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SS Howard L. Shaw

Great Lakes freighter

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ48814573
Source-derived summary

Howard L. Shaw was a propeller driven freighter that operated on the Great Lakes of North America from her launching in 1900 to her retirement 1969. She is currently serving as a breakwater in Ontario Place on Lake Ontario.

Design and construction

Howard L. Shaw was built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company of Wyandotte, Michigan. Her hull had an overall length of 451 feet (137.5 m) and a length between perpendiculars of 428 feet (130.5 m), a beam of 51.5 feet (15.7 m), and was 28 feet (8.5 m) deep. She had a gross tonnage of 4,901, and a net tonnage of 3,802. She was driven by a 1,150 hp (860 kW) triple expansion steam engine, with two coal–fired Scotch marine boilers providing steam. Howard L. Shaw was launched on 15 September 1900 as hull #136.

Service history

She entered service for the Eddy-Shaw Transit Company of Bay City, Michigan, the year she was built. On 1 November 1900, Howard L. Shaw loaded 260,000 bushels of flax in Duluth, Minnesota which was a new port record. The cost of the cargo was valued at $468,000.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “SS Howard L. Shaw” as great Lakes freighter. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1900, 1969—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Howard, Shaw and Great can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as great Lakes freighter. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48814573. Authority coordinates are 43.626, -79.417. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1900 and 1969.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “SS Howard L. Shaw”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow SS Howard L. Shaw primary sources, SS Howard L. Shaw archive and Howard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from SS Howard L. Shaw” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.