Fresh to Salt Water, 1960s

[Music] we are going to take you on a trip to Michigan going up Lake Michigan to The Straits of maau make a short visit to mol Island go down Lake huran past Alpena on down through here past Detroit and so on into Lake Erie and up to Buffalo start at Buffalo with the Erie Canal pass through the Eerie Canal here which winds and twists its way on down to the junction point near Albany which is the Hudson River down the Hudson River here and so on into New York the map is not shown takes us on to in the open sea to Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake Bay and this is one of the Indians that came down through the that great country there from Lake Michigan I presume that you know who he is and this is my brother Newton Rich the owner of this yacht we went on a very large 63t yacht we're leaving Holland Michigan that's Mrs wa Butler there waiting goodby to us early in the morning as we pulled out of Holland Michigan on our way to Mao Island other Yachts sit there you can see there's a little Haze in the air it's rather early in the morning of a hazy morning this is one of the things that you find out that you have to do on a yacht and often and that's scrub the decks do make very much difference whether you're in fresh or salt water except that in salt water you have to be continually taking the spray off of the salty spray and you need a shower bath every time you come into P the freshwat a little different notice the care with which he's cleaning this with his elbow that's elbow grease they call that here we are cleaning the rails not only spray but of course at night there's a lot of dew settles on your boat little horse play has to go on with it here and uh it's Mr and Mrs Frank Bush were a member of party we're now out in Lake Michigan and that's one of the big Freighters coming back of us there we'll get a closeup of that shortly Mr Bush are from Chicago and they've done a lot of yachting up in this area and also uh out in the ocean Here Comes one of the big lake freighter that most Michigan people have seen traveling along here carrying all sorts of things from grain to coal oil and many other products now we're on our way to Mao Island and guess we better have a little coffee for breakfast Bill Butler here is serving coffee so they all go downstairs and have cup of coffee little breakfast here one nice thing about a yacht you can have breakfast or coffee or lunch most anytime you want it another thing about a yacht you have to do your own washing here bill is uh doing his washing and uh I think it took him a few days to get his uh young son into the habit of handling some of his own washing very easy to rinse your washing when you're on a yacht like this especially in fresh water you just tie it on a rope and throw it out behind let the waves do the rest the most modern washing machine you can imagine Mr Bush here became quite an expert on this particular job we even let him do some of our work now this is Mao Island Mao Island as you know is located in Michigan in the streets of menol and it's very beautiful spot up there we spent the night there there you see one of the big Freighters going through the Straits just off the island a small passenger boat there is taking off for St ignis passenger boats uh fly between the island and both Mao City and St ignis you can see the dock on the left there that's where most of the Yachts tie up that's convenient Main Street it's also fairly near some of the larger hotels Old Fort Mino you see here is well known to those who have visited the island of course this is one of the old English forts or a replica thereof Block House up on the hill overlooking the park this is all Park in here now taken in the this picture was taken in the summer when the flowers are in bloom early summer another view of that place and this is Father marquette's statue he supposed to come up through this country and have visited m Island numerous times and they rected a statue to him there and this is a view of the Grand Hotel this supposed to be one of the largest summer hotels in the world if not the largest they're down here in the park that's below the hotel is the main drive going up to it course the that's steuart Woodfield waving his hand and taking off his hat he's the president of the Grand Hotel organization and of course no automobiles are allowed on Mao Island therefore horses are used to drive you around in these buggies rather fancy buggy some of them and you can visit any part of the island in one of those now this is a picture taking overlooking the Straits of Mao from the Grand Hotel porch they have what they call the longest porch in the world there it's certainly a long one don't recall the exact length but I think it's something over 1,000 ft Long Boat there going through the streets and some flowers planted in the box on the porch of the Grand Hotel beautiful country here in Michigan fact it's beautiful all through the Great Lakes area and uh many visitors come to Michigan to see such scenes as this that's looking out of the one of the windows of the hotel to the pool a freshwater pool below where the water isn't quite as cold as it is out in the stets of Mao this is taken down alongside of the pool a lot of people like to go up there and indulge in swimming here they are just suning themselves in some of the fancy chairs owned by the hotel in the pool or Park area down in front of the hotel and this is a little uh caddy house and restaurant out here on the golf course the Grand Hotel golf course at building way off to the left and up high is the governor's mansion the governor of Michigan whoever he may be has the use of that Governor's Mansion anytime he desires it and most Governors spend the summer up there conduct such business as they have from that location this also overlooks the streets this practically this entire golf course and uh you'll see some of the people taking off here a group of uh press people were up here on vacation when this particular film was made this is the arched rock this is a well-known spot on M Island most everyone was around to see the Arch Rock either they ride a bicycle around there around with a horse and buggy couple of ladies looking down into the water from Arch Rock and now we're headed down for the blue waterer bridge at port huran on our way down we stopped also at Alpena one of the way stations along the way place where you find a good stopping spot there's an automobile coming across the Blue Water Bridge from Canada this will give you a closeup of the bridge give you an idea of what a tremendous project that is another of view looking back at the Blue Water Bridge between Port uran and snia Ontario one of the larger factories there along the waterfront here's the owner of the boat coming up here to enjoy some of the sunshine he and uh Mr Butler there on the right this film was originally made as a family picture but after we got it done some of the folks who saw it thought that we ought to submit it for public inspection so therefore we put on a soundtrack so that others might have an opportunity to see it this is Cleveland here down past Detroit into Cleveland we stopped along at Several of these points at Detroit also at Cleveland Eerie before going into the Eerie Canal now here we're getting into The Canal at Buffalo little fussy in some parts of the canal about your taking pictures but uh they didn't seem to be too disappointed that I made that particular picture this is a picture of the boat which is a burger and as I mentioned is 63 ft long has twin diesels now we're in part of the upper part of the canal here and this trip took us uh 15 days Erie Canal is a very large and long canal and uh runs on from [Music] Buffalo over to the Hudson River and down the Hudson River to New York and uh and so doing it passes through many cities you notice here we're up above the fields we're we're higher than the fields other places were're lower some places this uh Canal follows the a route where it has been dug other places it passes through lakes and uh in some instances uh it uh follows the uh one of the famous rivers that it follows is the Mohawk River some of you have heard about that of course a so-called water level route that runs uh from the Great Lakes on down through to New York in general follows the these uh water level routs here but don't let that fool you into thinking that it's all water level because you have to go through 35 locks some of them up and some of them down there are many of these huge barges found in the yuie canal and they carry all kinds of products everything from uh wheat to uh oil and scrap ironing here we are going through one of the towns where there are many bridges across the canal these are are solid Bridges most of the bridges along the canal will raise or lower but these are all solid Bridges here or fixed Bridges have to be built bu high enough so that you can get under sometimes you wonder if you're going to make it that black looking object up there ahead is one of the shut off Gates a little closer to it now they they put these shut off Gates along the canal so that various spaced intervals they could if they wish shut the water off and maybe drain the canal for repairs or if they have a bad wreck on the canal sometimes they shut it off and traffic may be stopped at various intervals however there you can see the gate going down there they uh will raise these Gates uh soon as a yacht comes along blows a whistle they raise the gates here's some cattle we saw along the canal coming down for a drink and a boat comes along and the waves start to hit the shore here while they uh get up the bank in a hurry I we're down in one of the many locks some of these locks are as much as 39 ft in depth and when you get down in there you feel like you're in a regular Cavern however I will say that the people who handle the locks uh attempt to give you good service and uh supplying you with uh throwing lines to you and supplying you with such Aid as you need to get through through here's aat coming up here with a load of crushed [Music] stone kind of an old tug most of them are pushers on this canal that happens to be one that's being [Music] pulled but the Eerie Canal carries millions and millions of dollars worth of uh products here's a late afternoon scene along the canal as the sun was going down we were beginning to think of a place to tie up for the night it's generally quite easy if you make plans to get to a a fairly large town where you can tie up at night and have uh good Protection One thing that you'll have to do a lot of is putting these ropes out tying up to uh you notice the boat carries bumpers there you have to tie up to the alongside of many of these places to wait for a another boat to come through the locks or perhaps a huge scull like one you see here this uh scow that's coming out of here I think carried gasoline soon as that gets out of the way while we'll enter this lock and go on down to the different level there we're coming into the blck now after you get in there they require that you tie up at first you tie up to uh one of those uh huge iron rigs at the side and then as you go down in the lock there are various spots along the wall where you can take your line and tie to those the bumpers uh to keep you away but they have to be set from time to time in order to be at the right angle and it takes quite a bit of work on the part of at least a couple of people to shove the boat away from the wall as you go in there here's another barge coming in sometimes when you see these big barges you wonder if there's going to be room enough for you to get by but there generally is another thing that surprised you is that the men who run these boats seem to be able to put them in the locks in fact they seem to be built so they just about fit these locks when they get one of these big Fells in there there isn't much room at either end and you wonder how a a captain of one of those boats can run it in there and do such a perfect job as they do this is The Dauntless I don't know what he was carrying and may been carrying gas every once in a while one of these boats like the dawn lwell push the barge load up against a mud flat or something along the river and sometimes it's quite a chore to take out a loaded boat you notice that barge is hooked by cables to the back there and it has a big Bumper in front and uh although being in what seems like an awkward position they seem to get along pretty well well now that's a question of washing the mop here the mop is something that's uh very essential on a yacht because day after day you'll find yourself doing some mopping as you go along here you uh run into some hills rather high hills farther down the yuie canal much of the country is very flat but as you get pretty well along in the canal while you come to the hilly country well it's a real Road Track over there Railroad on each side once in a while you see a train go by in fact quite often you see one go by that'll give you an idea how much traffic there is between the East and and the U central part of the United States great amount of traffic goes over these lines here's uh one of the dams they have a lot of uh places where they have damned up up the canal and uh they use the power there's a small Powerhouse over there with a 30 or 40t head they can generate a considerable amount of power some places here now you'll notice this uh this is a long one here I think there's uh eight or 10 barges hooked on to this old fell carrying junk and a few passengers sitting back there I suppose they're enjoying a free ride I don't know but there are some homes along the canal various places you find a lot of beautiful summer homes especially when you get down along the Mohawk River now we're getting to a place where we drop very rapidly here I think this is one of the deeper locks as I recall it they ran into several locks here that were 35 40 ft 35 I think 39 in the fraction DEET the deepest but close to 40 looking down on the boat ears it came into a lock the old mop is working see them down there working away they headed for another lock hope they're able to make it down through here I guess they will sometimes in the larger locks we were in the lock at the same time as other boats but so many of the locks are rather small boat goes in here and the locks [Music] close they're all ready to let us down it doesn't take very long to go down you go down kind of fast captain his motor here's the port of Albany we're getting pretty well along here getting out pretty close to won't be long now we'll be in the Hudson River it's a very large Port awful lot of products go through here here we are again up above the level of the country around us seems kind of odd to be riding along in a boat and going through the hills that's just what they've done they've engineered this canal in such a way that you do travel through the hills in many places and the fields are way down below you incidentally this is one of the older canals in the country and uh I think one of the oldest in use New York state has a good many canals that been built and uh most of them are in used today because they carry a terrific amount of traffic coming up through the Atlantic Ocean it's loaded on barges at New York and brought through these canals into the Great Lakes sort of a shortcut you might say from the Atlantic saves going way out around and shipping by train this another close up one those big gate type locks have to raise this thing up for us to get through now we're down in one of the deep ones just like being down in the cavern there's a b ship saw this Battleship as we entered the Hudson River Fair the heels are growing higher we are now nearing West Point Military Academy which hangs here on the banks of the Hudson River it is here that many thousands of our young men come to learn to become officers in the United States Army even our president white D Eisenhower so we go on down the Hudson River Sun that along the [Music] Hudson any Bridges along the Hudson River very large bridges this is just one of the many we saw from the big ocean Freighters here little more rugged country you can see the Rocks here long come right down to the water almost young mountains some places they board a hole through the rock let trains come through they had to clear all that rock they just cut a hole and a tunnel now we had a lot of boats after the last World world war and you see some of them here this is what they did with them many places the these boats are tied up around the country from G of Mexico to the Hudson River and some in the west they've used this vast Bay here in the Hudson River to tie up the moth ball Fleet whether these boats will ever be used again or not is not known I suppose eventually some of them may be used for scrap but there are thousands and thousands of boats tied up around the world still owned by Uncle [Music] Sam and supposed to be in moth balls and available for use later on this is one of the little towns as we're coming into down towards New York this is uh New York City at daylight in the morning sun is just starting to come up as we pulled out of New York first part of our run out of New York some of you may recognize some of these buildings by the way was out into the Atlantic Ocean we made one run in the open ocean here before going into Delaware Bay we around what they call keep me in Bay [Music] there's another uh picture of a large Ferry Crossing I presume to the New Jersey side the sailboat here was uh come along behind us as we got out there so we made a short picture of that there's a bird came to visit us fly around here on the chair way out in the sea there some of the fishermen coming out [Music] and eventually we came on up through Delaware Bay to another Canal that leads to the Chesapeake Bay and this is ches Peak City here lots of boats tied up Plenty of Fish somebody must have come in and drop these fish on the dock here's some of the folks that were in the party I'm on the left Mr Butler Mr Bush brother of mine was the next one this is Billy Butler on the left my brother Fred on the extreme right wearing Mao Island hat I have it on now hats are a good gag for a trip like this you can have a lot of fun by wearing different kinds of hats when you get over in that country you're app the ocean Freighters rather large ocean Freighters here come up through Delaware Bay and come up and cross over to Baltimore various other cities uh Philadelphia and various towns along the Route they were said to be loading explosives here I was just as happy when we got past that one this is one of the canals this canal runs from Delaware Bay over to ches Peak Bay here's some Excursion boats coming out of Baltimore you can see the crowd down there I guess people still like to take advantage of an Excursion when the weather's warm this uh trip by the way was taken in September when the weather was warm here's another this is a foreign boat here some of them pass pretty close you can almost Reach Out And Touch him our captain seemed to know what he was doing didn't scratch any of them notice these huge gates in some places these Gates uh go about 75 ft in the air there's a man out there tonging oysters if you've never seen this done they reach down there with these long tongs get these oysters off the bottom of the bay here lots of oysters in this country you see some on the back of the boat there that's the way they do it it's like two rages put together they pull it up to the oysters out this is fishing here these men are taking the small fish out throwing them back still a lot of fish in this uh area of course ches Peake Bay and Delaware Bay are both connected to the ocean there lots of fish quite deep you can see those net Stakes or tops of them sticking out but they're down a long ways in the water this is a brother of mine from New Jersey and his wife they went along from on the trip from New York City on this Billy Butler our photographer Kevin boy now this is uh Annapolis see the capital there in the in the distance and uh I think you get a distant view here of the Naval Academy of course you know the great Naval Academy is located here we're tied up here to one of the do that's a picture of the boat there and that is a jellyfish if you've never seen one I suppose if that was down in Florida they'd call it a man of war but actually it's a different looking uh it's very soft creature but those long things back they pull across your arm when you're in swimming it give you some trouble that's the Naval Academy there some of the towers at the Naval Academy an idea of the Radio setup and the never ending job of cleaning the boat still goes on getting towards the end of the trip here now [Music] even shining up the windows everything be in Shi shape this is my sister who met the boat Mrs Chesley three Rich Brothers here and pretty soon you'll see their little sister hats we have on or some that they used it a celebration and here's that same old Indian that started the trip just a moment you'll see some others who have decided to join the same tribe at least hat wiv many kinds of [Music] Indians those mink Tails kind of tick you have to watch out for [Music] them Frank Bush my brother Newton the owner of the boat and this the C he said no more fresh water for him he's a salt water man [Music]