Robert Logan (March 14, 1861 – July 22, 1918) was a Scottish naval architect. He was a university graduate of mathematics, science, and engineering. Logan designed and constructed several large ships for various shipbuilding firms worldwide. His first ones were passenger cruise excursion boats and later constructed freighter ships for the American Shipbuilding Company that carried railroad trains across Lake Michigan. He designed the world's first steel train ferry, followed by several more Logan boats that ultimately developed into the world's largest carferry fleet that operated out of Ludington, Michigan. Early life Logan was born in Scotland, on March 14, 1861. He was a graduate of the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. He attended the Royal College of Science and Technology in Glasgow. In 1882 he won the Queen's Prize for mathematics for a college scholarship. Mid life and career Logan became chief draftsman for the shipbuilding firm of Mansell and Aiken in Glasgow after graduating from college. Here he gained shipbuilding experience on the River Clyde, where the firm was located. Logan emigrated to Canada in June 1888 and settled in Owen Sound in Ontario. There he got a job as the superintendent of construction of vessels for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). One of the steamships he was involved in constructing was the SS Manitoba from 1888–89. This passenger steel ship was long and one of the first large metal vessels to be constructed in Canada. It was in connection with the building of the steamer Manitoba that A.O. Rankin met Logan, who had gone to Canada in the interests of the CPR to superintend the building of this steamer. Logan eventually opened his own design firm with A. O. Rankin in Toronto after working for the railroad for several years. The naval architect firm name was Logan & Rankin and they became marine engineers. Logan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1903 and got a job at the American Shipbuilding Company eventually becoming their general manager. He designed large freighters for the Pere Marquette Railway to use on the Great Lakes to transport their trains across Lake Michigan. The Pere Marquette ferry service for the railway out of Ludington proved to be a great success. It ferried some 27,000 railroad freight cars in 1900 and about 75,000 in 1904. Logan designed several ships of railroad transport freighters until his retirement in 1910. A series of