1856
TINTO (wooden propeller, 135 feet, built in 1855–1856 at Sorel, Quebec) caught fire and burned to a total loss only 2 miles from shore. She was between Snake Island and Nine Mile Point on Lake Ontario. 18 lives were lost. The survivors jumped into the water and were picked up by a boat from shore. A newspaper article stated that she had no lifeboat aboard. Her machinery was later recovered and installed in the AVON.
1883
B. PARSONS (two-mast wooden schooner, 218 tons, built in 1856 at Vermilion, Ohio) struck the north pier while entering the harbor at Charlevoix, Michigan, during a gale. She sank crosswise in the channel and blocked passage into the harbor for two weeks until she broke up enough to allow vessels to pass. In December, the steam tug S.S. COE towed the hulk a half mile down the beach and abandoned it.
1902
The JAMES H. HOYT, the first boat with hatches constructed at 12-foot centers, loaded 5,250 tons of iron ore in 30.5 minutes on her maiden voyage. Several days later, the cargo was unloaded at Conneaut in 3 hours and 52 minutes.
1907
WILLIAM J. FILBERT was launched as a.) WILLIAM M. MILLS (Hull #348) at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. for the Weston Transit Co. (William M. Mills, manager).
1933
SONORA and WILLIAM NELSON were in a collision in the Bar Point Channel on Lake Erie. The two ships were found at equal fault. The former was scrapped at Ashtabula in 1961, while the latter arrived at Bilbao, Spain, for dismantling as c) BEN E. TATE on July 12, 1969.
1945
Canada Steamship Line’s HAMONIC burned at her pier at Point Edward near Sarnia, Ontario. A warehouse next to the HAMONIC ‘s pier burst into flames from a fire that began from a gasoline motor for conveyor equipment being repaired by workmen. The flames and smoke were carried by a breeze to the HAMONIC. Almost in a matter of minutes, the HAMONIC was doomed. She was aflame at dockside. The captain and the engineer were able to move the ship down the dock from the raging flames from the warehouse. Many of the passengers were able to get ashore. Some passengers went ashore by climbing into the bucket of a crane, which hoisted them on shore to safety. Every one of the passengers and crew were saved.
1954
Mohawk Navigation’s GOLDEN HIND loaded her first dry bulk cargo. She had been rebuilt from the Imperial Oil Ltd. tanker a.) IMPERIAL WOODBEND.
1961
The C&P dock in Cleveland set a new unloading record when it removed more than 15,000 tons of ore from the holds of the E.G. GRACE in 3 hours and 20 minutes.
1969
The ASHCROFT was towed out of Quebec City in tandem with the steamer SIR THOMAS SHAUGHNESSY by the Polish tug JANTAR for scrapping at Castellon, Spain.
1973
The Cleveland Tanker’s COMET was towed from Toledo to Ashtabula, Ohio, where she was broken up during the summer and fall of 1973.
1974
On her last trip, the COLONEL JAMES PICKANDS arrived at Cleveland, Ohio, with a load of iron ore.
1980
The BROOKDALE of 1909 lost her self-unloading boom overboard in the Detroit River during a windy rainstorm while loading salt at the Canadian Rock Salt Dock at Ojibway, Ontario.
1989
SHEILA YEATES, a tall ship visitor to the Great Lakes, hit an ice pack in fog on the North Atlantic and eventually sank 430 miles south of Greenland after an attempt to tow the leaking ship to safety failed. All on board were saved.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Max Hanley, Jody Aho, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, 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.
