The SS Columbia, one of the beloved but battered Boblo boats, has left Detroit for what is likely the last time, writes Dan Austin in the Free Press.
Shortly after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the steamer left her longtime home in Ecorse, yanked away by tugs to Toledo. It is there that the nonprofit Columbia Project will lift the ship out of water, move it into drydock and get her shipshape again. Or at least shipshape enough to make the trek to New York state by next August. The Columbia Project has spent years working on a plan to return the boat to service in the Hudson River Valley -- and will spend some $10 million to $20 million to do it.
That means Detroit has likely seen the last of the SS Columbia.
