Today in Great Lakes History – August 10

1890
1890:  TWO FANNIES (three-mast wooden bark, 152 feet, 492 gross tons, built in 1862 at Peshtigo, Wisconsin) was carrying 800 tons of iron ore on Lake Erie when a seam opened in rough weather. The crew kept at the pumps to no avail. They all made it off of the vessel into the yawl just as the bark sank north of Bay Village, Ohio. The CITY OF DETROIT tried to rescue the crew, but the weather made the rescue attempt too dangerous, and only two men were able to get to the steamer. The tug JAMES AMADEUS came out and got the rest of the crew, including the ship’s cat, which was with them in the yawl.

1899
1899:  The whaleback steamer JOHN B. TREVOR was rammed and sunk by her barge #131 in the St. Clair River. The accident was caused by CRESCENT CITY crossing the tow line. The sunken ship was refloated and, in 1912, became the ATIKOKAN.

1906
1906:  JOHN H. PAULEY (formerly THOMPSON KINSFORD, wooden propeller steam barge, 116 feet, 185 gross tons, built in 1880 at Oswego, New York) caught fire at Marine City, Michigan. Her lines were burned through, and she then drifted 3 miles down the St. Clair River before beaching near Port Lambton, Ontario, and burning out.

1922
1922:  ANNIE LAURA (wooden propeller sandsucker, 133 feet, 244 gross tons, built in 1871 at Marine City, Michigan) beached near Algonac, Michigan, caught fire, and burned to the waterline.

1937
1937:  B.H. BECKER (steel tug, 19 tons, built in 1932 at Marine City, Michigan) foundered in heavy seas 9 miles north of Oscoda, Michigan.

1952
1952:  The ARTHUR M. ANDERSON entered service for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. Exactly 14 years later, on August 10, 1966, the vessel’s namesake, Arthur Marvin Anderson, passed away.

1967
1967:  PAUL L. TIETJEN and FORT WILLIAM were in a head-on collision on Lake Huron about 25 miles north of Port Huron. Both ships were damaged but were repaired and returned to service.

1969
1969:  The EDMUND FITZGERALD set the last of many cargo records during the 1960s. The FITZGERALD loaded 27,402 gross tons of taconite pellets at Silver Bay on this date. This record was broken by the FITZGERALD’s sister ship, the ARTHUR B. HOMER, during the 1970 shipping season.

1975
1975:  CIMBRIA came through the Seaway for the first time in 1965 under West German registry. The ship was sailing as c) KOTA MENANG on this date when it stranded on Nyali Reef off Mombasa, Tanzania, due to a steering failure. The vessel received severe hull damage and was deemed a total loss.

1979
1979:  The Indian freighter JALARAJAN and the British flag LAURENTIC sustained minor damage in a collision at Kenosha, Wisconsin. The former was dismantled at Calcutta, India, in 1988, while the latter was scrapped at Karachi, Pakistan, in 1984.

1992
1992:  MENASHA was set adrift and then sank in the St. Lawrence off Ogdensburg, NY. The former U.S. Navy tug was refloated and repaired. After some later service at Sarnia, the tug was resold and moved to Montreal for work as c) ESCORTE.

2007
2007:  NORDSTRAND came to the Great Lakes in 1990 and would sink at the stern alongside the Adriatica Shipyard at Bijela, Montenegro, on this date as c) MEXICA when the engine room flooded. The ship was refloated on September 1, 2007, and arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, for scrapping on May 5, 2010.

Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, David Swayze, Jody L. Aho, Max Hanley, Ahoy & Farewell II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. Compiled by Roger LeLievre.