Today in Great Lakes History – July 23

1878
1878:  H.R. PRESTON (wooden quarterdeck canal boat built in 1877 at Oneida Lake, New York) was carrying 250 tons of ashes from Picton, Ontario, to Oswego, New York, in tow of the tug ALANSON SUMNER along with three other canal boats when they encountered a storm on Lake Ontario. About 15 miles from Oswego, the PRESTON broke her towline and was taken alongside the SUMNER with some difficulty. About a mile out of port, she lost her hold tarps and began to sink quickly. She was cut loose from the tug, and her two crewmen were saved by the Oswego tug W.M. AVERY. Though she was lying heavily on the bottom in 50 feet of water, her wreckage came ashore near 4 Mile Point in early September.

1908
1908:  The 556-foot ELBERT H. GARY arrived to a 21-gun salute to deliver the first cargo of Minnesota ore at the new United States Steel mill in Gary, Indiana.

1918
1918:  PETER REISS and the GLENSHEE were in a collision at the #3 ore dock at Duluth. Fog and the current were blamed for the accident, with only limited damage to both ships.

1934
1934:  An explosion and fire aboard the tanker barge EN-AR-CO during fit-out at Toronto resulted in the loss of four lives. The ship was rebuilt as a coal barge and was finally scrapped at Hamilton in 1969.

1955
1955:  The tug HELENA capsized at South Chicago while taking on coal from a scow, and two sailors were lost. The vessel was refloated on July 26. It survives today as c) DANIEL McALLISTER, a museum ship on display in the Lachine Canal in Montreal.

1960
1960:  Upper Lakes Shipping Co. Ltd.’s, RED WING was christened as the first all-welded vessel to emerge from Port Weller Dry Docks.

1961
1961:  CANADOC sailed on her maiden voyage.

1968
1968:  The keel for the TEXACO CHIEF (Hull #193) was laid at Collingwood, Ontario, by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., for Texaco Canada Ltd. Renamed b.) A.G. FARQUHARSON in 1986 and c.) ALGONOVA In 1998. She was sold for further service overseas in 2007.

1968:  The former tanker ORION was operating as a sand barge when it sank in Lake Erie about 1,000 feet off the Lorain lighthouse due to choppy seas. The hull was raised by the Corps of Engineers, beached on August 2, and assumed to have been subsequently scrapped.

1985
1985:  FOTINI D.E. ran aground en route from Venezuela to a U.S. Gulf coast port and was abandoned as a total loss on July 31. She first came through the Seaway in 1976 and, in 1980, became the first overseas vessel to load grain at the port of Goderich.

Data from: Skip Gillham, 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.