1942
Pittsburgh Steamship Co.’s steamer ENDERS M. VOORHEES (Hull#288), was launched by Great Lakes Engineering Works. She was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey in 1989.
1874
The new tug E.H. MILLER burned at her dock at Willow Island in the Saginaw River. Her loss was valued at $9,000 and there was no insurance. Although considered to be a total loss, she was rebuilt and lasted another 46 years.
1878
ALASKA, a wooden bulk freighter, was launched at J. P. Clark’s yard in Detroit, Michigan. Her dimensions were 180 feet overall, 28 foot beam, and 10 foot depth.
1882
GALATEA (3-mast wooden schooner, 180 foot, 606 gross tons) was launched by F. W. Wheeler (Hull#13) at W. Bay City, Michigan. She lasted until she stranded and broke up at Grand Marais, Michigan, in the “Big Storm” of 1905.
1908
Wilkinson Transportation Co.’s steamer A.E. NETTLETON (Hull#176) was launched the Detroit Ship Building Co. She was scrapped at Santander, Spain in 1973.
1925
Pioneer Steamship’s steamer PHILIP D. BLOCK sailed on her maiden voyage with coal from Huron, Ohio, bound for delivery at Indiana Harbor, Indiana.
1948
ANN ARBOR NO 7 ran aground just south of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
1955
The navigation season at the Canadian Sault Canal was unofficially opened at 7:15 a.m. when the MANZZUTTI (steel crane ship, 246 foot, 1,558 gross tons, built in 1903, at Buffalo, New York as J.S. KEEFE) locked up bound for the Algoma Steel dock. Because the MANZZUTTI wintered over at the Soo, its captain, John B. Perry, was not eligible for the traditional top hat and silk gloves presented to the first captain through the locks. So this was not the official opening of navigation at the Soo. The first boat through the American locks was expected the following day.
1964
While upbound on Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, a boiler burst on board the Pittsburgh Steamship Co.’s WILLIAM A. IRVIN, killing one of the crew and injuring two others.
NORCO had been used to carry pulpwood from Michipicoten to Green Bay from about 1938 to 1957. The vessel had been built at Ecorse, Michigan, for deep-sea service as INCA in 1915, and returned inland in the 1920s. It went back to the sea in 1959 and stranded at Little Corn Island, Nicaragua, on this date while en route from Tampa to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, with a cargo of phosphate.
1970
In Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay, CSL’s steamer STADACONA of 1952 encountered thick ice and suffered bow damage. She developed a hairline crack in her bow and to alleviate the leakage her cargo was shifted from her forward hold to her after compartments using her self-unloading equipment. This maneuver raised her bow enough to keep her from sinking before she reached safety.
1972
Canada Steamship Lines’ J.W. MC GIFFIN (Hull#197) was christened at Collingwood. Port Weller Drydocks attached a new forebody in 1999, and she was renamed b.) CSL NIAGARA.
1974
The tanker IMPERIAL ST. CLAIR (Hull#57), built by Port Weller Drydocks Ltd., entered service running light for Montreal, Quebec.
1980
CHENANGO (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 176 foot, 696 gross tons, built in 1887, at Detroit, Michigan) was carrying 40,000 bushels of wheat from Toledo, Ohio, to Buffalo, New York, when she caught fire off Erie, Pennsylvania. She was partially consumed by the fire and sank in four fathoms of water with no loss of life. She was later raised at great expense and rebuilt as the steamer LIZZIE MADDEN.
1994
AMERICAN MARINER was downbound in the St. Marys River when it struck a rock above the Soo Locks and had to go to the shipyard in Erie to repair the damage.
2015
18 vessels that had been stuck in 35 square miles of crushed ice up to eight feet thick on Eastern Lake Superior were moving again with the Wednesday arrival of the heavy Canadian icebreaker Pierre Radisson.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Max Hanley, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Compiled & Maintained by Roger LeLievre
