On This Day: July 30

On This Day: July 30

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...
On This Day: July 29

On This Day: July 29

1872 The steam barge MARY ROBERTSON burned near Mackinac. Her crew escaped to a schooner barge they were towing. 1875 The side-wheel river steamer DOMINION burned to the water’s edge at her dock in the Thames River near Chatham, Ontario. She was built in 1867,...
On This Day: July 28

On This Day: July 28

1854 BOSTON (wooden propeller, 134 feet, 259 tons, built in 1847 at Ohio City, Ohio) was bound from Chicago for Ogdensburg, New York, with pork, corn, whiskey and produce. On Lake Ontario, about 20 miles off Oak Orchard, New York, she collided with the bark PLYMOUTH...
On This Day: July 27

On This Day: July 27

1884 ALBERTA (steel propeller passenger-package freight vessel, 264 feet, 2,282 gross tons, built in 1883 at Whiteinch, Scotland, by C. Connell & Co.) collided in fog 6 miles northwest of Whitefish Point on Lake Superior with the JOHN M. OSBORNE (wooden propeller...
On This Day: July 26

On This Day: July 26

1885 ISLE ROYALE (wooden propeller passenger-package freight vessel, 92 feet, 92 gross tons, built in 1879) sprang a leak near Susick Island near Isle Royale on Lake Superior. She sank, but her passengers and crew made it to the island. She was owned by Cooley,...