The Louis R. Davidson was the first steel bulk freighter built in Ashtabula, Ohio, and only the second large steam vessel constructed in Ashtabula, prior to the Davidson, the last large steam-powered vessel built in the harbor was the Washington, a side-wheel steamship built in the years of 1837 and 1838!
The Davidson was Hull 95 of the Great Lakes Engineering Works, who had only recently made Ashtabula it's third location, after the failure of their St. Clair works, needing a bigger space for repair and drydock work. Her keel was laid on October 30th, 1911, and finally launched on April 6th, 1912. She was 504 ft, with a beam (width) of 56ft, and a depth of 30ft.
The launch of the Davidson was a huge event, the city, and the railroads prepared for the influx of people. Up to ten-thousand people came to see the spectacle, minus her owners, Boland & Cornelius, and her namesake, Louis R. Davidson, a New York State industrialist that owned the Davidson Ore Mining Company, and was a director of the American Steamship Company, he was sick at the time of the launching.The Davison was christened by Lola Remick, daughter of Perry Remick, who was the president of the Ashtabula Chamber of Commerce at the time.
A few notable figures were at the launching, including John R. Paine, and Albert Field, both retired lake captains. Paine, 88, recalled seeing logs being hauled to the harbor by farmers, the logs to be used in the growing shipbuilding trade in Ashtabula. Another was J. H. Rice, who had brought a special item to the launching: the figurehead of the last large steamship built in Ashtabula, the Washington, his grandfather, J. D. Hulbert, had partly owned the Washington.
In her first year, she was commanded by Hugh McCann, her chief engineer being Charles W. Holtz, under the flag of the Yale Transit Company (part of the American Steamship Company) The Davidson would go on to have a 67-year career on the Lakes, she would be converted in 1932 to a self-unloader, and being renamed to Diamond Alkali, then renamed again in 1939 to Dow Chemical. She’d have that name until 1963, when she was sold Canadian, to Leadale Shipping Ltd., of Port Credit, Ontario, and renamed Ferndale. In 1971, she was converted to oil firing.
Her career would end in 1979, originally being sold to Marine Salvage in Port Colborne, Ontario, before being resold to a scrapyard in Spain, and towed overseas, arriving there in August of 1979, being scrapped soon after.