The George Barnes Memorial Wheelhouse (SS FERNGLEN)

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In 1917, the American Ship Building Company of Lorain, Ohio built and launched the William A. Amberg. Throughout her nearly seventy years of service, the Amberg took on new lives, served new masters and charted many adventures as a Great Lakes Bulk Freighter.

1917

William A. Amberg

M. A. Hanna Co.,  (Producers' SS Co.)

Cleveland, Ohio

1932

Albert E. Heekin

Wilson Transit  Co., 

Cleveland, Ohio

1955

Silver Bay

Republic Steel Corp., 

Cleveland, Ohio

1971

Silver Bay

Kinsman Marine Transit Co., 

Cleveland, Ohio

1975

Judith M. Pierson

Pierson Holdings Limited (The Soo River Company), 

St. Catherines, Ontario

1982

Fernglen

Parrish & Heimbecker Limited, 

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Ultimately, Parrish & Heimbecker deemed she had reached the end of her useful life as a Great Lakes ship and she was sold for scrap on May 1, 1984. The Fernglen, as she was now known, was scrapped at Port Maitland Shipbreaking, Ltd. in Ontario.

"We laid up in Toronto that winter, and I was the last Captain to sail the Fernglen. She stayed there tied up alongside Pineglen, and a few years later, both ships went to the scrapyard.

After P&H bought out the bankrupt Soo River Company, they scrapped their smaller ships, such as Birchglen, Cedarglen, Fernglen, Pineglen and Elmglen, replacing them with  Oakglen, Willowglen, Beechglen and Mapleglen."

Captain Richard D. Metz

In 2019, after the wheelhouse section had sat in the scrapyard for many years, the scrapyard owner, George Barnes, offered it to the Port Burwell Historical Society for rescue. The intent,  transport it from Port Maitland to Port Burwell and install it at Pitt Street to add to the exhibit space for the Marine Museum.

Unfortunately, the plans to restore the Wheelhouse as an artifact dedicated to the shipping and commerce of the Great Lakes Bulk Freighters had to be put on hold due to the COVID pandemic.