1876
1876: ST. CLAIR (wooden propeller freighter with some passenger accommodations, 127 feet, 326 gross tons, built in 1867 at Algonac, Michigan) had 14 crew and 18 passengers aboard along with a cargo of flour, feed and deck loads of cattle as she sailed on Lake Superior. At 02:00, she caught fire about five miles off shore from 14 Mile Point. She was a wood burner and had a history of shipboard fires. The fire spread so quickly that only one boat could be launched, and being overloaded, it capsized. The cries of those left on the vessel, along with the bellowing of the cattle, were heart-rending. Only six survived in the one lifeboat since the cold water took its toll on those who clung to it. Eventually, they righted the boat and paddled to shore, leaving the ST. CLAIR burned to the waterline.
1891
1891: W.A. MOORE (wood propeller tug, 119 feet, 212 gross tons, built in 1865 at Detroit, Michigan) burned to a total loss at Cleveland, Ohio.
1917
1917: The bulk carrier WILLIAM S. MACK collided with the passenger freighter MANITOBA in fog off Whitefish Point and had to be beached. It was subsequently refloated and repaired. The ship was renamed HOME SMITH on October 10, 1917, and last sailed as ALGORAIL (i) in 1963 before being scrapped at Toronto.
1967
1967: The NEW YORK NEWS (iii) and the saltwater ship NORDGLIMT collided off Escoumins, Quebec, with only minor damage.
1973
1973: WILLIAM R. ROESCH, renamed b.) DAVID Z. NORTON in 1995, loaded her first cargo at Superior, Wisconsin, where she took on 18,828 tons of iron ore bound for Jones & Laughlin’s Cuyahoga River plant at Cleveland.
1988
1988: The BENJAMIN F. FAIRLESS and her fleet mate IRVING S. OLDS passed through the Panama Canal under tow of the German tug OSA RAVENSTURM. The pair was on a 14,000-mile journey to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, arriving there on November 8, 1988, for scrapping by Sing Cheng Yung Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.
1997
The 1,000-foot-long COLUMBIA STAR has set a new record for the Head-Of-The-Lakes coal trade. The vessel loaded 70,903 net tons of low-sulfur coal at Superior Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, on July 6 and discharged the cargo at Detroit Edison’s St. Clair, Michigan, power plant today (July 9). The previous record coal cargo for the Head-Of-The-Lakes trade (Lake Superior to lower Lakes ports) was 70,706 tons, again carried by the COLUMBIA STAR in 1986.
Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, 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.