Fred Hartwell is Launched

On This Day | Posted by: Tedd Long | 04/04/2026

1908: The 524-foot lake freighter Fred G. Hartwell is launched at Toledo Shipbuilding Company. The 514 feet long, 58 feet wide steel freighter was originally owned by Mutual Steamship Co. of Duluth, Minnesota. Mutual sold the vessel in 1915 to Headwaters Steamship Company of Cleveland and they renamed it Harry W. Croft in 1917. Over the next 60 years, the vessel was owned and operated by several different companies before being scrapped in Spain in 1969.

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