The S.S. Willis B. Boyer launched in 1911. The ship was the biggest, the most technically advanced and had the largest tonnage capacity of all the lake freighters.

The ship is 617 feet long (more than two football fields laid end to end), 64 feet wide, and has a bulk cargo capacity of 15,000 tons - the ship itself weighs nearly 10,000 tons.

When launched, the ship was coal-fired and the crew size was 39. In later years the boat was converted to fuel oil, which does not have to be shoveled, and the crew declined to about 28.

The Boyer served from 1911 through the end of the 1980 shipping season, when she was among several ships retired. She was the largest of them all in 1911. By 1980, she was among the smallest in the American fleet! The largest Great Lakes freighter is 1,017 feet long - 400 feet longer than the Boyer.

Owners sought ways to recover some of the value of their retired ships. A sister of the Boyer was scrapped and became nearly “10,000 tons of razor blades.”

When the Boyer was first launched it was christened the S.S. Colonel James Schoonmaker in honor of the president of the Shenengo Furnace Company, the original owners. In later years, the ship became part of the Cleveland cliffs Shipping Co. fleet.

The S.S. Willis B. Boyer is permanently docked at International Park - which is significant. International Park was originally the primary coal handling facility of the Port of Toledo. It was in relation to the to Port of Toledo prior to the port's relocation and expansion in Maumee Bay.
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