The M.M. Drake was constructed in 1882 in Buffalo, New York as a wooden steam barge and named for the line superintendent of her building company, Mr. Marcus Motier Drake [REF].
During her nine-year career, she came to the rescue of distressed vessels and she had several mishaps of her own, including stranding on a reef in 1882, running ashore in 1888 near Cheboygan, Michigan, and striking a bar and sinking at the dock in Duluth, Minnesota in 1889 [REF].