William L. Mercereau was one of the Engineering and technology good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that William L. Mercereau, Superintendent of Steamships for the Pere Marquette Railway, was responsible for building up what was at the time the world's largest carferry fleet?
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"His home port for thirty years of his fleet of steel carferries was Ludington, Michigan." - home of his fleet of steel carferries for thirty years
Done
"The old fashion technology previously involved transferring bulk material from railroad cars to steamship vessel" - antiquated
Done
"The break-bulk transfer involved crews of laborers at both the loading and unloading points. That was a costly time-consuming process that was inefficient for profits." - These two sentences might be better off merged into one.
"He later moved back east to Saginaw, Michigan. There as a young man of 105 pounds (48 kg) he started as a coal stoker on locomotives for the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad." - consider merging these two sentences together
Done
"After a little more than a year at this job" - just more
Done
"His first steamship he worked on was" - The
Done
"He later worked on the steamships Pere Marquette No. 3 and No. 5 for some time." - how much time exactly?
Done sources only say a few years.
Wikilink Lake Michigan
Done
"Mercereau quit working for the railroad company after a couple of years" - how many years exactly?
"Technology was introducing in the 1890s" - better; In the 1890s, technology was introducing
Done
"but this old technology was on its way out." - the text in bold is informal and needs rewriting to a formal style
Done
"but this old technology" - antiquated
Done
Wikilink carferry to the appropriate article on the first mention
Done
"The next steel carferry for the railroad company was the SS Pere Marquette No. 17. It was basically the same as PM No. 15 except with more extensive cabin accommodations." - consider having both of these sentences merged
Done
" This carferry originally was called the SS Muskegon and renamed as the SS Pere Marquette No. 16 as the second carferry in its fleet." - but was renamed
Done
"Business was growing rapidly, so he then ordered two more steel carferries. " - With business growing rapidly, he ordered two more steel ferries.
Done
"He was known as the "Father of the Fleet" since he gave 31 years of service to the Pere Marquette Railway." - known by whom?
Done
"He was known as the 'father of the railroad on the water'" - same query as above
Done
"for transporting as a complete loaded freight car unit." - transportation
Done
"for the commercial transportation industry in general in the long run." - long-term
Looking at Train ferry it mentions that An early train ferry was established as early as 1833 and The first modern train ferry was Leviathan, built in 1849. plus Although others had had similar ideas, it was Bouch who first put them into effect.
This article says Mercereau developed the technology of loading a complete railroad car full of freight directly onto ships as one unit. and in the 1890s, technology was introducing the idea of just loading the complete railroad freight car onto the ship instead of transferring its contents to ship holding tanks. The package steamships with bulk holding tanks had carried freight this way since 1882, but this antiquated technology became obsolete. The railroad car ferry then came about, and the first ones were wooden craft.
Reference 3 has the title Idea Of Carferries Got Its Start Here in 1897 which, again doesn't match the Train ferry pages. The date that they refer to is 1897 which is when the first steel ferry was entered into service which is probably what they are referring to which makes me concerned about using it for this article. Gusfriend (talk) 09:38, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
In the article I wrote, He was also known as the 'father of the railroad on the water' because he brought to fruition the idea of loading the complete railroad car onto cross-lake ferries for transportation as a complete loaded freight car unit. using Reference 12. Reference 3 is used for Mercereau's biography information. I don't see an issue with either of these references.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 13:32, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Copyright contributor investigation and Good article reassessment
b(citations to reliable sources): 
Done
Working Starting to address issues.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:02, 6 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
