1870

Captain William H. Le Fleur of the Pere Marquette carferry fleet, known as “the Bear,” was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1976

The carferry WOLFE ISLANDER III was inaugurated into service between Kingston and Wolfe Island Ontario. Later that night, two blocks over, a Kingston resident noticed the captain turning off the running lights of the ‘ol WOLFE ISLANDER as she joined her already winterized sister, the UPPER CANADA.

1972

CHRISTIANE SCHULTE, a West German Seaway trader, went aground at Khidhes Island, Cyprus, while on fire and was abandoned by the crew. The ship was traveling from Lattakia, Syria, to Mersin, Turkey, as b) CITTA DI ALESSANDRIA and was a total loss.

1977

The Israeli freighter TAMAR, a Seaway caller in 1959 and 1961, was gutted by a fire in the Aegean Sea south of Thira Island as c) ATHENA. The vessel, enroute from Mersin, Turkey, to Albania, was towed into Piraeus, Greece, on February 12. It was a total loss and scrapping began at Eleusis in January 1978.

1982

The Canadian tanker JAMES TRANSPORT spent 10 hours aground in the St. Lawrence near Batiscan, Quebec.

1988

ASHLAND, in a critically leaking condition, barely made Mamonel, Colombia, where she was scrapped.

1996

A shipboard fire caused extensive damage to the JEAN PARISIEN docked at the stone docks in Port Colborne. No one was injured in the blaze, which took two hours to extinguish and was the second one on board a ship in two days.

Contributors & Sources

Gerry Ouderkirk, Max Hanley, Brian Johnson, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.

Compiled & Maintained by Roger LeLievre