ZIP 48222

April 13, 2021 6:23 PM

The J. W. Westcott II is the only boat contracted by the US Postal service to deliver mail and packages to Great Lakes freighters and others as they navigate the Detroit River.

The J. W. Westcott Company was "founded in 1874 when its main job was vessel reporting — telling companies, and the families of sailors, where their ships and loved ones were." (NYT link). As with many longtime shipping businesses on the Great Lakes , it has tragically lost a vessel, but has rebounded to continue its delivery service. Pictures of its nautical delivery service through the years can be found here; there is also a primordial previously. Clint Eastwood fans will note that there are other mail boats in service, but they don't have their own ZIP codes.

posted by TedW (14 comments total)

I'm going to go ahead and get a little pedantic on my own post and point out that the Jalopnik article claims that the boat got its own ZIP in 1948, which if true would mean it also had the first ZIP code in the US, a good 15 years before everyone else got one.
posted by TedW at 6:37 PM on April 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

I once lived in a place with a direct line of sight (and that was a short stroll) to the Detroit River (on the Canadian side), right beside the Ambassador Bridge, and saw this boat in action a bunch of times! I started wondering what the deal was with the boat that pulled up to freighters, and started asking around, and found out it was a mail boat, but didn't know much more than that. Thanks for this!

There's a great delivery run video from on board the boat via Boatnerd.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:37 PM on April 13, 2021 [7 favorites]

There's an old boating adage: "never approach a dock faster than you intend to hit it"; that could be amended to "never approach another boat faster than you intend to hit it." Love the video; thanks for sharing it!
posted by TedW at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2021 [3 favorites]

I love the one-long-two-short horn blasts after they pull away. Little honk vs. big honk.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:11 PM on April 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

There once was a ship with stuff to do
And the name of the ship was the Westcott II
The wind blew up and her bow dipped down
And blow ye bully boys, blow

posted by sourcequench at 7:15 PM on April 13, 2021 [7 favorites]

Great Lake sailors do not bellow, sir.
posted by clavdivs at 7:45 PM on April 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Seems like the Jalopnik story's erroneous history is due to failing to parse (or reword) this passage from https://www.jwwestcott.com/westcotthistory:

Over the years, the business grew and services expanded to more that just company reporting. In 1948, the J.W. Westcott became an official U.S. Postal Service mail boat and soon would earn the world's first non-military floating postal ZIP code—48222.

I guess "15 years later" is "soon" for some folks.
posted by axiom at 8:43 PM on April 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

oh this gives me so much joy
posted by PinkMoose at 11:08 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

The Jalopnik article is careful to describe it as the only floating zip code. Other sources (including Atlas Obscura) incorrectly describe it as the only floating post office.

Lake WInnipesaukee in New Hampshire has a floating post office and you can even go along for the ride.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:05 AM on April 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

Stopping the boat? Please. Check out the mail jumpers on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:10 AM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Both of my parents were born in Detroit, and I grew up Downriver. We used to go down to the docks in Wyandotte to watch the freighters go by, and sometimes we'd see Westcott boats moving pilots out to the freighters. One of my great-uncles was a mailman for Westcott in the 1920s-50s (there are rumors that he also ran booze during Prohibition...), and I seem to remember that one of my uncle's Navy buddies was a river pilot for them in the 1970s.

JoeZydeco- well, yeah. But you can't jump the freeboard on a lake freighter. And it's not like the freighter stops....
posted by jlkr at 8:25 AM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

I do not understand how teen mail boat jumpers is a thing. How does OSHA allow for that?
posted by jacquilynne at 8:27 AM on April 14, 2021

Why have people jump of the mail boat at all? The railroads already solved this problem ages ago. Just hang a sack at the end of the dock for someone to grab with a boat hook.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:41 AM on April 14, 2021

Some years ago I was on the Diamond Jack river sightseeing tour with a group of my graduate program's alumni. One of the organizers had arranged for the Westcott to deliver a postcard to the head of the program during the trip!

Come to Detroit!
posted by Preserver at 6:57 AM on April 15, 2021