Defoe Shipbuilding Company

The Defoe Shipbuilding Company was a small ship builder established in 1905 in Bay City, Michigan, United States.

From 1939 to 1945, the company built 154 ships, including four Auk-class minesweepers, 17 destroyer escorts (of those 3 were converted to APDs after serving as DEs for some time), 11 High speed transports (APDs) (converted destroyer escorts, but launched as such), patrol craft, and numerous landing craft of various types.

Of all of the major ships built there, the three that were lost in action during World War II were the destroyer escort Rich, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, and the patrol craft PC-1129.

They were both roughly based on U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh Steamship Company AA Class ship design and shared similar dimensions.

The Ojibway was originally built as the steamer Charles L. Hutchinson (2) for the Pioneer Steamship Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and entered service on September 24, 1952.

In 1988, Ford was in the process of eliminating its Great Lakes shipping fleet and sold the Breech to George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Marine of Cleveland, Ohio.

Her final owner (Lower Lakes Towing) began to operate the vessel on August 28, 2007, and renamed her Ojibway on February 29, 2008.

In December, 1956, Great Lakes Steamship started the process of selling off their fleet, and the Marshall was sold to The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Starting with the 1957 season, Northwestern Mutual chartered the ship to the Wilson Marine Transit Company of Cleveland, Ohio, who in turn renamed the vessel Joseph S. Wood.

In 1966, the charter agreement between Wilson and Northwestern Mutual was canceled, and the vessel was sold to the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Michigan, for $4.3 million (US).

The bow was launched July 27, 1972 and was towed to Erie by the tugs Maryland and Laurence C. Turner arriving October 6, 1972.

The final major project was the conversion of the 620' lake freighter Richard J. Reiss from steam to diesel power.