- Rig
- Mail boat / passenger and freight ferry
- Dates
- to 1937-01-01
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- maritimeshippingshipwrecksheritage
Summary
The Marold II was the Charlevoix–Beaver Island mail and passenger/freight boat used in the late-1936/early-1937 gasoline salvage operation described by the primary report. A 1976 Beacon retrospective traces her back to a 1911 private steel yacht built for automobile manufacturer Commodore Alexander Winton, before she came onto the Beaver Island run in 1933 and was bought by the newly formed Beaver Island Transit Company in 1935. She exploded while transferring gasoline from the stranded J. Oswald Boyd on New Year’s Day 1937 and sank almost immediately, killing five men. See Explosion and Loss of the Marold II for the disaster itself, including a since-verified 19 May 1937 report that a fourth body — Capt. L. L. Hill’s — was recovered, contradicting the primary report’s prediction that his body would never be found.
Origin as a private yacht
A 1976 Beaver Beacon retrospective series, “Boats To Beaver Island,” gives the fullest account held here of the vessel’s origin. She began as a private yacht, designed by the naval architects Cox and Stevens and built by John H. Dialogue & Sons of Camden, New Jersey, for Commodore Alexander Winton, the automobile manufacturer; launched in 1911, she was christened LaBelle. Measuring 145 feet with a clipper bow and fantail stern and a 19.1-foot beam, she was originally powered by three six-cylinder, 175-horsepower gasoline engines giving about 13 miles per hour; Winton later replaced these with two twelve-cylinder V-type Winton Diesel engines of his own design, raising her speed to about 15 miles per hour. Under Winton’s ownership she served as flagship of his fleet, cruising the Great Lakes from Erie to Superior. The same account states she came onto the Beaver Island run in 1933, following the departure of the “Ossian Bedell” for a Chicago World’s Fair excursion route and a brief interval on the “Ramblar.”
History
Undated Charlevoix Courier clippings held in a later scrapbook compilation describe the Marold II as the Charlevoix–Beaver Island mail boat across several seasons before the explosion, its exact chronology not established here. One clipping records Capt. John Chambers, formerly master of the St. James Sanford on the same route, holding the mail contract before it passed to Capt. L. L. Hill running the Marold II; another records Everett Cole, identified as an St. James merchant, winning a four-year U.S. Postal contract for the Charlevoix–Beaver Island run as low bidder. Other clippings describe the Marold II alternating seasonally with the Bainbridge, wintering at Manitowoc, Wisconsin; going aground in fog near Big Rock Point and returning undamaged; breaking a propeller bucket in heavy ice and going to drydock at Manitowoc; and carrying excursion parties, livestock, and freight on the Charlevoix run. The January 1937 primary report independently states that Everett Cole, by then head of the Beaver Island Transit Company, “recently had purchased the Marold II from Capt. Hill, Milwaukee, Wis., lake skipper” — consistent with the undated clippings’ picture of Hill operating the boat before Cole’s ownership and mail contract, and consistent with the January 1977 Beacon installment’s statement that the Beaver Island Transit Company was formed in 1935 around the vessel’s purchase, with a founding board of Everett Cole, Hugh Rowland, Bruce McDonough, Lloyd McDonough, and Nels J. LaFreniere, and with Hill and his son Leon retained by the new company. That same account describes her schedule (three runs weekly in spring and fall, daily in summer, three hours dock to dock) and her cabin accommodations: leather-cushioned benches along the sides, but, “for some unknown reason,” no stanchions or hand holds for passengers in rough weather. An August 1936 Charlevoix County Herald advertisement independently confirms her still running the Charlevoix–St. James route that summer, on a Thursday–Saturday schedule, five months before the explosion. A February 1977 installment of the same retrospective series describes the vessel’s 17,000-gallon carrying capacity as the reason the Boat Company saw the gasoline-salvage operation as a bonus for the 1936 season, and records that board member Nels LaFreniere objected to the arrangement and sold his stock in the company as a result; a temporary gasoline storage tank was set up at the foot of Antrim Street in Charlevoix to receive the salvaged fuel. A 1966 birthday notice for Mary “Vesty” McDonough separately names her son Bruce McDonough — the same Boat Company board member — among the five men lost in the explosion.
Evidence and limits
The held sources disagree about the vessel’s exact length: a 2003 local
history says 40 feet, while a 1997 caption, a separate undated Courier
clipping (“The ill-fated Marold, 140 ft. yacht converted for use as a
pas-[senger and freight vessel]”), and the 1976 Beacon origin account (145
feet) all describe a considerably larger vessel. Three sources naming a
length in the 140-145-foot range, against the 2003 account’s single
40-foot figure, suggest the latter may be a transcription or printing error,
but the record intentionally leaves the coordinates/dimension fields blank
rather than adopt a specific figure no source here states as an enrollment
or registry number. The sources also describe ownership in different stages
— Capt. L. L. Hill and his son Leon as owners before 1935, and Everett Cole
and the Beaver Island Transit Company’s board as purchasers from Hill in
1935 — so owned_by remains empty pending a specific ownership-transfer
record. The undated scrapbook clippings used above are held only as later
compiled reprints, without confirmed original publication dates, so no year
is asserted for the mail-contract or Bainbridge-rotation events they
describe; the 1976-77 Beacon retrospective series is itself a forty-years-on
recollection assembled from contributor memory and prior reporting, not a
contemporary record, and its precise sourcing for the LaBelle origin story
is not stated.
Open questions
- What enrollment, inspection, or ferry-company record identifies the vessel and resolves its dimensions?
- What became of the wreck after it sank at Simmons Reef?
- What are the original publication dates of the undated Charlevoix Courier clippings describing the Marold II’s mail-route service, and can they be sequenced against the confirmed September 1935 Beaver Island Transit Company purchase?
- What is the origin of the 1976 Beacon retrospective’s LaBelle/Commodore Winton account, and does an independent yacht registry or Cox and Stevens design record corroborate it?
See also
Sources
- Charlevoix County Herald, January 8, 1937, “Coast Guards Abandon Search for Three Men Missing in Marold II Explosion.”Calls Marold II a mail boat and salvage boat, says it was operated by the Beaver Island Transit Company, and reports that it sank almost immediately after the explosion. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Charlevoix Courier, 2003, “Many ferries have served the island,” scrapbook section.Calls the Marold a 40-foot yacht converted for passenger and freight service by Capt. L. L. Hill and his son Leon. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Charlevoix Courier, January 1997, “Ship explosion recalled on 60th anniversary,” scrapbook section.Describes Marold II as the larger replacement for the Ramblar in the gasoline salvage operation and records the explosion and loss of five lives; a separate caption’s 140-foot measurement conflicts with the 2003 40-foot description and is not adopted. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Retrospectively describes the Marold II’s 1925 raising and conversion for passenger/freight service, Hill-White and Hill Transit ownership, and September 1935 purchase by the newly formed Beaver Island Transit Company. It does not supply a vessel registry or purchase instrument. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-04_Beaver-Beacon
- The held issue confirms the retrospective vessel account and illustration.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1976-04_Beaver-Beacon
- Charlevoix Courier scrapbook compilation, undated clippings ("Awarded 4-Year Mail Contract for Beavers," "Navigation to Island Opened Monday," "Rambler on Island Route for Marold II," "Bainbridge Concludes Season's Operations," "Marold II Goes to Drydock for Repair," "Marold II Undamaged When Grounded in Fog").Undated clippings, held only as later compiled reprints with no confirmed original publication date, describing the Marold II's Charlevoix-Beaver Island mail-route service across multiple seasons -- alternating with the Bainbridge, wintering at Manitowoc, a fog grounding near Big Rock Point, a drydock repair, and Everett Cole winning a four-year mail contract as low bidder, succeeding Capt. John Chambers of the St. James Sanford. No year is asserted from this source. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Charlevoix Courier scrapbook compilation, "The Marold Blew Up on New Years Day 1937."A second, independent local retrospective (distinct from the 1997 and 2003 items already cited) calls the vessel a "140 ft. yacht converted for use as a pas[senger and freight vessel]," corroborating the 1997 caption's 140-foot figure against the 2003 account's 40 feet. Names Capt. L. L. Hill and son Leon as operators and confirms the New Year's Day 1937 date and Straits of Mackinac/reef location. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Charlevoix Courier scrapbook compilation, "Thirty Years Ago Jan. 1 Marks Anniversary of Burning of Marold II" (1967 retrospective).A 1967 thirtieth-anniversary retrospective gives Capt. L. L. Hill's age as 63 (a third figure, against the primary report's 79 and 83), lists all five victims by name and age, misdates the explosion to "Jan. 1, 1936" despite its own thirty-years-from-1967 framing, and says only the two Cole brothers' bodies were recovered aboard the tanker -- a claim the 19 May 1937 "Recover Fourth Body" report (cited on the event article) later revised. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Charlevoix County Herald, August 14, 1936, "Beaver Island" schedule advertisement.Prints the summer 1936 schedule for "M. S. Marold II": leaving Charlevoix 9:00 a.m., arriving St. James 12:20 p.m.; leaving St. James 5:00 p.m., arriving Charlevoix 8:20 p.m., "Every Thursday-Saturday Evening" -- a dated operating record five months before the explosion. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Retrospective series installment describing the "Ossian Bedell's" departure for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair run and the "Ramblar" filling the gap before "the ill-fated 'Marold II' came on the scene to write the most dramatic chapter in the long line of boats to Beaver Island," placing her arrival on the run in 1933. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Retrospective series installment giving the vessel's origin: designed by Cox and Stevens, Naval Architects, built by John H. Dialogue & Sons of Camden, New Jersey, for Commodore Alexander Winton (the automobile manufacturer), launched in 1911 and christened "LaBelle." States she measured 145 feet with a clipper bow and fantail stern, 19.1-foot beam, originally three six-cylinder 175-horsepower gasoline engines (13 mph), later replaced by two twelve-cylinder V-type Winton Diesel engines of Winton's own design (15 mph), and served as flagship of Winton's fleet cruising the Great Lakes from Erie to Superior. Also states the "Marold II" came onto the Beaver Island run in 1933 under Capt. Ludlow L. Hill and son Leon as engineer, revising the February installment's account. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-03_Beaver-Beacon
- Retrospective series installment naming the Beaver Island Transit Company's founding board -- Everett Cole, Hugh Rowland, Bruce McDonough, Lloyd McDonough, and Nels J. LaFreniere -- formed in 1935 around the purchase of the "Marold II," with previous owner Capt. L. L. Hill and son Leon retained by the new company. Describes the vessel's schedule (three runs weekly spring and fall, daily in summer, three hours dock to dock) and cabin accommodations (leather-cushioned benches, no stanchions or hand holds). The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-01_Beaver-Beacon
- Retrospective series installment on the gasoline-salvage operation: the vessel's 17,000-gallon carrying capacity was seen as a bonus for the 1936 season; Nels LaFreniere objected and sold his Boat Company stock; a temporary storage tank was set up at the foot of Antrim Street in Charlevoix for the salvaged gasoline. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-02_Beaver-Beacon
- Names her son Bruce McDonough among those lost "in the explosion of the motor vessel, Marold" -- corroborating Bruce McDonough, named as a Boat Company board member in the January 1977 installment above, as one of the five victims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1966-10_Beaver-Beacon
Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Marold II”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/vessels/marold-ii-1937/, accessed [date], citing Charlevoix County Herald, January 8, 1937, “Coast Guards Abandon Search for Three Men Missing in Marold II Explosion.” (and 13 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.