Today in Great Lakes History – October 16

1853
1853:   PHILO SCOVILLE (two-masted wooden brig built in 1853 at Sheboygan, WI) was carrying flour, wheat, pigs, and barreled fish when she encountered a gale in the eastern Straits of Mackinac. She was dismasted and drifted ashore, where she was pounded to pieces. Her crew was saved by floating ashore while clinging to the floating main mast.

1855
1855:   SENECA (wooden propeller tug; 92 feet; 73 tons; built in 1847 at Buffalo, NY) was towing the brig LANSING past the foot of Randolph Street at Chicago, IL, when her boiler exploded. Her skipper and engineer were killed instantly, and several others were injured. The vessel was later recovered.

1855:   The brig TUSCARORA was carrying coal from Buffalo, NY, to Chicago, IL. She anchored off Chicago’s Harrison Street, but a storm dragged her in. Volunteers from shore were unable to get to the stricken vessel. A group of nine ship captains and four seamen organized a rescue party and took two new “Francis” metal lifeboats out and rescued the entire crew of 11. By October 21, TUSCARORA was pounded to pieces.

1880
1880:   ALPENA, a wooden side-wheel passenger steamer, was lost in Lake Michigan in a violent storm. All 67 on board perished.

1912
1912:   JAMES BUCKLEY (two-masted wooden schooner barge; 161 feet; 442 gross tons; built in 1884 at Quebec City, QC) was carrying coal and being towed by the tug WILLIAM PROCTOR in consort with the barges H.B. and MENOMINEE in Lake Ontario. The BUCKLEY separated from this group in a storm and was driven into the shallows off the coast of Jefferson County, NY. The PROCTOR delivered MENOMINEE to Cape Vincent, NY, and then returned in time to take BUCKLEY’s crew out of the rigging — hand over hand on a heaving line — before BUCKLEY finally sank.

1920
1920:   Sea trials of MERTON E. FARR were successfully completed.

1928
1928:   PARKS FOSTER ran aground due to fog in Lake Huron near Alpena, MI. The ship was lightered, pumped out, and refloated. While declared a total loss, the vessel was rebuilt as b.) SUPERIOR and eventually dismantled at Port Weller, ON, in 1961.

1940
1940:   TREVISA was torpedoed and sunk by U-124 while 600 miles off the coast of Ireland. The ship had become a straggler from convoy SC-7 that had been attacked over a period of three nights. Seven lives were lost when TREVISA was hit in the engine room by a single torpedo.

1950
1950:   JOHN M. MCKERCHEY of the Kelley’s Island Lime and Transport Co. sank at 2:30 a.m. while returning from the pumping grounds with a load of sand. Captain Horace S. Johnson went down with the boat, but the remaining 19 crewmembers were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

1954
1954:   SCOTT MISENER of 1954 became the first laker to load a record 800,000 bushels of grain on the Great Lakes when she was loaded with barley at Fort William, ON, for delivery to Port Colborne, ON.

1968
1968:   The NORMAN P. CLEMENT was at Collingwood, ON, for examination of grounding damage sustained earlier in the month when an onboard explosion injured 11. The hull was contaminated with chemicals and declared a total loss.

1969
1969:   FREDEN V. came to the Great Lakes in 1958 and returned through the Seaway in 1959. The small tanker was heavily damaged as c.) YARIMCA in an engine room fire on this date in 1969 at Sinop, Turkey. She was repaired in 1972, and the ship survived until scrapping at Aliağa, Turkey, as f.) ORTAC in 2004.

1971
1971:   The Cypriot freighter UNION came through the Seaway in 1971 after prior visits as c.) MICA beginning in 1965. A fire broke out in the engine room on October 10, 1971, and the ship was abandoned 130 miles off Freetown, Sierra Leone. The vessel sank on October 16 and had been en route from Gdynia, Poland, to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

1982
1982:   ALGOWEST set a cargo record by carrying 27,517 tons of grain down the Seaway to Port-Cartier, QC. She was converted to a self-unloader in 1998 and renamed b.) PETER R. CRESSWELL in 2001.

1990
1990:   JOHN B. AIRD’s loop belt caught fire while loading mill scale at the Inland Steel Mill in East Chicago, IL. Fueled by coal dust left over from previously unloading coal, 1,400 feet of the rubber conveyor belt burned, causing nearly $500,000 in damages.

1990:   The Cayman Islands-registered tanker RIO ORINOCO grounded off Anticosti Island was abandoned. She was later salvaged by Groupe Desgagnés, refloated, repaired, and renamed d.) THALASSA DESGAGNÉS.

1990:   WILLIAM G. MATHER of 1925 was towed from her Cuyahoga River berth by the Great Lakes Towing tugs IDAHO and DELAWARE. She was placed next to the 9th Street Pier of Cleveland, OH’s North Coast Harbor and now serves as a marine museum.

Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. Compiled by Roger LeLievre.

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