1874
NEPTUNE (wooden propeller, 185 foot, 774 gross tons, built in 1856, at Buffalo, New York) was laid up at East Saginaw, Michigan, when she was discovered to be on fire at about 4:00 a.m. She burned to a total loss.
1881
LAKE ERIE (wooden propeller canaller, 136 foot, 464 gross tons, built in 1873, at St, Catharine’s, Ontario) collided with the steamer NORTHERN QUEEN in fog and a blizzard near Poverty Island by the mouth of Green Bay. LAKE ERIE sank in one hour 40 minutes. NORTHERN QUEEN took aboard the crew but one man was scalded and died before reaching Manistique.
1892
The ANN ARBOR NO 1 left Frankfort for Kewaunee. It was difficult to find cargo for this first trip because shippers were reluctant to trust their products on this new kind of ferry. Finally, a fuel company which sold coal to the railroad routed four cars to Kewaunee via the ferry. The vessel ran aground on this trip just north of the Kewaunee harbor.
1905
ARGO (steel propeller passenger/package freight, 174 foot, 1,089 tons, built in 1896, at Detroit, Michigan) dropped into a trough of a wave, hit bottom and sank in relatively shallow water while approaching the harbor at Holland, Michigan. 38 passengers and crew were taken off by breeches’ buoy in a thrilling rescue by the U.S. Lifesaving Service.
1931
The CITY OF SAGINAW 31 entered service.
1934
ROSEMOUNT, stored with coal, sank alongside CSL’s Century Coal Dock at Montreal, Quebec.
1938
The idle former passenger ship CITY OF BENTON HARBOR was gutted by a fire at Sturgeon Bay.
1945
SCOTT E. LAND (steel propeller C4-S-A4 cargo ship, 496 foot, 10,654 gross tons) was launched at Kaiser Corporation (Hull #520) in Vancouver, Washington for the U.S. Maritime Commission. She was converted to a straight-deck bulk freighter at Baltimore, Maryland in 1951, and renamed TROY H. BROWNING. In 1955, she was renamed THOMAS F. PATTON. After serving on the Great Lakes, she was scrapped in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1981.
1950
While bound for South Chicago with iron ore, the ENDERS M. VOORHEES collided with the up bound steamer ELTON HOYT II (now the ST. MARYS CHALLENGER) in the Straits of Mackinac during a blinding snowstorm. Both vessels received such serious bow damage that they had to be beached near McGulpin Point west of Mackinaw City to avoid sinking
1965
Paterson’s PRINDOC (Hull#657) was launched at Lauzon, Quebec, by Davie Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.
1966
Hjalmer Edwards became ill while working as a second cook on the steamer DANIEL J. MORRELL. He was transferred to the hospital at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan when the MORRELL transited the locks for the last time on Thanksgiving Day. Five days later, the DANIEL J. MORRELL sank during a severe storm on Lake Huron with just Dennis Hale as its lone survivor.
1970
C.W. CADWELL hit a submerged rock in the Niagara River near Queenston and was stranded.
1988
KATIA was abandoned off Nova Scotia, enroute from Brazil to Carleton, QC, and all 27 on board were taken off by rescue helicopter. Despite salvage efforts, the listing ship sank November 26. It had been through the Seaway earlier in 1987 after previous inland voyages as c) TIMI in 1978 and d) HAPPY MED in 1981.
Contributors & Sources
Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Max Hanley, Jody Aho, Russ Plumb, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell II, The Marine Historical Society of Detroit and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series from the Marine HIstorical Society of Detroit.
