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Capt. John Bissell poses near the bow of the Badger.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of cross-lake service out of Ludington. The service began in 1875, a year after the completion of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway, which terminated in Ludington. Initially, break-bulk freighters were used — a process that required freight to be unloaded at the dock, placed on the ship, then unloaded at the other dock. Carferry service, which involved transporting rail cars across Lake Michigan, started in Ludington in 1897.
To celebrate the sesquicentennial year of one of the most important events in Mason County’s history, MCP is running a series of articles on the history of the railroad and the carferries.
John and Theresa Bissell
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
Captain John Bissell served the Ludington carferries from 1953 until his retirement in 1985. Bissell was one of the last three rail ferry captains in the Ludington fleet, the last captain to command the SS Spartan and the first captain to take the SS Badger out of Ludington on its maiden voyage under Lake Michigan Carferry Service in 1992 (though unofficially). Even death could not keep him off one of his beloved boats. Bissell’s service to the carferry fleet, and his legacy as a father and grandfather, is memorialized on a Facebook page maintained by his family.
John Francis Bissell was born on March 4, 1924 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Joseph Bissell (1885-1955) and Anna (McFadden) Bissell (1890-1974). Joseph Bissell was a commercial fisherman. When John was a child, the family moved to Charlevoix, Michigan, where they owned and operated a commercial fishing business. Growing up, John worked in the family business, in Charlevoix and on Beaver Island, repairing fishing nets and fishing with his father and brothers.
He attended school in Charlevoix where he played football and swam, among other sports. There, he met Theresa LaBlance (1926-1994), who he later married.
“My dad used to tell the story that when he was in school he would stare out the window,” John’s son, Dan said. “The teacher would scold him and say, ‘John, what kind of a career do you think you can have staring out of a window all day?’ Little did that teacher know that that would be exactly be what my dad would end up doing.”
After graduating high school in 1942, Bissell joined the U.S. Navy where he became a swimming instructor for naval pilots at Naval Air Station Ottumwa in Ottumwa, Iowa, with the rank of coxswain.
Capt. Bruce Masse, left, poses with John and Theresa Bissell on the Badger’s maiden voyage under ownership of LMC in 1993.
On Jan. 26, 1945, John and Theresa were married, prior to John shipping out to the Philippines.
“As the war started to wind down, the Navy no longer had a need for swimming instructors,” Dan Bissell said. “Since my dad’s brother was already serving in a combat zone, the Navy sent him somewhere away from active combat. So, he went to the Philippines.”
Under the command of General Douglas McArthur, US forces retook the Philippines from Japan in October 1944.
Following the end of World War II, John Bissell was honorably discharged and returned to Charlevoix where he continued in the family fishing business, working for Theresa’s parents, George LaBlance (1885-1951) and Laura (Sendenburg) LaBlance (1892-1954), who owned an American Indian fishing business. He then left the fishing business and got a job working for the Michigan State Ferries that operated between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. However, with the construction of the Mackinac Bridge (which opened in 1957) he knew he wouldn’t have a long-term job, Dan said.
John then worked on the 678-foot freighter Wilfred Sykes, which had launched in 1949. The ship was the largest ship on the Great Lakes at the time. The Sykes continues to operate.
Capt. John Bissell in command of a carferry
In 1952, John worked as a watchman and wheelsman onboard the W.E. Fitzgerald, which was under the command of Theresa Bissell’s uncle, Capt. Albert LaBlanc (whose last name was spelled without an “e” compared to Theresa’s maiden name of LaBlance). The 440-foot W.E. Fitzgerald had launched in 1906 and operated until 1971.
“Mom didn’t want Dad working on the ships because he was gone too much,” Dan said. At that point, the Bissells had three children with one on the way. So, in late 1952, John took a job as a conductor for the C&O Railroad and moved his family to Ludington. That lasted six months. He then began his career on the C&O’s carferry fleet. His first assignment was to the Pere Marquette 21, which had been scheduled for a long-term reconstruction project at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The boat would be lengthened and installed with new steam engines.
“When a ship was sent over to the shipyard, the entire crew went with her,” Dan Bissell said. “So, Dad moved the entire family over to Manitowoc and that’s where I was born.”
The Pere Marquette 21 was built in 1924 at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. It was originally 347.9-feet long and 56.2-feet wide. In 1937, it was lengthened to 387.9-feet long by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. It was originally built with two triple expansion engines that operated at 2,700 hp. In 1953, in an effort to increase the speed of all the carferries in the fleet (to keep up with the newest three ships — City of Midland 41, SS Spartan and SS Badger) the other ships’ speeds were increased. The PM 21’s engines were replaced with two steeple compound Unaflow engines built by Skinner Engine Co. of Erie, Pennsylvania. They now could operate at 4,500 hp. Its boilers were also replaced.
Also in 1953 the SS Badger made its debut. Its sister ship, the Spartan, had began service in 1952.
The family then moved back to Ludington in 1953 after the PM 21 returned to service. The Bissells initially lived on the corner of Madison and Sixth streets in a house owned by one of the carferry captains.
In the late 1950s, John and Theresa bought a house on the corner of Staffon and Brother streets. John and Theresa Bissell raised their six children, Mary, Joseph, John, Daniel, and Laura, there. Later, in the early 1970s, they built a house on Hackert (Crystal) Lake in Amber Township.
Family was a top priority for John Bissell
In December 1956, John became a licensed deck officer. He served as third mate on all seven of the Ludington carferries that were operating at that time. He then rose up to second mate and eventually first mate.
“He would work 20 days on and eight days off, plus vacation time,” Dan said. “During those eight days off, Dad was completely devoted to his family. We loved to travel and camp. Because the carferries ran 365 days a year, my family would often spend holidays onboard the boats.”
As the carferry business began to slow down, John started to explore other maritime careers, Dan said. “He considered working as a maritime pilot on the Panama Canal or on the Mississippi River.”
Capt. Bissell on the Badger
On March 6, 1975, John Bissell earned his captain’s license, which opened up an opportunity to become a relief captain for the C&O fleet, which including the Ludington Lake Michigan carferries and the Detroit River ferries. He also worked for the Grand Truck Railway which operated the carferries Madison and City of Milwaukee out of Muskegon.
The City of Milwaukee and Madison were the same style ship as the PM 21 and PM 22. The ships were known as the “Manitowoc Six”, as the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. built six carferries of the same style. The other ships included the Grand Trunk’s Grand Rapids, built in 1926, and the Ann Arbor Railway’s Ann Arbor No. 7, built in 1925.
Capt. John Bissell was the last person to command the Madison before it was decommissioned in 1976.
The City of Milwaukee is the only “Manitowoc Six” ship that survives and operates as a museum ship in Manistee (read more here).
In July 1983, the last remaining Ludington carferries, the City of Midland 41, Badger, and Spartan, were sold by the C&O to Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Co., owned by Ludington businessmen Glen Bowden and George Towns. Initially, M-WT operated one route, sending the City of Midland to Kewaunee year-round. In 1984, it operated a second run, sending the Badger to Milwaukee for the summer season. However, that route had minimal results and was cancelled after only one season. Capt. Bissell was the last to skipper a Ludington-based carferry, the Badger, on the Milwaukee route.
John Bissell retired on Sept. 28, 1985. He made his last trip as captain of the City of Midland on its Kewaunee trip.
Capt. Bissell stands at the stern of the Spartan
“He loved being on the water and in the water,” Dan Bissell said of his father. “He loved to garden and sail his small boat on Crystal Lake. He enjoyed talking about the carferries; the stories he told us were amazing, about storms, being stuck in the ice for days and all of the people he worked with.”
Capt. John Bissell poses in the pilot house of one of the carferries.
Though retired, John Bissell had the honor of taking command of a carferry, the Badger, one last time. Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation was a valiant effort to save the Ludington carferries, but ultimately was not profitable. In 1990 M-WT stopped operations. In 1991, Holland, Michigan millionaire and Ludington native Charles Conrad purchased the three ferries for $500,000.
Lake Michigan Carferry began operations on May 15, 1992 when the Badger sailed out of Ludington to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Riding the ship that day was retired Capt. John Bissell who made his way to the pilot house.
“As the ship left the dock, Capt. Bruce Massey turned to my dad and said, ‘She’s all yours, Captain. Take her out,” Dan Bissell said. So, Capt. John Bissell was the first captain to operate the Badger under the flag of Lake Michigan Carferry.
In 1994, John’s wife Theresa, passed away. In 1997, he married Rose St. Cyr.
John Bissell passed away, at the age of 88, on Jan. 2, 2013 in Dade City, Fla. In a final tribute, Bissell’s ashes were taken aboard the Badger and traveled to Manitowoc and back to Ludington. Following the trip, Capt. Dean Hobbs delivered the flag that had been flown on the Badger that day to the Bissell family.
Capt. John Bissell is buried in Charlevoix next to his first wife, Theresa.
Photos and information submitted by Daniel Bissell with further information from Mason County Historical Society.
Read about the history of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway here.
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