Today in Great Lakes History – August 3

1857 R.H. RAE (three-mast wooden bark, 136 feet, 344 tons, built in 1857 at St. Catharines, Ontario) capsized and sank in a “white squall” off Duck’s Creek on Lake Ontario. She went down slowly enough for her people to abandon in her small boat. They...
Today in Great Lakes History – August 2

Today in Great Lakes History – August 2

1858 The wooden side-wheeler TELEGRAPH collided with the schooner MARQUETTE and sank 40 miles north of Cleveland. 1862 John C. Ackerman was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At the time of his death in 1916, he was commodore of the Pere Marquette car ferry fleet based in...
Today in Great Lakes History – August 1

Today in Great Lakes History – August 1

1849 CHICAGO (wooden passenger-package freight vessel, 95 feet, 151 tons, built in 1842 at Oswego, New York) burned in Buffalo Harbor. No lives were lost. 1862 UNION (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 163 feet, 434 tons, built in 1861 at Manitowoc,...
Today in Great Lakes History – July 31

Today in Great Lakes History – July 31

1849 ACORN (wooden schooner, 84 feet, 125 tons, built in 1842 at Black River, Ohio) was struck amidships by the propeller TROY near West Sister Island in Lake Erie. She sank quickly, but no lives were lost since all hands made it to the TROY. 1850 AMERICA (wooden...
Today in Great Lakes History – July 30

Today in Great Lakes History – July 30

1866 CITY OF BUFFALO (wooden propeller, 340 feet, 2,026 tons, built in 1857 at Buffalo, New York, as a side-wheeler) was unloading 72,000 bushels of wheat at the Sturgis Elevator at Buffalo, New York, when arsonists set fire to the complex. The fire destroyed the...
Today in Great Lakes History – July 29

Today in Great Lakes History – July 29

1872 The steam barge MARY ROBERTSON burned near Mackinac. Her crew escaped to a schooner barge they were towing. 1875 The side-wheel river steamer DOMINION burned to the water’s edge at her dock in the Thames River near Chatham, Ontario. She was built in 1867,...