1866
CITY OF BUFFALO (wooden propeller, 340 feet, 2,026 tons, built in 1857 at Buffalo, New York, as a side-wheeler) was unloading 72,000 bushels of wheat at the Sturgis Elevator at Buffalo, New York, when arsonists set fire to the complex. The fire destroyed the wharf, the elevator, several businesses and the ship. The arsonists were caught. Incidentally, the CITY OF BUFFALO was converted from a passenger side-wheeler to a propeller freighter during the winter of 1863–1864. After the conversion, she was dubbed “the slowest steam craft on the lakes.”
1871
The 162-foot bark HARVEY BISSELL was carrying lumber from Toledo to Tonawanda, New York. When she was on the western end of Lake Erie, she sprang a leak. Although the crew worked the hand-powered pumps constantly, the water kept gaining at a rate of about a foot an hour. The tug KATE WILLIAMS took her in tow, intending to get her to Detroit to be repaired, but this proved impossible. The BISSELL was towed close to Point Pelee and allowed to sink in 14 feet of water. The WILLIAMS then left for Detroit to get steam pumps and other salvage equipment. On returning, they pumped out the BISSELL, refloated and repaired her. She lasted until 1905.
1872
The Port Huron dry dock launched SANDY, a lighter. Her dimensions were 75 feet x 20 feet x 5 feet.
1873
George Hardison of Detroit announced the beginning of a new shipyard in Port Huron, Michigan. It would be located above the 7th St. Bridge on the Black River on land owned by J. P. Haynes, accessible by River St. Within 30 days of this announcement, the new yard had orders for two three-and-aft-rigged canalers for delivery in the spring of 1874. Their dimensions were to be 146 feet overall with a 139-foot keel, 26-foot beam and 11.5-foot depth.
1952
GORDON C. LEITCH (i) (Hull #36) was launched at Midland, Ontario, by Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. for the Upper Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Co. Ltd., Toronto, Ontario. She departed Quebec on July 29, 1985, in tandem tow with R. BRUCE ANGUS and arrived at Setubal, Portugal, on August 20, 1985. Scrapping was done there by Joao Luis Russo & Filhos Ltda.
1959
The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS ALEXANDER HENRY entered service. Since 1985, the HENRY has served as a museum in Kingston, Ontario, and later Thunder Bay, Ontario.
1996
The Boatnerd News site was launched.
CSL’s self-unloader H.M. GRIFFITH, which was off Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior and bound for Nanticoke, Ontario, with a load of 22,775 tons of western coal, had a spontaneous combustion fire in her number two cargo hold. Water was used to cool the fire, and the GRIFFITH used her unloading boom to dump 3,000 tons of coal into Lake Superior. After an inspection by the USCG at the Soo the following day revealed only minor damage, the vessel was cleared to proceed on her journey. She was reconstructed and renamed b.) RT. HON. PAUL J. MARTIN in 2000.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Lake Huron Lore Society, 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.
