Today in Great Lakes History – August 18

1871
1871:   GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT (wooden schooner, 114 feet, 213 tons, built in 1852 at Black River, Ohio) was carrying lumber from Menominee to Chicago when she sprang a leak during a gale and capsized off Spider Island near Death’s Door on Lake Michigan. The crew clung to her for 13 hours until rescued by the passing schooner ETHAN ALLEN.

1878
1878   JAVA (iron twin-propeller passenger-package freight vessel, 232 feet, 1,525 gross tons, built in 1873 at Buffalo, New York) was sailing from Bay City, Michigan, for Chicago and Milwaukee with mixed merchandise, including 300 tons of fine household goods, parlor stoves, salt, etc. She was a twin-screw steamer, and the main theory of her loss in good weather was that her starboard shaft coupling came loose, and the shaft slid out the stern, allowing water to flood through the sleeve. Nevertheless, she sank quickly 15 miles off Big Sable Point on Lake Michigan in over 300 feet of water. The crew escaped in lifeboats and was picked up by passing steamers.

1906
1906:   The NORMAN B. REAM (Hull #70) was launched at Chicago, Illinois, by the Chicago Ship Building Co. for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Renamed b.) KINSMAN ENTERPRISE in 1965. She served as a storage barge in Port Huron from 1979 to 1989. She was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey, in 1989.

1907
1907:   KATE WHITE (wooden propeller steam tug, 62 feet, 28 gross tons, built at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1885 as a yacht) sank near the harbor entrance at Fairport, Ohio.

1919
1919:   The former wooden bulk carrier NEOSHO was sold for off-lakes service in 1917 and was operating as a barge, under tow of the tug NORFOLK, when she broke loose in a storm on Delaware Bay, got caught in the trough, struck a reef, and broke up.

1927
1927:   The first HENNEPIN foundered in Lake Michigan, 18 miles west of South Haven, en route to Grand Haven to load. The hull was discovered in 2006 and is upright in 230 feet of water.

1966
1966:   BAYGEORGE knocked off a lock fender in the downbound section of the Welland Canal Flight Locks and delayed navigation. Only the upbound side remained in use to handle traffic pending repairs.

1972
1972:   $50,000 in bottom damage occurred when the CHAMPLAIN of 1943 hit an obstruction in the Trenton Channel on the lower Detroit River.

1972:   The ocean-going general cargo carrier FELTO caught fire at Bata, Equatorial Guinea, while discharging cement. The blaze broke out in the engine room and spread to the accommodation area before the ship settled on the bottom as a total loss. The vessel had been a Great Lakes trader in 1968 and had previously come inland as a) FERDIA in 1953 and b) FAIRWAY in 1963.

1979
1979:   CANADIAN ENTERPRISE (Hull #65) was float launched at St. Catharines, Ontario, by Port Weller Drydocks Ltd. for Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd.

1985
1985:   CHI-CHEEMAUN went aground due to fog while departing South Baymouth and was released the following day. The Georgian Bay ferry went to Collingwood for repairs.

1996
1996:   HERCEG NOVI, a Yugoslavian freighter dating from 1981, first came through the Seaway in 1989, bringing a cargo of newsprint to Detroit. It sank following a collision with the container ship MING GALAXY off Singapore on this date in 1996. Local officials ordered the removal of the hull, and this was done in pieces later in the year.

Data from: Joe Barr, David Swayze, Skip Gillham, 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.