1876
1876: At 03:00, the steam barge LADY FRANKLIN burned while moored near Clark’s dock, about three miles from Amherstburg, ON, in the Detroit River. One life was lost. This vessel had been built in 1861 as a passenger steamer and ran between Cleveland, OH, and Port Stanley, ON. In 1874 she was converted into a lumber freighter, running primarily between Saginaw, MI, and Cleveland, OH. The burned hull was rebuilt in 1882.
1892
1892: JOHN BURT (three-masted wooden schooner; 138 feet; 348 gross tons; built in 1871 at Detroit, MI) was carrying grain in a strong northwestern gale. Her rudder broke, and she was blown past the mouth of the harbor at Oswego, NY, and driven hard aground. Two died when the vessel struck. The U.S. Life-Saving Service rescued the remaining five crewmembers. The vessel quickly broke up in the waves.
1914
1914: MARY N. BOURKE (wooden schooner barge; 219 feet; 920 gross tons; built in 1889 at Baraga, MI) was docked at Peter’s Lumber Dock in St. Mary’s Bay, 15 miles north of St. Ignace, MI. The crew was awakened around 21:30 by smoke coming from her hold and escaped. The BOURKE burned to the waterline and the fire spread ashore, destroying the dock and a pile of lumber.
1930
1930: The schooner OUR SON, launched in 1875, sank during a storm on Lake Michigan about 40 miles west-southwest of Big Sable Point. 73-year-old Captain Fred Nelson and the crew of OUR SON were rescued by the self-unloader WILLIAM NELSON.
1937
1937: The Canadian Seaman’s Union signed a tentative wage contract. Sailors would continue a two-watch system (working 12 hours every 24 hours) and be paid the following monthly wages: wheelsmen and oilers — $72.50; watchmen and firemen — $67.50; second cooks — $52.50; deckhands and coal passers — $50.00; porters — $45.00; chief cooks on the upper lakes — $115.00; chief cooks on canal boats — $105.00.
1957
1957: Taconite Harbor, MN, loaded its first cargo of 10,909 tons of taconite pellets into the holds of the Interlake steamer J.A. CAMPBELL.
1969
1969: CCGS GRIFFON (Hull #664) was launched by Davie Shipbuilding Ltd. at Lauzon, QC, for the Canadian Coast Guard.
1973
1973: H.M. GRIFFITH was christened at Collingwood, ON, for Canada Steamship Lines.
1974
1974: CHI-CHEEMAUN cleared the shipyard in Collingwood, ON.
1979
1979: MAHONI, an Indonesian-registered freighter, went aground on the west coast of Taiwan on this date in 1979 and was abandoned by the crew. The ship was refloated in June 1980 and sold to Taiwanese shipbreakers for scrapping at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It had been a Seaway saltie as b.) CLARI beginning in 1968 and returned as c.) ARNIS in 1970.
1984
1984: ROGER M. KYES returned to service after she had grounded off McLouth Steel and ended crosswise in the Detroit River’s Trenton Channel a month before. She was renamed b.) ADAM E. CORNELIUS in 1989.
1985
1985: The BELLE RIVER was sideswiped by the Liberian FEDERAL RHINE of 1977 at Duluth, MN. Both vessels received minor damage.
Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, Mike Nicholls, Ahoy & Farewell II, Father Dowling Collection, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. Compiled by Roger LeLievre.
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- Our Son. Captain William Taylor
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- J.A. Campbell at Mission Point in the Soo in the 1950s. Tom Manse
