The Amazing Story of the Seeandbee
By James Donahue
Her strange name might keep you wondering until you understand who owned the Seeandbee. The 500-foot-long steel passenger liner was built at Wyandotte, Michigan for the Cleveland and Buffalo (C&B) Transit Company.
From the day it was launched in 1913 the Seeandbee enjoyed a successful career carrying passengers from Chicago to Buffalo and ports in between. The vessel was a side-wheel coal-burning excursion liner that offered capacity for as many as 1,500 passenger on its four decks. It was one of several popular cruise vessels travestying the lakes. In her day the Seeandbee was considered the largest and most elegant passenger steamer operating on the Great Lakes.
The C&B and D&C Lines shared dock space in Cleveland with a pier built at the end of Ninth Street. The fire that claimed a sister ship, the City of Buffalo in 1938, plus the Great Depression forced the C&B company into bankruptcy and liquidation the following year. The Seeandbee was sold to the Chicago-based C&B Transit Company which operated regularly through 1941. After this the war had its effect on this great ship and another liner, The Greater Buffalo, were sold to the US Navy for conversion as training aircraft carriers.
Even though both ships were coal powered and driven by side wheels, and they were too big to fit through the St. Lawrence River, they became unique naval vessels strictly used for training new pilots in landing and taking off again from carrier decks.
The Seeandbee was towed to Buffalo where crews worked around the clock stripping her of all the plush amenities, removing the superstructure and replacing it with a 550-foot-long wooden flight deck. There was no hanger below deck since the new carrier would only be used as a floating landing site for pilots in training. The vessel was then renamed the Wolverine in honor of the State of Michigan….the Wolverine State. The Greater Buffalo was similarly converted and renamed the Sable.
Commander George R. Fairlamb was assigned as the Wolverine’s commanding officer. Until the war ended the Wolverine and Sable, operating exclusively on Lake Michigan, logged over 135,000 landings and helped qualify 17,820 Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Among them was George Herbert Walker Bush who later became the nation’s 41st President.
After the war the Wolverine was decommissioned and moved back to Cleveland to be scrapped.
By James Donahue
Her strange name might keep you wondering until you understand who owned the Seeandbee. The 500-foot-long steel passenger liner was built at Wyandotte, Michigan for the Cleveland and Buffalo (C&B) Transit Company.
From the day it was launched in 1913 the Seeandbee enjoyed a successful career carrying passengers from Chicago to Buffalo and ports in between. The vessel was a side-wheel coal-burning excursion liner that offered capacity for as many as 1,500 passenger on its four decks. It was one of several popular cruise vessels travestying the lakes. In her day the Seeandbee was considered the largest and most elegant passenger steamer operating on the Great Lakes.
The C&B and D&C Lines shared dock space in Cleveland with a pier built at the end of Ninth Street. The fire that claimed a sister ship, the City of Buffalo in 1938, plus the Great Depression forced the C&B company into bankruptcy and liquidation the following year. The Seeandbee was sold to the Chicago-based C&B Transit Company which operated regularly through 1941. After this the war had its effect on this great ship and another liner, The Greater Buffalo, were sold to the US Navy for conversion as training aircraft carriers.
Even though both ships were coal powered and driven by side wheels, and they were too big to fit through the St. Lawrence River, they became unique naval vessels strictly used for training new pilots in landing and taking off again from carrier decks.
The Seeandbee was towed to Buffalo where crews worked around the clock stripping her of all the plush amenities, removing the superstructure and replacing it with a 550-foot-long wooden flight deck. There was no hanger below deck since the new carrier would only be used as a floating landing site for pilots in training. The vessel was then renamed the Wolverine in honor of the State of Michigan….the Wolverine State. The Greater Buffalo was similarly converted and renamed the Sable.
Commander George R. Fairlamb was assigned as the Wolverine’s commanding officer. Until the war ended the Wolverine and Sable, operating exclusively on Lake Michigan, logged over 135,000 landings and helped qualify 17,820 Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Among them was George Herbert Walker Bush who later became the nation’s 41st President.
After the war the Wolverine was decommissioned and moved back to Cleveland to be scrapped.