The Great Lakes whaleback fleet grew from Capt. Alexander McDougall's efforts to improve conventional ship design, and between 1888 and 1898 forty-three whalebacks were launched, becoming forerunners of today's bulk fleet on the Great Lakes. Thirty-nine whalebacks were built in Superior-Duluth, most launched from a site about one mile west of here, now the Fraser Shipyards. The S.S. Meteor was launched at Superior in 1896 as the Frank Rockefeller to carry iron ore, later served as the South Park carrying cargoes including grain and automobiles, and in 1943 was converted to an oil tanker and renamed Meteor. As a boy, Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Superior with his father to watch the launching of a whaleback, was swept into the slip by waves while trying to get a better view, and was rescued by a member of the Superior Fire Department before reaching deep water.
