Today in Great Lakes History – October 21

1886
1886:   W.L. BROWN (wooden propeller freighter; 140 feet; 336 gross tons; built in 1872 at Oshkosh, WI, as NEPTUNE) was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, MI, for De Pere, WI. A storm struck while she was on Green Bay. She sprang a leak 1 mile from Peshtigo Reef and went down in 76 feet of water. No lives were lost. All of her outfits and machinery were removed the following summer. This vessel’s first enrollment was issued at Milwaukee, WI, on April 22, 1873, as NEPTUNE, but this enrollment was surrendered at Milwaukee on September 30, 1880, endorsed as “broken up.” However, she was re-enrolled as a new vessel at Milwaukee on June 15, 1880, having been rebuilt by A.L. Johnson at Green Bay, WI, as the W.L. BROWN.

1891
1891:   The Anchor Line’s CONEMAUGH (wooden propeller passenger/package freight steamer; 251 feet; 1,609 gross tons; built in 1880 at West Bay City, MI) and the Union Line’s NEW YORK (wooden propeller package freighter; 269 feet; 1,922 gross tons; built in 1879 at Buffalo, NY) collided on the Detroit River at 19:30. The CONEMAUGH sank close to the Canadian shore. She was carrying flour and other package freight from Chicago, IL, to Buffalo. She was later raised and repaired and lasted until 1906 when she was lost in a storm on Lake Erie.

1897
1897:  On this day October 21.1897 the FRANK W GIFFORD sprung a leak in heavy weather in mid-lake, off Point Betsey, Lake Michigan, October 21, 1897, and sank; crew rescued from life boat by schooner CITY OF SHEBOYGAN. Vessel bound from Escanaba, MI, for Fairport, OH, with cargo of iron ore.

1912
1912:   Two were lost when the wooden steamer PINE LAKE sank in the Detroit River near Belle Isle following a collision with FLEETWOOD (i). The hull was later dynamited as a hazard to navigation.

1913
1913:   C.W. ELPHICKE began leaking in a storm on Lake Erie and was beached near the Long Point lighthouse. The downbound, grain-laden wooden freighter was a total loss, but the crew was saved.

1914
1914:   JAMES A. FARRELL and fleetmate RICHARD TRIMBLE were the first vessels to lock downbound in the newly-opened Davis Lock at the Soo.

1923
1923:   The crew on the SAMUEL MATHER was safely removed from the badly exposed steamer by the Eagle Harbor, MI, U.S. Life-Saving Service crew. She had run aground on October 20. The vessel was renamed b.) PATHFINDER in 1925, sold Canadian in 1968, and renamed c.) GODERICH. She was later renamed d.) SOO RIVER TRADER in 1980 and e.) PINEGLEN 1982 before being scrapped at Port Maitland, ON, in 1984.

1941
1941:   AMERICA (steel tug; 80 feet; 123 gross tons; built in 1897, at Buffalo, NY) was on a cable along with the tug OREGON off Belle Isle in the Detroit River trying to pull the steel bulk freighter B.F. JONES off a bar. The cable tightened, pulling AMERICA out of the water and spinning her upside down. Six of the crew of 13 lost their lives. AMERICA was later recovered. AMERICA was renamed b.) MIDWAY in 1982 and c.) WISCONSIN in 1983.

1954
1954:   GEORGE M. HUMPHREY set a record when she took aboard 22,605 gross tons of iron ore at Superior, WI. The record stood until 1960.

1954:   Captain Allen K. Hoxie, the skipper of the MILWAUKEE CLIPPER, retired.

1969
JOHN PURVES was towing derrick scow 43 bound for Rogers City, MI, when the latter was lost.

1980
1980:   The converted ELTON HOYT 2ND loaded her first cargo of 1,000 tons of pellets at Taconite Harbor, MN. After field-testing her new self-unloading gear, she loaded 21,000 tons of pellets for delivery to Chicago, IL.

1986
1986:   It was announced that Canada Steamship Lines and Upper Lakes Group would merge CSL’s Collingwood shipyard and ULS’ Port Weller shipyard and create Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering (1986) Ltd.

1990
1900:   The JOHN B. AIRD arrived at Sarnia, ON, for repairs after suffering a conveyor belt fire a week earlier.

Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Max Hanley, 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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