Ray enlisted the help of the NAACP in filing a complaint, and the State of Michigan charged the company with violating its civil rights law. When they threatened her with physical removal, she agreed to leave but not before throwing the proffered fare refund back at them and getting their names. Officers of the Boblo Excursion company then approached Ray and told her she had to leave due to her race. The ships became icons on the Detroit River and were greatly loved by the people of Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.Ĭolumbia became the setting for an historic Civil Rights battle in 1945 when a young African American woman named Sarah Elizabeth Ray joined her classmates for a celebratory graduation cruise aboard the ship. Both ships featured music and dancing, and snack bars. During the summer, the ship's triple decks would be filled with passengers enjoying the 90-minute, 18-mile (29 km) boat ride to the Boblo Island Amusement Park. Claire sailed down the Detroit River from downtown Detroit to Bois Blanc Island, an Ontario island that was home to an amusement park built as a destination for the steamers. Claire were originally joined by a third, SS Britannia, built in 1906. Claire, Put-in-bay, and Peter Stuyvesant, throughout the US.
Columbia influenced the design of later excursion steamers including Americana, Canadiana, Ste.
The naval architect Frank Kirby designed a new steel support system for Columbia that allowed for the spans needed for a dance floor, thus Columbia was the first steamboat in the US with a proper ballroom.
Claire was built in Toledo, Ohio, in 1910. ClaireĬolumbia was built in Wyandotte, Michigan, in 1902, and Ste. Columbia at Detroit, taken from deck of sister ship, Ste.
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