North Star Port

6 | NORTH STAR PORT | SPRING 2026 "If we want to rebuild American mar- itime capability, we cannot think about ships in isolation," said Carmel. "We have to think about the system that produces ships—or more importantly, produces demand for ships." War drove that demand 108 years ago this spring, with German submarines torpedoing hundreds of Allied ships in the waters surrounding Britain, France and the Mediterranean. Europe's ship - yards couldn't keep pace with the losses, and American shipbuilding was just awakening from placid peacetime efforts to restore its merchant marine, shifting into a wartime frenzy under the Emergency Fleet Corporation. I n D u l u t h , 72 -ye a r - o l d Ca p t a i n Alexander McDougall, inventor of the distinctive whaleback cargo ship, sensed opportunity. He founded the McDougall-Duluth Shipbuilding Com- pany in 1917 and began building wartime freighters to meet urgent demand. His first two newbuilds splashed into the St. Louis River estuary between Morgan Park and West Duluth that July and November. Hull No. 1, christened the R.L. Barnes, survived decades of service around the globe. Hull No. 2, eventually known as Lake Moor, absorbed a German torpedo March 24, 1918, and sank with 46 crewmembers off the coast of Scotland. O n e m o n t h l a t e r, M c D o u g a l l launched a third newbuild for Brit- ain's Cunard Steamship Company. Originally named War Centaur, the ship was requisitioned immediately by the U.S. Shipping Board under the Urgent Deficiencies Act, rechristened Lake Traverse, and put into American trans-Atlantic service. ARLIER THIS SPRING, United States Maritime Administrator Stephen Carmel spoke at a conference in Connecticut and reset perspectives on an American shipbuilding renaissance. 1918 E Feeding Demand SEASONS OF YORE | By Jayson Hron McDougall, Duluth and the voyage of Lake Traverse

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