1880
LYCOMING (wooden propeller, 251 feet, 1,610 gross tons) was launched at West Bay City, Michigan, by F.W. Wheeler (Hull #7) as a two-deck package freighter. She was rebuilt as a single-deck bulk freighter after she burned in 1905. She was one of the few bulk freighters that still carried her arched hog braces visible above deck.
1890
HIRAM W. SIBLEY (wooden propeller freighter, 221 feet, 1,419 gross tons) was launched at East Saginaw, Michigan. She only lasted eight years. While carrying 70,000 bushels of corn from Chicago for Detroit, she stranded on the northwest corner of South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan during a blizzard on November 26, 1898. The tugs PROTECTOR and SWEEPSTAKES were dispatched for assistance, but the SIBLEY re-floated herself during high water the following night and then was stranded on the southwest side of North Fox Island to prevent sinking. She broke in half, later completely breaking up during a gale on December 7, 1898.
1896
The whaleback COLGATE HOYT became the first boat to transport a load of iron ore through the new Poe Lock. The man at the wheel of the HOYT, Thomas Small, was also at the wheel of the PHILIP R. CLARKE when the second Poe lock was opened to traffic 73 years later.
1902
On a clear, almost perfect night, the SEGUIN (steel propeller freighter, 207 feet, 818 gross tons, built in 1890 at Owen Sound, Ontario) collided with the CITY OF VENICE (wooden propeller freighter, 301 feet, 2,108 gross tons, built in 1892 at W. Bay City, Michigan) abreast of Rondeau, Ontario, on Lake Erie. The CITY OF VENICE, which was loaded with iron ore, sank, and three of her crew drowned. The U.S. Marshall impounded the SEGUIN for damages.
1910
On this day in 1910, a mutiny occurred aboard the Pittsburgh steamer DOUGLAS HOUGHTON when a deckhand was confined for peeping into the cabin window of five female passengers (relatives of officers of the United States Steel Corporation). It required one hour for Captain John Parke, loaded revolver in hand, to quell the mutiny, confine the ringleaders, and clear away the broken furniture.
1935
ANN ARBOR NO. 7 had the full limit of passengers for the first and only time in her career when she ran an excursion from Frankfort, Michigan, around Manitou Island and back with 375 on board.
1949
HOCHELAGA (Hull #144) was launched at Collingwood, Ontario, by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd. for Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., Montreal, Quebec.
1953, 1960
Two favorites of many boatwatchers entered service on August 4: WILLIAM CLAY FORD on August 4, 1953, and EDWARD L. RYERSON on August 4, 1960.
1977
POINTE NOIRE went hard aground in the fog near the entrance to the Rock Cut in the St. Marys River and blocked the channel. After her grain cargo was lightered by Columbia Transportation’s crane steamer BUCKEYE, POINTE NOIRE was released on August 6. She was reloaded in Hay Lake and continued her downbound trip. Repairs to her bottom damage were completed at Thunder Bay. Ontario.
1979
Paterson’s ONTADOC, built in 1975, sailed to the Netherlands with a load of bentonite from Chicago. Renamed b.) MELISSA DESGAGNES in 1990.
1980
The D.M. CLEMSON left Superior in tow of Malcolm Marine’s TUG MALCOLM for Thunder Bay, Ont., where she was dismantled.
1984
The E.J. BLOCK was laid up for the last time at Indiana Harbor, Indiana. The E.J. BLOCK was sold for scrap in late May 1987.
1985
REGENT TAMPOPO, en route from Japan to the Great Lakes with steel, was heavily damaged in the Pacific after a collision with the MING UNIVERSE. The vessel, which first came through the Seaway in 1982, was towed to Los Angeles but declared a total loss. It recrossed the Pacific under tow in 1986 and arrived at Hong Kong for scrapping on October 26, 1986.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Max Hanley, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Russ Plumb, Military.com, Mike Nicholls, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Compiled by Roger LeLievre.
