SS Badger Exchanging Salutes with Type B Diaphone Horn

The ‪@SSBadgerFerry‬ 2022 sailing season came to a close on October 16th and I wanted to close out the season by exchanging salutes on her final departure from Manitowoc!
The ship's reply to the master salute (3 long, 2 short) features the ship's original steam horn (a Tyfon 300) on the 2 short blasts. The chime horn is a Kahlenberg T4 air horn. Kahlenberg is located in Two Rivers - 10 miles north of here. Kahlenberg is the location of this diaphone's first test-soundings after restoration...AND the location that first sounded the Titanic's whistles after they were pulled from the depths of the Atlantic and restored. I digress...
The SS Badger and the other rail ferries of her time were instrumental in the economic development of the area. From the first car-ferries of the 1880s until the Badger sailed out of Kewaunee for the last time in 1990, the ships of Lake Michigan rail ferry service transported tens of thousands of rail cars, and millions of tons of cargo across the lake.
Since 1992, the Badger has sailed again between Manitowoc, WI and Ludington, MI, carrying passengers and automobiles and semis. The continued sailing of the SS Badger not only allows a shortcut across Lake Michigan for passengers and any size vehicle, it also helps stimulate the economies of the cities it serves.
She's a National Historic Landmark, an actual floating highway and it also carries the distinction of being the last coal fired passenger ferry in the US.
Hopefully it remains that way.
Being in the engine room and even pilothouse is like stepping back into the 1950s. It is a living, breathing, steaming museum.
Hopefully this museum keeps steaming for years to come.
I've been asked many times where my passion for the Great Lakes began, and I can tell you without a doubt it began with this ship and Captain Dean Hobbs. I sailed on the Badger for the first time as a young kid in 1995. While walking the ship with my dad, I met Dean. He took us to the pilothouse and engine room, inviting us back up when we came into Manitowoc at night.
A couple years later, we took the trip again, and again I saw Dean. Each time I traveled and saw him, he'd show us a different part of the ship, usually ending up in the pilothouse for docking.
Shortly after I met my wife, we brought our young son and took a Boatnerd cruise and stayed overnight on the ship in Ludington. Again, Dean hooked me up and I got to film the engine room on departure the next morning. You can find that video on this channel.
That cruise was unfortunately the last time I saw Dean. Captain Dean Hobbs passed away in November of 2013.
After having restored this diaphone and brought it to salute the ship that sparked everything, it's really allowed me an opportunity to remember how it all began. Thank you, Dean. 3 & 2.