2021.87.92

JOHN BAPTISTE MARTEL Saugatuck’s most prolific and best known “old time” builder of boats. Many photos of his boats have survived but unfortunately not a single photo of Mr. Martel is to be found. He has been described as small and wiry with slightly hunched bearing. I imagine him as a descendant of a tough French Canadian voyageur. He was born in lower Canada about 1834, and apprenticed as a lad in Lake Erie boatyards in the Buffalo, New York area. After the Civil War the country was moving west and Lake Michigan shipping was in the midst of a boom. Martel came to Saugatuck about 1872, looking to start a boat yard on the east shore of Lake Michigan. Stephen Morrison’s tannery waterfront property between Griffith and Mason Streets was a prime location and available. In later years, he moved the yard a block north to the area fronted by Water and Mason Streets. Martel built some fifty boats in his long career in this area. He was a true builder, not a financier-builder and not an owner-operator like many of the other men we will chronicle here. His specialty was the tugboat and he built some thirty five. These boats were generally 45 to 70 feet in length, steam powered, sturdy little work-horses that were much in demand in Great Lakes harbors. Chicago was a busy port and many were built for use there. Tugs were mostly used for pushing and pulling but many were used in the commercial fishing trade. At the Kalamazoo River mouth they were especially needed in the spring to pull vessels over the sandbars that had built up during the winter. John Baptiste and his wife Maryon had two children, John and May. They lived on the hill in Saugatuck in a home, purchased from lumberman W. B. Griffin in 1881, located on the corner of Main and Grand Streets. She died in 1899 and he in 1909. By Jack Sheridan

Remembering When

Winthers, Sally

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01/02/2022

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03/31/2024