The American ship Pretoria was one of the largest wooden ships ever constructed. The Pretoria was a schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

-barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

, and 103 meters (338 ft) long, 13.4 meters (44 ft) wide and 7 meters (23 ft) in depth.

It was a barge built for use on the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 by James Davidson in West Bay City, Michigan

West Bay City, Michigan

West Bay City was a city in the U.S. state of Michigan.In 1905, West Bay City merged with Bay City, Michigan....

. The Saginaw, Michigan

Saginaw, Michigan

Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...

 newspaper The Courier-Herald described the Pretorias launch on July 26, 1900 in the following way:
To strengthen its wooden frame and hull, the Pretoria included steel keelson plates, steel chords, and steel arches. It was also diagonally strapped with steel. It needed a donkey engine to run a pump to keep its interior dry. The Pretoria sank in a storm in 1905.