R. J. Hackett (official number 21934) was a steamer built in 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Peck & Masters. When the ship was first launched, both its wide cross-section and long midships hold were unconventional. The design's clear advantages in moving cargo through the inland lakes quickly resulted in many imitators.
The Hackett is recognized as the first Great Lakes freighter, a vessel type that has dominated Great Lakes shipping for more than 100 years. In 1905, the Hackett caught fire and sank on Whaleback Shoal in Green Bay, southeast of the Cedar River in Menominee County, Michigan. The wreck site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 because of the importance of this ship.
Shipbuilder Elihu M. Peck
Elihu Monroe Peck (1822 – May 8, 1896) was a pioneer in shipbuilding and passenger and freight hauling. He was born in Butternuts, New York in 1822.
When Peck was 16, he began working in the profession of ship's carpenter. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio and apprenticed to shipbuilder Philo Moses.
Early in his career, in 1845 Peck married Susan Ettling Rogers of Bedford, Ohio. The couple had two children, both of whom died young.
In 1847, Peck at 25 started his own shipyard in Cleveland. He built one new ship (the schooner Jenny Lind), but focused on the repair of older ships. The schooner Jenny Lind expressed some of his innovative thinking: it had a blunt bow and almost square cross-section, unlike the more conventional sleek, raked schooners of the day. This design resulted in more cargo space, giving the ship an advantage over competing schooners.
Peck later captained his own ship, the Fountain City, in transporting iron ore.
In 1855, Peck formed a partnership with Irvine U. Masters, beginning the firm of Peck & Masters. Their new firm focused on building new vessels. When Masters died a decade later in 1866, Peck kept the full name of the firm, as they had built a solid reputation.
Peck also had business interests in Cleveland beyond shipbuilding. He served as president of People's Gas Light Company of Cleveland and a director of the Savings Loan Association. In 1855 he served as a delegate to his county Republican convention; in 1867 he ran for public office and was elected a waterworks commissioner.
Peck had a reputation as a brusque but fair man, with a streak of unconventionality. When work was slow, he kept his builders employed by building ships on speculation; these speculative builds were always eventually sold.
Building the R. J. Hackett
By 1869, Peck & Masters was a highly regarded firm and had built more than 50 ships, including the 1867 package freighter Nebraska. At in length and almost 1,500 gross register tons, it was the largest ship on the Great Lakes at the time. Most of the ships built by Peck & Masters were of a relatively conventional design.
In 1869 Peck decided to push his design toward unconventional for a new vessel. For this project, he took on an investing partner, Captain Robert J. Hackett of Detroit. They designed and built the R. J. Hackett on speculation, launching the ship on November 16, 1869 in Cleveland. The Hackett, like the Jenny Lind, had a boxy hull, increasing cargo capacity.
When Peck and Hackett could not find a buyer for the new ship, they organized the Northwest Transportation Company, along with Hackett's brother and Harvey Brown, an agent for the Jackson Iron Company. Hackett established the company headquarters in Detroit, and hired Captain David Trotter to sail the Hackett. The ship was enrolled on March 31, 1870, in Detroit, and set off on her first voyage that spring.
Description
The R. J. Hackett was a wooden-hulled propeller ship, measuring 749 gross tons, with a length of , a beam of , and a depth of . The ship was originally powered by a steam engine placed all the way aft and connected to a propeller. In an 1883 retrofit, a compound steeple engine was installed.
The deckhouse with galley and crew quarters sat aft above the engine room, and a second deckhouse containing the captain's cabin and a pilothouse sat near the bow of the ship. The Hackett originally had two masts, which could be set with sail or used to support block and tackle when the ship was unloading. A line of hatches on centers, granting access to the hold, ran the length of the deck. A third mast was added in a later retrofit.