Steamship William G. Mather

A 1925 Great Lakes freighter, preserved as a floating museum

Address 601 Erieside Avenue

The William G. Mather is a 618-foot Great Lakes bulk freighter, launched in 1925 and retired in 1980, that now serves as a floating museum on the Cleveland lakefront. Visitors can walk the deck, climb the pilothouse, descend into the gigantic engine room (still complete with original steam turbine), and step into the surprisingly civilised guest quarters reserved for company executives and their wives.

The Mather is operated as part of the Great Lakes Science Center campus and tickets are bundled with the museum, though you can buy a Mather-only ticket. Open seasonally — usually May through October — and closed in winter when ice on the lake makes the gangway unsafe.

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A story
The Mather was the flagship of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company fleet for most of the 20th century and the first freighter on the Great Lakes to be equipped with radar in 1946. The vessel ferried iron ore from Minnesota down to Cleveland's steel mills for over six decades — a single round trip loaded enough ore to make 9,000 cars.

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