern first. Then, departing for Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee itself became trapped in ice three miles out into Lake Michigan and the Sundew then went to its aid and freed it. 31 On 14 November 1952, encountered gale force winds of 56 miles-per-hour when eight miles east of Milwaukee. 32 On 14 October 1954, assisted with the wreckage of the sunken Royal Netherlands cargo ship Prins Willem V. 33 Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
His Ships and Sailing Adventures Before Bay View
Ships (documented) he was officer aboard and captained (1929-34) before living in Bay View
Above left: car ferry Milwaukee, 1929; Sailing adventures while aboard as temporary mate: sank 22 Oct 1929 inbound from Muskegon to Milwaukee with loss of all 47 crew (BGSU). 34 Roland Martin had been serving as an officer aboard and departed (to take a probable similar position on the car ferry Grand Haven) the ship just one month before it sank. Here are his amazing comments about it: “I was a temporary mate until a month before she went down. When some of the bodies came ashore, I had to go down and identify them. There was wreckage washed ashore and I was turning over partitions and I turned over the partition from my old room.” But his connection with the Milwaukee didn’t end there. Amazingly, when the wreck of the sunken Milwaukee was discovered 34 years later in 1963, it was none other than Roland Martin that announced its discovery to the press in his capacity as Grand Trunk’s Terminal and Car Ferry Superintendent. 35
Photo courtesy the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University.
Above center: the car ferry Grand Haven, 1929; Sailing adventures while aboard as (probable) temporary mate or mate: On 22 October 1929, he sailed in the same storm that sank the car ferry Milwaukee that he had just left only a month earlier. According to a later interview, the Milwaukee Sentinel reporter, William Janz, wrote about the Grand Haven in this same storm, “(it)…barely held its own in that storm that bent minds as well as steel.” Roland Martin continued, “The seas were coming over our sea gate (at the stern…which is believed to have been the cause of the sinking of the Milwaukee)…she (the Grand Haven) rolled so deeply that she threw steel gratings from between the stacks completely over the side without touching any part of the ship.” 36 Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
Above right: the brand new car ferry City of Milwaukee, 1930; Sailing adventures while aboard as first mate: 37 none discovered. Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
Above: the car ferry Grand Rapids, 1931-36 (total tenure aboard, moved to Bay View in 1935); Sailing adventures while aboard as first mate, 1931-34 before moving to Bay View: none discovered. Photo courtesy Kenneth Thro, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Thunder Bay Research Collection.
