Today in Great Lakes History – October 13

1875
1875:   The tug E.H. MILLER had her boiler explode off Alpena, MI, while racing with the tug CITY OF ALPENA — both in quest of a tow. The ALPENA, who was ahead of the MILLER when she blew up, immediately turned around to pick up survivors. The MILLER sunk in minutes. The engineer, fireman, and a boy were rescued, but the captain and cook were lost. The fireman was in such poor shape that it was thought that he would not live.

1877
1877:   The Port Huron Times reported that the tug PRINDIVILLE and the two-masted schooner PORTLAND had both gone ashore at the Straits of Mackinac and been pounded to pieces.

1886
1886:   SELAH CHAMBERLAIN (wooden propeller steam barge; 212 feet; 1,207 gross tons; built in 1873 at Cleveland, OH) collided with the 222-foot wooden lumber hooker JOHN PRIDGEON JR. in heavy fog off Sheboygan, WI. The CHAMBERLAIN had been towing the schooner FAYETTE BROWN and sank quickly. Five of the crew went down with the vessel when the lifeboat davits became fouled and they were unable to launch the lifeboat. The rest of the crew made it to shore in the other lifeboat after a 3-hour pull through the fog.

1893
1893:   Chief Engineer J.H. Hogan left the DEAN RICHMOND in Toledo, OH, to take care of some family business. One day later, the RICHMOND burned off Dunkirk, NY, with a loss of 17 lives, including the replacement chief engineer.

1902
1902:   MAUNALOA collided with her whaleback consort barge 129 on Lake Superior and sank it 30 miles northwest of Vermilion Point between Crisp Point and Whitefish Point. MAUNALOA had been towing the 129 — both vessels loaded with iron ore — when the towline parted in heavy seas. While trying to regain control of the barge, they came together, and the steamer’s port anchor raked the side of the barge, which started taking on water. The crew was taken off the barge before it sank.

1902:   The wooden steamer C.B. LOCKWOOD was swamped in a storm and sank on Lake Erie with the loss of 10 lives.

1909
1909:   GEORGE STONE (wooden propeller freighter; 270 feet; 1,841 gross tons; built in 1893 at West Bay City, MI) was sailing from Ashtabula, OH, for Racine, WI, with a cargo of coal when she stranded on Grubb Reef in the Pelee Passage on Lake Erie. She then caught fire and was destroyed. Five of the 18 crewmen were lost.

1927
1927:   The ONTARIO, once the largest car ferry on the Detroit River, was later reduced to a barge. It foundered on this date in 1927 on Lake Superior near Outer Island while carrying 1,100 tons of pulpwood. It had been under tow of the tug BUTTERFIELD, and all on board were saved.

1973
1973:   SCOTT MISENER damaged 60 bottom plates when it hit bottom near Whaleback Shoal in the St. Lawrence.

1976
1976:   The former T2 tanker and bulk carrier SYLVIA L. OSSA — remembered on the Great Lakes as the MARATHONIAN that was in a head-on collision with ROLWI in Lake Michigan — disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle with the loss of all 37 crew members.

1980
1980:   The tug GLENADA towed the BROOKDALE from Port Colborne, ON, to Newman’s scrap yard at Port Maitland, ON, during this week in 1980.

1983
1983:   SASKATCHEWAN PIONEER made her first trip out of Thunder Bay, ON, with grain. Renamed b.) LADY HAMILTON in 1995, she was sold to Voyageur Maritime in 2006 and is now sailing as c.) KAMINISTIQUA for Lower Lakes Towing.

1990
1990:   ERNA WITT first visited the Great Lakes in 1958 and returned through the Seaway in 1962. The vessel sank off Port Sudan, Sudan, as k.) SHIBA on this date in 1990 after a collision with the ALTAAWIN ALARABI while inbound from Aqaba, Jordan. Three members of the crew were lost.

Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, 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.

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