Today in Great Lakes History – September 25

1869
1869:   COMMENCEMENT (two-masted wooden schooner; 75 feet; 73 tons; built in 1853 at Holland, MI) was carrying wood in her hold and telegraph poles on deck from Pentwater, MI, for Milwaukee, WI, when she sprang a leak 20 miles off Little Sable Point on Lake Michigan. The incoming water quickly overtook her pump capacity. As the crew was getting aboard the lifeboat, she turned turtle. The crew clung to the upturned hull for 30 hours until the passing steamer ALLEGHENY finally rescued them. COMMENCEMENT later washed ashore a total wreck.

1905
1905:   HENRY C. FRICK departed Bay City, MI, on her maiden voyage and rammed and damaged the Michigan Central Railroad Bridge.

1914:
1914:   On this day September 25, 1914, the steamer SHEBOYGAN, the first boat built for Goodrich, was cremated.
   After forty-five years of service on Lake Michigan, the Goodrich line steamer SHEBOYGAN, the first boat built by that company, was towed a mile north of the harbor piers Friday night and burned amid great ceremonies. President Goodrich, General Manager Thorp and a party from Chicago were here for the “funeral” of their pioneer craft.

1922
1922:   AUBE, on her first trip back under this name, went aground off Carleton Island on the St. Lawrence River while carrying 65,000 bushels of grain. Tugs released the stranded vessel the following day.

1978
1978:   FRANQUELIN (ii) went aground in the Seaway below Beauharnois, QC. Once refloated, the ship went to Canadian Vickers in Montreal, QC, for repairs and was caught there in a labor dispute.

1980
1980:   DERWENTFIELD, a British-flagged freighter, first came through the Seaway in 1975. The ship grounded on this date in 1980 as c.) CAVO ARTEMIDI off Brazil while en route from Vitoria, Brazil, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a cargo of pig iron and broke in two as a total loss.

1985
1985:   In tandem tow, MENIHEK LAKE and LEON FALK JR. arrived at Vigo, Spain. The MENIHEK LAKE was scrapped at Vigo, and the FALK was towed to Gijn, Spain, for scrapping.

Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. Compiled by Roger LeLievre.