1856
1856: At Rush Street in Chicago, IL, a hand-operated ferry carried pedestrians across the Chicago River. The ferry operator would pull hand-over-hand on a rope to move the ferry across the river. At a signal from schooners, the rope was dropped, and the schooner would sail over it. On this date in 1856, the rope was dropped, but the impatient passengers picked it up to move the ferry themselves. The incoming schooner snagged the rope, and the ferry was spun around and capsized. 15 people drowned.
1891
1891: At 11:00, the whaleback steamer CHARLES W. WETMORE left Philadelphia, PA, loaded with the materials to build a nail mill, iron smelter, and shipyard for the new city of Everett, WA. Her skipper was Captain Joseph B. Hastings, and she had a crew of 22.
1893
1893: SAMUEL BOLTEN (wooden schooner barge; 150 feet; 330 gross tons; built in 1867 at Bangor, MI, as a schooner) was loaded with lumber and being towed in fog in Lake Huron. She got lost from the tow and drifted ashore near Richmondville, MI, about six miles north of Forester, MI, where she broke in two and was then torn apart by waves. She was owned by Brazil Hoose of Detroit, MI.
1900
1900: The Great Lakes schooner S.L. WATSON foundered off Cape Cod in the Atlantic Ocean. She had been sent to the Atlantic the previous autumn by her owner, J.C. Gilchrist of Cleveland, OH.
1969
1969: The twin-screw railcar ferry GRAND HAVEN of 1903 was laid up in the spring of 1965 at the old Pennsylvania Dock in Cleveland, OH, later being moved to the Old River Bed where she sank on this date in 1969.
1974
1974: Cleveland Tankers’ new SATURN entered service and made her first trip to Toledo, OH, becoming the first of three tankers built for the fleet’s modernization program.
1980
1980: EDGAR B. SPEER departed the shipyard on her maiden voyage for U.S. Steel bound for Two Harbors, MN, where she loaded her first cargo of taconite pellets.
1997
1997: Officials at Lake Michigan Carferry, Inc. announced that the CITY OF MIDLAND 41 would be converted to a barge.
Data from: Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Max Hanley, 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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- Charles W. Wetmore in June 1891.
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- Charles W. Wetmore. Everett Public Library
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- Icy Edgar B. Speer. Nick Stenstrup
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- 1980 newspaper clipping of the Edgar B. Speer’s maiden voyage.
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- City of Midland 41 loading autos and railcars.
