On October 18, 1869, GERALDINE (3-mast wooden schooner, 232 tons, built in 1856, at Wilson, New York as a bark) was carrying coal from Buffalo to Detroit in heavy weather. During the night, she collided with the schooner E. M. PORTCH five miles below “The Cut” at Long Point on Lake Erie and sank in 5 minutes. The PORTCH stood by while the GERALDINE’s crew got off in the yawl. No lives were lost.
ALVA C. DINKEY departed Quebec City October 18, 1980, in tandem with her former fleet mate GOVERNOR MILLER, towed by the FedNav tug CATHY B., in route to Vigo, Spain, for scrapping.
Tragedy struck on the WILLIAM C. MORELAND’s fifth trip October 18, 1910, Loaded with 10,700 tons of iron ore from Superior for Ashtabula, Ohio, the vessel stranded on Sawtooth Reef off Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on Lake Superior. Visibility had been very limited due to forest fires raging on the Keweenaw Peninsula and the lake was blanketed with smoke as far as one mile off shore. The MORELAND hit so hard and at such speed that she bounced over the first reef and came to rest on a second set of rocks. The stern section was salvaged and combined with a new forward section she became b.) SIR TREVOR DAWSON in 1916. Renamed c.) CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON in 1920, d.) GENE C. HUTCHINSON in 1951, sold into Canadian registry in 1963, renamed e.) PARKDALE. Scrapped at Cartagena, Spain in 1970.
On October 18, 1896, AUSTRALASIA (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 282 foot, 1,829 gross tons, built in 1884, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was carrying 2,200 tons of soft coal when she caught fire, burned to the waterline and sank 3 miles east of Cana Island in Lake Michigan. The Bailey’s Harbor Lifesavers saved her crew.
At 8 p.m., on October 18, 1844, the steamer ROCHESTER left Rochester, New York for Toronto. She encountered a severe gale about halfway there. Captain H. N. Throop had the vessel put about to return to Rochester. The gale was so severe that all thought they were lost. When they finally arrived in Rochester, the passengers were so grateful that they had survived that they published a note of gratitude to Almighty God and Captain Throop in The Rochester Daily Democrat on 19 October 1844 — it was signed by all 18 passengers.
On October 18,1876, the schooner R. D. CAMPBELL filled with water and capsized on Lake Michigan about 10 miles from Muskegon, Michigan. The crew clung to the vessel’s rigging until rescued by the tug JAMES MC GORDAN. The schooner drifted to the beach some hours later.
1905: The schooner TASMANIA became waterlogged while under tow of the steamer BULGARIA and sank in the Pelee Passage
1911: ARUNDELL had been laid up at Douglas, MI, for about 2 weeks when fire broke out, destroying the iron hulled passenger and freight vessel. Repaired, it would run for periods over another decade. In December 1911 Nessen and Kitzinger bought the hull and brought it to Manistee to be rebuilt. That never occurred and apparently it remained at Manistee until the giant demand for bottoms caused by the Great War led to its sale to a New York operator for use as a coal barge on the east coast. It passed Port Huron downbound 15 May 1916 under tow. It was owned at New York, documented as a barge, and dropped from documentation in 1919. It was sold in 1920 to Buxton-Wilson, Inc., operators of a small shipyard at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and converted to a coastal freight boat, powered by a Galusha gas producer and, I think, a Wolverine engine. A. L. Buxton formed the “Buxton Line” to operate between Richmond and Norfolk on the James River, in effect restoring the former Old Dominion line service, begun 21 February 1921. The Arundell, renamed Brewster, joined that service in October 1921 but it and that service came to a crashing end, literally, six months later when the vessel was run down on the James near Brandon by the Wyandotte-built Lake Stirling early in the morning of 21 April 1922, sinking the Brewster and taking the life of its chief engineer. The wreck was removed by the W. H. French Wrecking & Dredging Company, Norfolk, in August.
1917: ABYSSINIA had been under tow of the MARUBA when both ships stranded at Tecumseh Shoal in heavy seas. The grain-laden vessels had been following the north shore due to high winds when they struck bottom. The barge began leaking and was pounded apart but there was no loss of life but the steamer was refloated.
1933: The wooden steam barge MANISTIQUE caught fire on Lake Huron and the remains either sank or was scuttled.
1973: The AGIOS ANTONIOS first visited the Seaway in 1972 and, as a) SILVERWEIR, had come inland beginning in 1964. The ship had loaded iron ore at Coondapoor, on the southwest coast of India, and went aground leaving for Constanza, Romania. The vessel was abandoned as a total loss.
Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, William Lafferty, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series.