Deborah Benedic, an art consultant from Harrison Township, likes to hand deliver the art she sells. So how was she to hand off a print to a customer on a freighter in the middle of the Detroit River?
It turns out that the J.W. Westcott company, a 150-year-old mail carrier and the first non-military floating zip code, delivers a lot more than just envelopes.
Benedic said that her experience with the company was “100% perfect.” She got to tour the company’s premises, got a full overview of the process for delivery and the company even helped her to process the payment from the ship’s crew member.
The MV American Mariner freighter operated by the American Steamship Company gets a delivery in the Detroit River from the J.W. Westcott Co. | Photos by Quinn Banks
The company got its start in 1874, when Capt. John Ward Westcott saw that ships in the Great Lakes were struggling to communicate with their companies back on shore. His solution was to buy a rowboat and start ferrying supply messages from a dock near Belle Isle.
Eventually, the company would upgrade its services with the construction of the John Ward Westcott II in 1949, by Paasch Marine Service of Erie, Pennsylvania. Named after the company’s president at the time, the vessel would allow the company to improve the quality of their service and enable them to keep up with the growing shipping industry in the region.
The company and ship received a unique role in 1963, with the introduction of the United States Postal Service’s ZIP code system. The J.W. Westcott received the ZIP code 48222, making it the only non-military floating zip code in the world.
Scenes from an average day on the J.W. Westcott II.| Photos by Quinn Banks
The company operates on a 24/7 schedule during the shipping season, doing everything from mail and parcels to DoorDash deliveries of prescriptions to helping customers transfer crew on and off the ship. The company also has some on-shore operations, with their building serving as a post office and waiting room for crew transfers.
According to the company’s general manager, Sam Buchanan, the building also serves as “kind of a community center,” describing it as a place where “the community can stop in to say hello, have coffee, chit chat here and there” and that “we’re kind of an iconic meeting area here in southwest Detroit.”
As for their other onshore operations, Buchanan put it simply: “On shore, we have a van.” He said that they use the van for on-time urgent deliveries to ships located anywhere in the Great Lakes, transporting food, supplies, and parts to boats on a regular basis.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the company, however. In 2001, while attempting to do a pilot exchange with the Norwegian ship Sidsel Knutsen, the J.W. Westcott II would take on water and sink, claiming the lives of two of its crew members. Despite some difficulties with recovering the ship from the bottom of the Detroit River, the company was able to refloat and refurbish the ship, having it back in service by the start of the next navigation season.
The company has also seen some time in the spotlight recently. In July 2023, their second ship, the Mildred Simpson Westcott, named after the wife of John Ward Westcott II, was involved in the rescue of Spencer Baker, an ironworker who fell from the Ambassador Bridge.
When it comes to the future of the company, Buchanan made his opinion clear.
“As long as there are ships on the lakes, and there’s transportation happening here, they’ll have a need for us.”
IF YOU GO:
For those interested, the company offers tours of the Detroit riverfront and of the Rouge River area. They can be contacted at (313) 496-0555, or dispatch@jwwestcott.com. Their address is 12 24th Street, Detroit, MI, located next to Riverside Park.