The steamship SS Ste. Claire was launched at the yards of the Toledo Shipbuilding Company along Lake Erie. The vessel was built by that company for the Detroit, Belle Isle, & Windsor Ferry Company (DBI&W), which had been established in 1881.
DBI&W used its fleet of vessels to transport tourists and commuters alike to and from Detroit (including that city’s island park of Belle Isle) and the city of Windsor in the Canadian province of Ontario. Starting in 1898, the company also provided ferry service to Bois Blanc Island (popularly known as “Bob-Lo”) in the part of the Detroit River that is on the Canadian side of the border. Ste. Claire was constructed as one of the excursion steamers for those destinations. This vessel was designed for DBI&W by renowned naval architect Frank E. Kirby.
A couple of months or so before the launch of the steamer, a contest was held to give her a name. Detroit resident Emma McTavish won the contest by suggesting that the new vessel be named after Lake St. Clair between Michigan and Ontario. In 1679, French explorer René Robert Cavelier had given that freshwater lake its present-day appellation after first seeing it on what happened to be the feast day of Saint Clare of Assisi. (Her name is sometimes spelled as Claire; Ste. is the abbreviation for “Sainte,” the French word for “Saint.”) McTavish received ten dollars for her winning submission…