1899
1899: On 17 January 1899, the GERMANIA (wooden propeller freighter, 136 foot, 237 gross tons, built in 1875, at Marine City, Michigan) caught fire and burned to the water’s edge at Ecorse, Michigan. The previous day, Norman Reno of Ecorse did some painting inside the cabin and it was presumed that the stove used to heat the cabin may have caused the blaze. The vessel was in winter lay-up at the rear of the home of Mr. W. G. Smith, her owner.
1902
1902: January 17, 1902 – PERE MARQUETTE 2 [built 1882 as F&PM 2 Renamed PERE MARQUETTE 2 in 1901, Rnamed DUNDURN in 1906] ran aground at Ludington.
1916
1916: PERE MARQUETTE 19 grounded in limited visibility on January 17, 1916, two miles south of Big Point Sable, Michigan, 600 feet off shore. The captain made three unsuccessful attempts to find the Ludington Harbor entrance and on the turn around for the fourth attempt she grounded.
1925
1925: PHILIP D. BLOCK (Hull#789) was launched at Lorain, Ohio, by the American Ship Building in 1925.
1-17-1942
1942: LAKE FLAMBEAU [Built 1919 at McDougall-Duluth Shipbuilding Co, Duluth, Minnesota Renamed-1924 JAMES RIVER, Renamed-1939 SALMAN FRANCES] Departed St. John’s, Newfoundland for Corner Brook on January 17, 1942, and never arrived. Believed torpedoed off St. John’s on January 20, 1942
1951
1951: JOHN E. F. MISENER was float launched in 1951, as a.) SCOTT MISENER (Hull#11) at St. Catharines, Ontario, by Port Weller Drydocks, Ltd.
1963
1963: The tanker GREAT LAKES was launched in 1963, as the a.) SINCLAIR GREAT LAKES (Hull#1577) at Decatur, Alabama, by Ingalls Iron Works Co.
1975
1975: NORTHERN VENTURE closed the Welland Canal for the season as she passed downbound for Hamilton with coal in 1975.
1978
1978: The CLIFFS VICTORY, JOSEPH H. FRANTZ, WILLIAM G. MATHER, ROBERT C. NORTON, CRISPIN OGLEBAY and J. BURTON AYERS formed a convoy in the Detroit River bound for Cleveland.
1997
According to a recent story in the Duluth News-Tribune, the two-man crew of an out-of-control LTV taconite train at one point warned other workers that the train might run off the end of the loading dock and plunge into the harbor at Taconite Harbor.
The accident earlier this week occurred while Paul R. Tregurtha was loading at the LTV Steel Mining Co. dock at Taconite Harbor. The boat left without a full load after the train derailed and cut off rail access to the shiploader.
The train was coming down a 2 percent grade at an estimated 45 mph instead of the usual 5 mph. LTV officials praised the trainmen for using their radio to warn other workers to block auto traffic on Highway 61 where it passes under the rail line and for alerting them that the train could crash into the shiploader and plunge off the dock.
A safety system functioned as planned when it automatically switched the onrushing train to an uphill loop track, diverting it away from the dock. The entire 93-car train derailed when it hit the switch at high speed.
2000
2000: FEDERAL VIBEKE got stuck in the ice on the St. Lawrence and was almost carried into the bridge at Quebec City. The vessel was bound for Sorel with steel. It first came to the Great Lakes in 1993 after previous visits as a) NOSIRA LIN beginning in 1981, b) DAN BAUTA in 1989, and c) KRISTIANIAFJORD in 1991. It was back as e) KALISTI in 2000 and f) NOBILITY in 2004. This bulk carrier arrived at Alang, India, for scrapping as h) OPAL II and was beached on November 14, 2012.
2023
2023: The McKeil Marine/Nadro Marine Services tug Seahound has sunk at Port Maitland, ON. Images on social media Monday showed her mostly submerged, with a crew working to mediate any pollution and determine a salvage plan. No further details are known at this time. The 65-foot tug was built in 1971, and is active in the Welland Canal area, often assisting vessels headed for scrap at Marine Recycling Corp. at Port Colborne.
2023: The Soo Locks are officially closed to shipping traffic as of 10 a.m. today, Monday 1/17/2023 They were originally scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night, but the tug/barge Ashtabula/Defiance left Superior, WI, late due to loading and weather delays
2024
2024: The 1952-built steamer Philip R. Clarke, captained by Scott Hein, closed
the 2023-24 Soo Locks season when she passed downbound on a sunny but cold Tuesday
morning 1-17-2024 bound from Two Harbors, MN, to Conneaut, OH, with taconite pellets. Once unloaded,
she will winter at Toledo.
Data from: Max Hanley, Brian Bernard, Ahoy & Farewell II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series.
