Today in Great Lakes History – August 25

1873
1873:   JOURNEYMAN (wooden schooner; 129 feet; 235 gross tons; built in 1873 at Wenona, MI) was put in service. Her first cargo was 225,770 feet of lumber. She was built for Whitehead and Webster of Bay City, MI, and lasted until 1896.

1892
1892:   H.D. COFFINBERRY (wooden propeller freighter; 191 feet; 649 gross tons; built in 1874 at East Saginaw, MI) was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, MI, to Ashtabula, OH, in a fierce northwestern gale when she grounded on the rocks near Port Hope, MI, on Lake Huron. The crew was rescued by the San Beach lifesaving crew and the tug ANAPING. The COFFINBERRY was released 5 days later and put back in service.

1917
1917:   The wooden tow barge MAGNETIC, downbound and under tow of the steamer EDWARD N. BREITUNG, broke loose when the steering failed and eventually foundered in Lake Erie. The captain and crew of seven were rescued.

1919
1919:   CABOTIA (formerly HIAWATHA; wooden propeller freighter; 235 feet; 1,299 gross tons; built 1880 at Gibraltar, MI) went ashore on Main Duck Island in Lake Ontario and split her hull, becoming a constructive loss.

1923
1923:   The Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway ore dock in Duluth, MN, loaded 208,212 tons of ore into 23 ships.

1965
1965:   BLACK BAY was T-boned on the port side by the Liberian freighter EPIC while leaving Sept-Îles, QC, with ore for Ashtabula, OH. The hull of the CSL bulk carrier was dented, the rail was ripped, and there was damage to the fourth hatch. The ship was repaired at Port Arthur, ON.

1974
1974:   STEELTON collided with Bridge 12 of the Welland Canal at Port Robinson, ON, knocking the structure into the water. The accident tied up all navigation through the Welland Canal, and the bridge was never replaced. The ship was repaired at Port Colborne, ON, and returned to service.

1977
1977:   IRISH ALDER, a Great Lakes caller with four trips in 1966, was gutted by a fire as c.) ATTICAN UNITY while en route from Antwerp, Belgium, to Durban, South Africa. The ship was beached at Flushing, Netherlands, and taken over by the Dutch government. The hull was later refloated, sold to West German shipbreakers, and arrived at Bremen, Germany, on March 22, 1978, for dismantling.

1978
1978:   GEORGE M. STEINBRENNER, formerly a.) ARTHUR H. HAWGOOD, arrived at Port Colborne, ON, in tow of the tug WILFRED M. COHEN for scrapping.

1981
1981:   The first of the famous “Love Boat” cruises was made. The BADGER carried 520 passengers, the largest number of passengers for a car ferry up to that time. It was sponsored by the Ludington Area Ambassadors.

1984
1984:   ROGER M. KYES grounded off McLouth Steel and ended crosswise in the Detroit River’s Trenton Channel. It required lightering into the RICHARD REISS, formerly a.) ADIRONDACK, and the assistance of nine tugs to refloat her. She was renamed b.) ADAM E. CORNELIUS in 1989.

1984:   The French freighter MONT LOUIS first came to the Great Lakes in 1975. It sank on this day following a collision with the OLAU BRITTANIA while en route from Le Havre, France, to Riga, Latvia. The hull broke in two due to bad weather on September 11, and it was finally raised and taken to Zeebrugge, Belgium, in sections in September 1985 and broken up.

1985
1985:   MELA ran aground in the St. Lawrence about 40 miles east of Quebec City, QC, after losing power. Two tugs refloated the ship, and it received temporary repairs at Thunder Bay, ON. The vessel first came inland as a.) PAMELA in 1976 and returned as b.) MELA in 1983, c.) LA FRENAIS in 1990, d.) PRAXITELIS in 1995, and e.) AXION in 1999. The ship was beached for scrapping at Chittagong, Bangladesh, on March 15, 2006.

2025
2025:   The Detroit Free Press reports in an article that divers have located the wreck of the jAMES CARRUTHERS which sank in the November storm of 1913.

2025:   The cement carrier ALPENA is out and running after repairs to her low pressure turbine which kept her from running this year until this time.

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