1920
The Grand Trunk carferry GRAND HAVEN was fast in the ice three miles out of Grand Haven.
1945
The C1-M-AV1 ship LEBANON, built by W. Butler Shipyard (Hull #40), was the last vessel through the Soo Locks. Ice was a serious problem. The newly-commissioned icebreaker USCGC MACKINAW escorted the LEBANON to Lake Huron. The locks had never before been open this late in January. They were kept open to allow newly-built cargo vessels to sail from Superior, Wisconsin, to the Atlantic Ocean where they were needed for the war effort.
1946
The BADGER STATE, a former Great Lakes canal ship as a) FORDONIAN, b) YUKONDOC and c) GEORGIAN, foundered off the mouth of the Grijalva River in the Gulf of Mexico.
1969
SAGAMO, retired former flagship of the Lake Muskoka passenger ships in Central Ontario, burned at the dock in Gravenhurst as a total loss.
1970
On this day in 1970, IRVING S. OLDS entered winter layup at Lorain to close the longest season in Great Lakes shipping history.
1977
CANADIAN MARINER laid up at the Consol Fuel dock in Windsor after her attempt to reach Port Colborne was thwarted by heavy ice off Long Point.
1978
On Jan 14, 1978, JAMES R. BARKER departed the Soo Line ore dock in Ashland, Wisconsin, where she had been laid-up since August 7, 1977, due to the iron ore miner’s strike.
1980
Scrapping began on CHICAGO TRIBUNE in 1989, by International Marine Salvage in Port Colborne, Ontario.
1981
The former Lake Erie rail car ferry and later barge MAITLAND NO. 1 rolled over between Yarmouth, NS and Rockland, ME. An attempt to tow the vessel upside down failed and it sank. The ship was under tow of IRVING MAPLE and bound for Port Everglades, FL with a load of scrap. It may have been renamed b) TRIO TRADO at Quebec City on the way south.
1997
The PAUL R. TREGURTHA was forced to leave Taconite Harbor without a full load Jan. 13 after a railroad accident brought the shipping season there to a premature end. An entire 93-car train of taconite pellets derailed, spilling about 8,000 tons of pellets and tearing up at least half a mile of the track that links LTV Steel Mining Co.’s pellet plant with its shiploading facility. With the loading dock empty and the rail line closed indefinitely, the Tregurtha was forced to depart to beat the closing deadline at the Soo. Two men aboard the train were slightly injured.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Max Hanley, Brian Bernard, Russ Plumb, Ahoy & Farewell II, Father Dowling Collection, and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.
Compiled & Maintained by Roger LeLievre
