WILLIAM PEACOCK (wooden sidewheel steamer; 102 feet; 120 tons; built in 1829 at Barcelona, NY) suffered the first major boiler explosion on Lake Erie while she was docked in Buffalo, NY. 15–30 lives were lost. She was rebuilt two years later and eventually foundered in a storm in 1835 near Ripley, OH.
1875
The barge HARMONY was wrecked in a gale at Chicago, IL, by colliding with the north pier, which was underwater. This was the same place where the schooner ONONGA was wrecked a week earlier, and HARMONY came in contact with that sunken schooner. No lives were lost.
1898
KEEPSAKE (two-masted wooden schooner; 183 feet; 286 gross tons; built in 1867 at Newport [Marine City], MI) was carrying coal from Ashtabula, OH, when she was struck by a terrible storm on Lake Erie. Her rudder was damaged, a sail was torn away, and her bulwarks were smashed. The CITY OF ERIE saw her distress signals at 03:30 and came to help. With the CITY OF ERIE’s searchlight shining on the doomed schooner, a huge wave swept over the vessel, taking away everything on deck and snapping both masts. The crew, some only half-dressed, all managed to get into the lifeboat. They rowed to the CITY OF ERIE and were all rescued. Three days later, the other lifeboat and some wreckage from the KEEPSAKE were found near Ashtabula by some fishermen.
1900
A storm carried away the cabin and masts of the wrecked four-masted wooden bulk freight barge FONTANA. The 231-foot vessel had been wrecked and sunk in a collision at the mouth of the St. Clair River in the St. Clair Flats on August 3, 1900. She had settled in the mud and gradually shifted her position. She eventually broke in two. After unsuccessful salvage attempts, the wreck was dynamited.
1909
The towline connecting the ALEXANDER HOLLEY and SIR WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN broke in a Lake Superior storm, and the former, a whaleback barge, almost stranded on Sawtooth Shoal. The anchors caught in time, and it took five hours to rescue the crew.
1949
Tragedy struck when the Canada Steamship Lines cruise ship NORONIC burned at Pier 9 in Toronto, ON. By morning, the ship was gutted, 104 passengers were known to be dead, and 14 were missing. Because of land reclamation and the changing face of the harbor, the actual site of NORONIC’s berth is now in the lobby of the Harbour Castle Westin Hotel.
1955
GRIFFON (Hull #18) was launched at St. Catharines, ON, by Port Weller Drydocks Ltd. for Beaconsfield Steamship Ltd. of Montreal, QC. She was later renamed b.) FRANQUELIN in 1967 and c.) EVA DESGAGNES in 1987 before being sold foreign in 1989 and renamed d.) TELCHAC. The vessel was scrapped at Tuxpan, Mexico, in 1992.
1980
HERMION began Great Lakes trading shortly after entering service in 1960. The vessel stranded as d.) AEOLIAN WIND about 0.5 miles from Nakhodka, Soviet Union, during a voyage from North Vietnam to Cuba on this date in 1980. The ship was refloated on October 8 and scrapped in 1981 at Nakhodka.
1985
PATERSON suffered a crankcase explosion as she was bound for Quebec City, QC, from Montreal, QC. She was repaired and cleared on September 21. The vessel was renamed b.) PINEGLEN in 2002.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Father Dowling Collection, James Neumiller, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
GRIFFON, the first sailing ship on the upper lakes, left Green Bay, WI, with a cargo of furs. She left the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle behind. GRIFFON never reached her planned destination.
1855
SEBASTOPOL (wooden sidewheel steamer; 230 feet; 863 tons; built in 1855 at Cleveland, OH) was sailing on Lake Michigan in a gale. Her cargo included copper, tin, lead and iron ingots, safes, and general merchandise. Her skipper misread the shore lights while she was coming into Milwaukee, WI, and she stranded 500 feet from shore, broadside to the storm waves, which pounded her to pieces. Most of the crew and 60 passengers were saved with the help of small boats from shore, but about six lives were lost. This was the vessel’s first year of operation. Her paddlewheels were 50 feet in diameter.
1871
E.B. ALLEN (wooden schooner; 111 feet; 275 tons; built in 1864 at Ogdensburg, NY) was carrying grain when she collided with the bark NEWSBOY and sank off Thunder Bay Island, MI, in Lake Huron.
1900
The large steamer CAPTAIN THOMAS WILSON was taken from her launch site on the Black River in Port Huron, MI, out to the St. Clair River. The tug HAYNES was at the bow with the tug BOYNTON at the stern. It took an hour and a half to maneuver through the various bridges. Newspapers estimated that a few thousand people watched the event. Once the WILSON made it to the St. Clair River, she was towed to the Jenks Shipbuilding Co., where she was completed and received her machinery.
1909
LACKAWANNA lost steering and sank in the St. Clair River with a hole in the starboard bow after a collision with the wooden schooner CHIEFTAIN off Point Edward, ON.
1918
BUFFALO, formerly the Great Lakes package freighter a.) TADOUSSAC and b.) DORIC, was torpedoed by U-117 and sunk off Godfrey Light and Trevose Head at Cornwall, United Kingdom.
1940
The Pere Marquette car ferry CITY OF MIDLAND 41 (Hull #311) was launched at Manitowoc, WI. She was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. at a cost of $2 million. She was named after Midland, MI, for one of the Pere Marquette Railway’s biggest customers, Dow Chemical Co. She was christened by Miss Helen Dow, daughter of Willard H. Dow, president of Dow Chemical Co. The vessel was converted to a barge in 1998 and renamed PERE MARQUETTE 41.
1942
ASHBAY traded on the Great Lakes for Bay Line Navigation from 1923 until 1935 when it was sold for Brazilian coastal service. The ship was sunk by gunfire from U-516 on this date in 1942 at the mouth of the Marowyne River in Brazil as c.) ANTONICO, and 16 lives were lost.
NORFOLK, en route from Suriname to Trinidad, was hit, without warning, by two torpedoes from U-175 on the starboard side near the British Guiana-Venezuela border. The Canada Steamship Lines ship went down in minutes. Six lives were lost in addition to the cargo of 3,055 tons of bauxite destined for Alcoa.
1946
E.J. BLOCK, formerly a.) W.R. WOODFORD of 1908, returned to service as the first large bulk freighter powered by a diesel-electric power plant and one of the first equipped with commercial radar on the Great Lakes. She lasted until scrapped in 1988 at Ramey’s Bend in Port Colborne, ON.
1958
ASHTABULA sank at Ashtabula, OH, after a collision with the inbound BEN MOREELL. All on board were rescued, but there were later two casualties when the captain committed suicide and an insurance inspector fell to his death while on board.
1959
The HENRY FORD II ran aground in the St. Marys River and damaged 18 bottom plates.
1962
LAKE WINNIPEG was the first vessel to enter the Nipigon Transport fleet. She loaded her first cargo of 22,584 gross tons of iron ore on this date in 1962, clearing Sept-Îles, QC, bound for Cleveland, OH.
1970
HIGHLINER was heavily damaged amidships as d.) PETROS in a fire at Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The vessel was not repaired and, after being laid up at Cardiff, Wales, was towed to Newport, Monmouthshire, for scrapping on June 12, 1972.
1978
The British freighter DUNDEE was a pre-Seaway trader into the Great Lakes and returned through the new waterway on 14 occasions from 1959 to 1962. It foundered in the Mediterranean Sea on this date in 1978 as g.) VLYHO near Falconera after an engine room explosion caused leaks in the hull. The vessel was en route from Chalkis, Greece, to Tunis, Tunisia, at the time.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, 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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Officials at Lake Michigan Carferry, Inc. announced that the CITY OF MIDLAND 41 would be converted to a barge.
Contributors & Sources
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.
COLONEL CAMP (three-masted wooden bark; 137 feet; 350 tons; built in 1854 at Three Mile Bay, NY) was carrying wheat to Oswego, NY, when she collided with the wooden steamer PLYMOUTH and sank in just a few minutes. No lives were lost.
1873
W.L. PECK (two-masted wooden schooner barge; 154 feet; 361 gross tons) was launched at Carrollton, MI.
1875
John Jonathon Boland was born. Along with Adam E. Cornelius, he formed the partnership of Boland and Cornelius in 1903 and was one of the founders of the American Steamship Co. in 1907. He died in 1956.
1951
CHARLES M. WHITE was christened at Baltimore, MD.
1970
MARATHA ENDEAVOUR, en route from Chicago, IL, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, broke down in the Atlantic Ocean and sent out a distress call. The ship was taking water but survived. The 520-foot vessel had been a Seaway trader since 1965 and returned as b.) OLYMPIAN in 1971. The ship arrived at Huangpu, China, for scrapping as c.) HIMALAYA on January 9, 1985.
1973
CHARLES E. WILSON sailed light on her maiden voyage from Sturgeon Bay, WI, bound for Escanaba, MI, to load ore. She was renamed b.) JOHN J. BOLAND in 2000.
1980
The Canadian coastal freighter EDGAR JOURDAIN was built at Collingwood, ON, in 1956 as MONTCLAIR. The ship had been a pre-Seaway trader to the lakes and returned as b.) PIERRE RADISSON in 1965, c.) GEORGE CROSBIE in 1972, and d.) EDGAR JOURDAIN beginning in 1979. It was wrecked in the Foxe Basin off Hall Beach in the Canadian Arctic after going aground on this date in 1980. The ship was abandoned with the anchors down but disappeared overnight on December 15, 1982, while locked in shifting pack ice. It is believed that the vessel was carried into deeper water, and at last report, no trace had ever been found.
1982
BEAVERFIR served Canadian Pacific Steamships as a Seaway trader beginning in 1961. The ship stranded off Barra de Santiago, El Salvador, as d.) ANDEN in a storm on this date in 1982 after dragging anchor. 16 sailors from the 26-member crew perished.
1983
GEORGE A. STINSON’s self-unloading boom was replaced. The boom had collapsed onto her deck due to a mechanical failure on the night of April 19, 1983, at Detroit, MI. No injuries were reported. She continued hauling cargoes without a boom until replacement could be fabricated. She was renamed b.) AMERICAN SPIRIT in 2004.
1986
Vandals started a $5,000 fire aboard the NIPIGON BAY at Kingston, ON, where she had been laid up since April 1984.
2011
MINER, formerly a.) MAPLECLIFFE HALL, b.) LEMOYNE (ii), and c.) CANADIAN MINER, broke loose of the tug HELLAS and drifted aground off Scaterie Island in the Atlantic Ocean while under tow for scrapping at Aliaga, Turkey. The ship was a total loss and, in 2013, was still waiting to be dismantled and removed.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR (wooden brig; 78 feet; 112 tons; built in 1835 at Pointe aux Pins, ON, but precut at Lorain, OH) was carrying furs and trade goods when she struck a reef and foundered near Copper Harbor, MI. She was owned by Astor’s American Fur Co. She was reportedly the first commercial vessel on Lake Superior.
1855
ASIA (two-masted wooden schooner; 108 feet; 204 tons; built in 1848 on the Black River near Lorain, OH) was carrying corn from Chicago, IL, for Buffalo, NY, when she collided with the propeller FOREST CITY off the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay. ASIA went down in deep water in about 10 minutes, but her crew had just enough time to escape in her boat. The schooner HAMLET picked them up.
1892
The whaleback steamer JAMES B. COLGATE (steel propeller whaleback freighter; 308 feet; 1,713 gross tons) was launched by the American Steel Barge Co. (Hull #121) at West Superior, WI. She only lasted until 1916 when she foundered in the “Black Friday Storm” on Lake Erie with the loss of 26 lives.
1907
The passenger ship PICTON, formerly a.) CORSICAN, caught fire and burned at the dock in Toronto, ON. The hull was later converted to a barge and was, in time, apparently abandoned near the Picton Pumping Station.
ALEX NIMICK, a wooden bulk freighter, went aground near west of Vermilion Point on Lake Superior and broke up as a total loss. The vessel was en route from Buffalo, NY, to Duluth, MN, with a cargo of coal, and six lives were lost
1921
The three-masted schooner OLIVER MOWAT went down in Lake Ontario between the Main Duck and False Duck Islands after a collision with KEYWEST on a clear night. Three lives were lost, while another two sailors were rescued from the coal-laden schooner.
1924
The whaleback self-unloader CLIFTON, the former SAMUEL MATHER, foundered in Lake Huron off Thunder Bay while carrying a cargo of stone from Sturgeon Bay, WI, to Detroit, MI. All 25 on board were lost.
1946
A second typhoon caught the former Hall vessel LUCIUS W. ROBINSON as b.) HAI LIN while anchored in the harbor at Saipan, Philippines, on a voyage to China.
1969
AFRICAN GLADE, a Seaway caller in 1963, lost power in the Caribbean as c.) TRANSOCEAN PEACE on this date in 1969 and was towed into Port au Spain, Trinidad. The repaired ship departed for Durban, South Africa, in April 1970 only to suffer more boiler problems en route. The vessel was sold for scrapping at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, later in the year.
1972
ALGOWAY left Collingwood, ON, on her maiden voyage and loaded salt for Michipicoten, ON, on Lake Superior.
1977
HELEN EVANS suffered steering problems and went aground on Whaleback Shoal while upbound with iron ore in the St. Lawrence River. There was minor damage, and the vessel was released on September 23.
1982
CALGADOC left the Great Lakes in 1975 and saw service in the south as b.) EL SALINERO. The ship sank on this date in 1982 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
1985
ELTON HOYT 2ND struck the 95th Street Bridge at Chicago, IL, and headed to Sturgeon Bay, WI, for repairs.
1988
The small tug MARY KAY sank in a Lake Ontario storm en route from Rochester, NY, to Oswego, NY. The former b.) CAPT. G.H. SWIFT had recently been refitted and went down after a huge wave broke over the stern. It had seen only brief service on Lake Ontario after arriving from the Atlantic in 1987.
1993
The tug DUKE LUEDTKE sank in Lake Erie about 12 miles north of Avon Point when the ship began taking water faster than the pumps could keep up. One U.S. Coast Guard officer was lost checking on the source of the leak when the vessel rolled over and sank.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Mr. H.N. Jex accepted the contract to recover the engine and boiler from the MAYFLOWER, which sank in the Detroit River in 1864. He was to be paid $600 upon delivery of the machinery at Windsor, ON. He succeeded in raising the engine on October 12 and recovered the boiler shortly thereafter.
1887
ADA E. ALLEN (wooden propeller steam barge; 90 feet; 170 gross tons; built in 1872 at Walpole Island, ON) caught fire while moored at Amherstburg, ON. She was cut loose and set adrift to prevent the fire from spreading ashore. She drifted to Bois Blanc (Boblo) Island and burned to a total loss.
1911
The HENRY PHIPPS collided with and sank her Steel Trust fleetmate, the steamer JOLIET of 1890, which was at anchor on the fog-shrouded St. Clair River near Sarnia, ON. The JOLIET sank without loss of crew and was declared a total loss. The PHIPPS then continued her downbound journey and collided with the Wyandotte Chemical steamer ALPENA of 1909 but incurred only minor damage.
1913
The ANN ARBOR NO. 5 struck bottom in the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and damaged her rudder and steering gear. After undergoing repairs at Milwaukee, WI, she was back in service the following October.
1917
The wooden steamer WILLIAM P. REND, formerly a.) GEORGE G. HADLEY, foundered off Alpena, MI, while carrying livestock. All nine crewmembers were rescued.
1951
The Liberty ship THUNDERBIRD visited the Seaway in 1959. On this date in 1951, the ship received major bow damage from a head-on collision with the Chinese freighter UNION BUILDER (built in 1945 at Brunswick, GA, as a.) COASTAL RANGER) at the entrance to Colombo, Ceylon. THUNDERBIRD was also a Great Lakes trader as d.) NEW KAILING in 1964 and was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1967.
1958
The EDMUND FITZGERALD entered service, departing River Rouge, MI, for Silver Bay, MN, on its first trip. The FITZGERALD’s first load was 20,038 tons of taconite pellets for Toledo, OH. The vessel would, in later years, set several iron ore records during the period from 1965 through 1969.
1976
While in ballast, the ROGER M. KYES struck bottom in the Buffalo Harbor at Buffalo, NY, sustaining holes in two double-bottom tanks and damage to three others, whereupon she proceeded to Chicago, IL, for dry docking on September 27, 1976, for survey and repairs. She was renamed b.) ADAM E. CORNELIUS in 1989.
1979
OCEANIC KLIF first visited the Seaway in 1971. The ship stranded near Las Palmas, Spain, on this date in 1979 while on a voyage from Kamsar, Guinea, to Port-Alfred, QC, with calcinated bauxite and was abandoned by the crew.
1980
While being towed from Duluth, MN, by the Canadian tug TUSKER, the D.G. KERR rammed into the breakwater, causing $200,000 in damages to the breakwater. The tow apparently failed to make the turning buoy leaving the Duluth Harbor.
1987
The T.W. ROBINSON and US.265808 (formerly BENSON FORD) departed Quebec City, QC, in tow of the Polish tug JANTAR bound for Recife, Brazil, where they arrived on this date in 1987. Scrapping began the next month.
1988
MATHILDA DESGAGNÉS was freed from polar ice in the Arctic by the West German icebreaker research vessel POLARSTERN.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Max Hanley, James Neumiller, Jody Aho, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
The scow WAUBONSIE was launched at the Curtis yard in Fort Gratiot, MI.
1910
The BETHLEHEM (steel propeller package freighter; 290 feet; 2,633 gross tons; built in 1888 at Cleveland, OH) was carrying general merchandise when she went ashore in a gale on the southwestern side of South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. Members of the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the vessel’s crew unloaded her over several days. Although battered by several storms while ashore, she was eventually pulled free and repaired. She lasted until 1925 when she was scrapped.
1922
The 306-foot NEPTUNE loaded the first head-of-the-lakes cargo of pig iron at Zenith Furnace in Duluth, MN. The 5,000 tons of malleable pig iron was delivered to Buffalo, NY.
1935
HURRY-ON was a Great Lakes visitor in 1934 when it loaded bagged flour at Port Colborne, ON. The ship was lost off Port Hood Island near Judique, NS, after developing leaks and a list. The lifeboat swamped twice, and five were lost.
1952
The steamer CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON became the first boat christened at Cleveland, OH, since the early years of World War II. The 644-foot HUTCHINSON, under the command of Captain T.A. Johnson, was the new flagship of the Pioneer fleet and one of 35 boats in the three fleets operated by Hutchinson & Co. She was renamed b.) ERNEST R. BREECH in 1962 and c.) KINSMAN INDEPENDENT in 1988. Sold Canadian in 2005, the vessel was renamed d.) VOYAGEUR INDEPENDENT and later e.) OJIBWAY before being scrapped in 2023.
1961
CRYSTAL JEWEL, inbound for London, United Kingdom, in thick fog, was in a collision with the BP tanker BRITISH AVIATOR. The captain was seriously injured, and his daughter was killed. The vessel first visited the Great Lakes in 1960 and was en route from Duluth, MN, to London with a cargo of grain at the time of the accident. The vessel grounded and, after being released, was taken to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where the entire mid-ship superstructure was replaced. The ship made many more trips through the Seaway and returned as b.) MELTEMI in 1970. It was scrapped at Busan, South Korea, after arriving as d.) TETA on July 17, 1979.
1975
HERBERT C. JACKSON lost power while upbound on Lake Superior. She was towed back to the Soo by the U.S. Steel straight-decker D.G. KERR.
1980
FERNLEAF first visited the Seaway in 1965 and returned as b.) AALSUM in 1974. The ship was detained at Basrah, Iraq, as c.) INICIATIVA on this date in 1981 and declared a total loss in December of that year. It was salvaged in 1993 and renamed d.) DOLPHIN V but perhaps only for a trip to the shipbreakers. The vessel arrived at Gadani, Pakistan, on December 27, 2003, and dismantling began at once.
1991
J.W. MCGIFFIN rescued several people in a 24-foot pleasure craft off Presque Isle State Park near Erie, PA. The group had been disabled since the day before and were taken aboard the MCGIFFIN with their boat under tow. The MCGIFFIN was rebuilt with a new forward section and renamed b.) CSL NIAGARA in 1999.
2000
Vandals attacked the museum ship NORGOMA at Sault Ste. Marie, ON, breaking windows and light fixtures and setting off fire extinguishers, leaving an estimated $15,000 in damage.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
