Today in Great Lakes History
4/23
On 23 April 1883, STEPHEN S BATES
(wooden schooner, 97 foot, 139 tons, built in 1856 at Manitowoc, Wisconsin)
was bound from Horne’s Pier, Wisconsin with posts and hardware for Chicago
when she was driven into the shallows just north of Grosse Point, Illinois by
a storm and broke up. No lives were lost.
In 1953, the PERE MARQUETTE 22 was
cut in half, then pulled apart and lengthened by 40 feet, as part of a major
refit at Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
Also during this refit, her triple expansion engines were replaced with
Skinner Unaflows, and her double stacks were replaced with a single, tapered
stack. The refit was completed August 28, 1953.
On April 23, 1966, the JOSEPH S
WOOD was towed to the Ford Rouge complex at Dearborn, Michigan by her new
owners, the Ford Motor Company, she was renamed c.) JOHN DYKSTRA.
Canada Steamship Lines FORT YORK
was commissioned April 23, 1958.
On April 23, 1980, the ARTHUR B
HOMER's bow thruster failed while maneuvering through ice at Taconite Harbor,
Minnesota, resulting in a grounding which damaged her bow and one ballast
tank.
The a.) GRIFFIN (Hull#12) by the
Cleveland Ship Building Co. was launched April 23, 1891, for the Lake Superior
Iron Mining Co. Renamed b.) JOSEPH S SCOBELL in 1938 and scrapped at
Rameys Bend, Ontario in
1971.
On April 23, 1972, PAUL H CARNAHAN
arrived at the Burlington Northern Docks at Superior, Wisconsin to load 22,402
gross tons of iron ore bound for
Detroit, opening the 1972 shipping season at
Superior.
On 23 April 1859, at about
midnight, the schooner
S BUTTLES was fighting a severe gale. She was carrying staves from Port
Burwell, Ontario to Clayton, New York and
sprung a leak while battling the gale. While manning the pumps, one man was
washed overboard, but his shipmates quickly rescued him. Capt. Alexander
Pollock beached the vessel to save her about 10 miles east of the Genesee
River.
On 23 April 1882, GALLATIN (2-mast
wooden schooner, 138 foot, 422 tons, built in 1863 at
Oswego, New York) was
carrying pig iron from St. Ignace, Michigan to
Erie, Pennsylvania when she sprang a leak in a storm on Lake Erie. She struck
bottom on Chickanolee Reef and foundered in shallow water at Point Pelee. Her
crew was saved from the rigging by the fishing sloop LIZZIE
4/22
On 22 April 1872, Capt. L. R.
Boynton brought the wooden propeller WENONA into Thunder Bay to unload
passengers and freight at Alpena, Michigan. The 15 inch
thick ice stopped him a mile from the harbor. The passengers got off and
walked across the ice to town. Later, because of the novelty of it, a couple
hundred people from Alpena walked out to see the steamer. In the evening,
Capt. Boynton steamed back to Detroit without unloading any of the cargo.
American Steamship Co.’s, ST.CLAIR
(Hull#714) was christened
April 22, 1976, at Sturgeon Bay,
Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp..
The CHICAGO TRIBUNE of 1930, laid
up for the last time at Toronto on April 22, 1986.
CSL’s HOCHELAGA of 1949, lost her
self-unloading boom during a windstorm at Windsor, Ontario. on April 22, 1980.
As a consequence she made ten trips hauling grain as a "straight decker".
CHARLES M WHITE was commissioned
April 22, 1952, at South Chicago, Illinois. She was soon recognized as one of
the fastest ships on the
Great Lakes because of her ability to reach speeds in excess of 17 knots (19.6
mph).
On 22 April 1871, the 210 foot, 4
mast wooden schooner JAMES COUCH was launched at Port Huron, Michigan. She was
named for a prominent Chicago businessman of the times.
On 22 April 1872, EVA M CONE
(wooden schooner, 25 tons, built in 1859 at Oconto, Wisconsin) was carrying
lumber from Port Washington to Milwaukee on an early-season run when she
struck on ice floe, capsized and sank just outside of Milwaukee harbor. Her
crew made it to safety in her lifeboat.
4/21
On 21 April 1863, SEABIRD (wooden
side-wheel steamer, 638 tons, built in 1859, at Newport [Marine
City], Michigan) was purchased
by Capt. A. E. Goodrich from Capt. E. Ward for $36,000. She served primarily
on the Lake Michigan west-shore and Lake Superior routes until she burned
in 1868.
The EDWIN H GOTT cleared Two
Harbors, Minnesota, with her first cargo, 59,375 tons of iron ore, on April
21, 1979, bound for Gary, Indiana.
Interstate Steamship’s a.) WILLIS
L KING (Hull#79) by the Great Lakes Engineering Works, departed on her maiden
voyage with a load of coal from Toledo, Ohio on April 21, 1911 bound for
Superior, Wisconsin. Renamed b) C L AUSTIN in 1952 and was scrapped at
Ashtabula, Ohio in 1985.
On April 21, 1988, P & H Shipping
Ltd.’s, d.) BIRCHGLEN, a.) WILLIAM MC LAUGHLIN, was towed off the Great Lakes
by the tugs ELMORE M MISNER and ATOMIC bound for Sydney Nova Scotia to be
scrapped.
Panda Steamship Co., G.A.
Tomlinson, mgr.’s a.) WILLIAM H WARNER (Hull#784) by American Ship building
Co., was launched April 21, 1923. Renamed b.) THE INTERNATIONAL in 1934, c.)
MAXINE in 1977, d.) J F
VAUGHAN
in 1981 and e.) OAKGLEN in 1983. Scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey in 1989.
Pittsburgh Steamship Co’s, HOMER D
WILLIAMS (Hull#720) by American Ship Building Co., Lorain, Ohio, was launched
in 1917.
April 21, 1998 - The PERE
MARQUETTE 41 (former CITY OF MIDLAND 41) was towed to Sturgeon Bay from
Muskegon for the remainder of the conversion. She was towed by the tugs MARY
PAGE HANNAH and the CARL WILLIAM SELVICK.
On 21 April 1868, GERTRUDE (2-mast
wooden schooner, 137 foot, 268 tons, built in 1855 at Cleveland, Ohio) was
carrying corn from Chicago to Buffalo when she was cut by the ice four miles
west of Mackinaw City and sank in deep water. Her crew made it to shore in the
yawl.
4/20
On 20 April 1851, the COMET (wooden
side-wheel steamer, 174 foot, 337 gross tons, built in 1848, at Portsmouth [Kingston], Ontario) had her
boiler explode as she was departing Oswego, New York. 8 crew members were
killed. The vessel was later raised, rebuilt in
Montreal, and put back in
service as the MAYFLOWER. She last until 1861, when she sank in Lake Ontario when she collided with
the schooner EXCHANGE.
On April 20, 1960, Bethlehem
Steel’s ARTHUR B HOMER (Hull#303) entered service. She was the last vessel
built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works. She was scrapped at Port
Colborne, Ontario in 1986.
The 3-mast schooner CAMDEN was
launched at Cleveland, Ohio on 20 April 1872.
Data from: Joe
Barr, Dave Swayze, Steve Haverty, Father Dowling Collection, Ahoy & Farewell
II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series. This is a small sample,
the books includes many other vessels with a much more detailed history.
