1852
CASPIAN (wooden side-wheeler, 252 feet, 921 tons, built in 1851 at Newport, Michigan) foundered a short distance off Cleveland’s piers. Some of her gear and structural material was salvaged in the spring of 1853, and the wreck was then flattened with dynamite.
1869
The wooden schooner GARROWEN was carrying coal from Cleveland to Toronto when she sprang a leak and sank in 60 feet of water about 10 miles from shore off Geneva, Ohio. The crew escaped in the yawl. She was only 19 years old, and some of the crew claimed that she was scuttled as an insurance scam. However, a number of divers visited the wreck at the bottom of the lake at the time, and that claim was refuted.
1875
The iron ferry HURON (238 feet, 1,052 gross tons, built at Point Edward, Ontario, with iron plates prefabricated in Scotland) made her trial voyage between Fort Gratiot, Michigan, and Point Edward, Ontario, across the St. Clair River. This vessel served the Grand Trunk Railway and ran between Windsor and Detroit for over a century.
1876
A 25-square-mile ice field was still floating at the head of Lake Superior in northwest Wisconsin.
1900
The new wooden steam barge ALFRED MITCHELL started her maiden voyage from St. Clair, Michigan, to Cleveland, Ohio, to load coal. She was owned by Langell & Sons.
1918
The wooden steam barge CREAM CITY stranded on Wheeler Reef in upper Lake Huron due to fog while towing the barge GRACE HOLLAND. All were rescued, but the ship was abandoned. The hull caught fire and was destroyed in 1925.
1927
ROBERT C. WENTE (wooden, propeller, bulk freighter, 141 feet, 336 gross tons, built in 1888 at Gibraltar, Michigan) burned to a total loss in the St. Clair River. In 1911, she sank in Lake Michigan but was raised and refurbished.
1939
ALGOSOO (i) arrived at Collingwood for hull repairs after hitting the bottom in fog near Cape Smith, Georgian Bay.
1940
The HARRY COULBY became the first Great Lakes vessel to load in excess of 16,000 tons of iron ore when it loaded 16,067 tons of iron ore in Ashland, Wisconsin. Renamed b.) KINSMAN ENTERPRISE in 1989, she was scrapped at Port Colborne, Ontario in 2002.
1943
The nine loading docks on Lake Superior loaded a combined 567,000 tons of iron ore into the holds of waiting freighters.
1964
WHITEFISH BAY went aground on the St. Lawrence off Whisky Island while bound for Montreal with a cargo of grain. Six tugs pulled the ship free on July 3.
1972
H.M.C.S. COBOURG was built at Midland as a World War II corvette and rebuilt as a merchant ship in about 1947. It caught fire and burned as d) PUERTO DEL SOL at New Orleans while undergoing repairs, and the upper works were gutted. The ship was sold for scrapping at Brownsville, TX, later in the year.
1975
VALETTA first came to the Great Lakes in 1962 and returned as c) ORIENT EXPORTER in 1966 and d) IONIC in 1972. The leaking ship was beached at Cheddar, Saudi Arabia, with hull cracks. It slipped off the reef on July 11, 1975, and sank.
1980
The Swedish-flagged freighter MALTESHOLM first came through the Seaway in 1963. It began leaking in the engine room as c) LITO while bound from Kalamata, Greece, to Vietnam with bagged flour. It was abandoned by the crew and then sank in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship had been sold to Taiwan shipbreakers and was likely bound for Kaohsiung after unloading in the Far East.
1983
The C&O sold its remaining three car ferries to Glen Bowden and George Towns. They begin operating cross-lake service between Ludington and Kewaunee under the name Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Co. (MWT).
1991
The automobile/passenger ferry DALDEAN celebrated its 40th year in operation between Sombra, Ontario, and Marine City, Michigan. She was built by Erieau Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Erieau, Ontario, for Bluewater Ferry Ltd. Service started between the two communities on this date in 1951.
2005
At 16:00, an explosion hit the Cargill elevator in Toledo, Ohio, collapsing on one of the silos with fire found inside five others.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, Lake Huron Lore Society, Mike Nicholls, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Compiled by Roger LeLievre.
