SUNDAY UPDATE: Oberstar underway
for Superior shipyard

After reviewing engineering assessments of the M/V Hon. James L. Oberstar, the Hay Lake Marine Casualty Unified Command (UC) with advisement from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Salvage Engineering Response Team (SERT) from the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center determined that the vessel is structurally sound and fit to make the 28-hour transit from Carbide Dock to Fraser Shipyards in Superior, Wisc. Once the vessel arrives at the shipyard, a containment boom will be ready to deploy as needed. 

“This incident is not complete until the vessel is safe and secure at Fraser Shipyard,” says U.S. Coast Guard Captain James Bendle, Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the Hay Lake Marine Casualty Unified Command.

“Everyone supporting this response is highly focused on ensuring that personnel aboard and escorting the vessel are safe, that our waterways and wildlife are protected, and that any impacts to economic activity are mitigated.”

Oberstar now at Carbide Dock in Sault, MI

 On Saturday, the Hon. James L. Oberstar, damaged after a grounding a week ago on the lower St. Marys River near Johnson Point, got underway upbound from the Hay Lake Anchorage around 7:30 a.m. with an AIS destination of Superior, WI. She didn’t get far, coming to a stop for undisclosed reasons near Frechette Point, three miles below Mission Point.

 Since that area is too narrow for vessels to meet, the river was closed to traffic. By noon she was moving again with the tug Adanac III on the bow and Colorado on the starboard side. The Oberstar was taken to the Carbide Dock, where fuel trucks greeted her. At 10 p.m. Saturday she was still there.

 As soon as the Oberstar was moored, Soo Traffic reopened the river.

There is at yet no word on what caused the initial grounding or the extent of damages. There were no reported injuries or pollution.

 U.S. Coast Guard responds to National Park
Service vessel grounding at Hancock, Michigan

 SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – A U.S. Coast Guard Station Portage 45-foot Response Boat-

Medium crew responded to a 25-foot National Park Service (NPS) vessel that ran aground, with six people aboard, at the north end of the Keweenaw Upper Entrance break wall in Hancock, Michigan, on Saturday.

 Sector Northern Great Lakes received the initial report at 12:48 a.m. Station Portage crew arrived on scene and embarked two people, then transported them to EMS at Lily Pond Boat Launch. Station Portage crew returned to the scene afterward to transport the remaining NPS Rangers.

 The NPS vessel was secured to the break wall and salvage options were scheduled for evaluation Saturday.

Wreckage of a ship, on display on Sheboygan’s lakefront, was pulled from Lake Michigan’s icy waters in the 1990s

SHEBOYGAN – The Lottie Cooper was built when three-masted cargo ships were common on the Great Lakes, moving goods from port to port.

According to Sheboygan Press clippings provided by the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, in 1876, the Lottie Cooper was constructed in Manitowoc. She would spend the next 18 years at sea on the lake, hauling lumber from various ports to Sheboygan to serve the need of lumber-hungry factories in the city.

She was part of the fleet operated by Edward Groh at the time. That fleet included the schooners Lottie Cooper, Evening Star, Joseph Duvall and Quickstep. Tugs Sheboygan, Satisfaction and Peter Reiss were also an important part of the fleet. The job of the tugs was towing schooners and scows into the Sheboygan Harbor before the north breakwater construction.

Unfortunately, Lake Michigan storms have caused the demise of many fine vessels over the years, including the Lottie Cooper.

The late historian Jan Hildebrand, in a Press story about the Lottie Cooper in 1994, reported: “It was the night of April 9, 1894, when the schooner found itself in trouble about 250 yards offshore of Sheboygan. A heavy gale was blowing and Captain Fred Lorenz ordered the anchor dropped. The crew lit torches to call for help but onshore the lifesaving crews could barely make out the ship.”

Since they saw no distress signal, the men assumed the ship was in no danger.

By dawn, the schooner had been blown into the breakers near shore and part of the superstructure had torn away.

Capt. Lorenz finally ordered the American flag hoisted upside down, a universal distress signal.

The lifesaving crew launched its surf boat immediately, but the Lottie Cooper had begun to capsize. Lumber, stacked on the deck, slid into the lake, and the crew jumped into the water, grabbing for the floating timber.

The lifeboat was unable to get through the churning wreckage and had to turn back.

A half-hour later, a tug led another surf boat through the debris and rescued five men — Capt. Lorenz; first mate William Charlevoix; Charles Esbach; August Pegelow; and Barney Haynes. A sixth man, Norwegian sailor Edward Olson, drowned and was the first death of the 1894 shipping season.

Wreckage floated from the lake to shore all day after the sinking of the boat. By the time the Telegram published the news, everyone already knew about the tragedy.

For many years after the sinking of the Lottie Cooper, part of its hull protruded above the surface of the water.

Nearly 100 years after its sinking, during the construction of the Sheboygan Marina in the 1990s, the white-oak remains of the hull were pulled from the tenacious grip of the harbor’s depths. At the time, the oak on some portions of the wreckage looked like new wood as the icy waters of the lake preserved the planks.

In the summer of 1993, the remains of the Lottie Cooper were put on educational display at the lakefront along Broughton Drive, where she continues to tell the story of early maritime shipping near Sheboygan.

The two sides of the ship that were recovered are positioned 27 feet apart, the original width of the vessel.

Signs at the display tell the story of the ship’s construction details and of the early days of Sheboygan’s role in Great Lakes shipping of goods and people.

Today, she serves as a nostalgic reminder that 145 years ago she was a grand sight on the horizon of Lake Michigan, usually delivering loads of lumber to Sheboygan factories.