Today in Great Lakes History - November 5 At 2 a.m. 05 November 1884, the steamer GRACE GRUMMOND (iron side-wheel excursion steamer, 138 foot, 250 tons, built in 1856, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the survey steamer JEFFERSON DAVIS, specifically for the survey of the Great Lakes) burned at Grand Haven, Michigan. Her cargo of apples, pears and potatoes was also destroyed. No lives were lost. After the fire she was towed to Chicago to lay up until it was decided what to do with her. It is not known if she ever operated as a steamer again, but in 1887, she was rebuilt as a schooner at Milwaukee. She was one of the only sizable iron-hulled schooners ever used on the lakes. In 1904, as a tow-barge, she was sold Canadian and renamed BALTIC (C.116760). She was later used as a breakwater at Clear Creek, Ontario and was finally scrapped in 1939. On 05 November 1852, BUCKEYE STATE (3-mast wooden bark, 132 foot, 310 tons, built in 1852, at Black River, Ohio) stranded off S. Milwaukee Point on Lake Michigan in a storm and was then broken up by waves. This was her first year of operation and she had been in service less than three months. LOUIS R. DESMARAIS cleared Owen Sound, Ontario on her maiden voyage November 5, 1977, bound for Thunder Bay, Ontario, to load 27,117 gross tons of iron ore for Stelco at Hamilton, Ontario. Her forward end was replaced at Port Weller in 2001, and renamed b.) CSL LAURENTIEN. On her final trip, the IRVIN L. CLYMER passed up bound at the Soo on November 5, 1990, and arrived at Duluth two days later to unload limestone at the Hallet Dock #5, after which she moved to her final lay-up berth at Fraser Shipyard and tied up, blowing one last three long and two short salute from her whistle. In 1993, she was sold to Azcon Corp. of Duluth, Minnesota for scrapping. GRAND HAVEN was raised on November 5, 1969, from the Old River Bed, where she sank on September 19, 1969. She was raised for scrapping. Mr. J. W. Isherwood visited the Great Lakes Engineering Works shipyard on November 5, 1910, and personally inspected the hull which was being built according to his patented design. This vessel, the WILLIAM P. PALMER, was the first vessel on the Great Lakes built to the Isherwood system of longitudinal framing. On 05 Nov 1917, a foggy and rainy day, the JAMES S. DUNHAM (steel propeller bulk freighter, 420 foot, 4,795 gross tons, built in 1906, at W. Bay City, Michigan) sank in a collision with the steamer ROBERT FULTON (steel propeller bulk freighter, 424 foot, 4,219 gross tons, built 1896, at Wyandotte, Michigan) just below Grassy Island on the Detroit River. Repairs for both vessels totaled $125,000. On 5 November 1896, ACADIA (iron-framed wooden propeller, 176 foot, built in 1867, at Hamilton, Ontario) was driven ashore and broke up in a gale near the mouth of the Michipicoten River in Lake Superior. Her crew made it to shore and five of them spent more than a week trying to make it to the Soo. The Port Huron Times of 5 November 1878: The schooner J. P. MARCH is reported lost with all on board. She was lost at Little Traverse Bay on the northern shore of Lake Michigan. The MARCH was a three-masted schooner and was owned by Benton & Pierce of Chicago. On 5 November 1838, TOLEDO (2-mast wooden schooner, 98 foot, 215 tons, built in 1836, at Buffalo) was carrying dry goods valued at more than $100,000 up-bound on Lake Erie when she was driven ashore by a gale a half mile east of the mouth of the Grand River. She broke in two. No lives were lost. On 5 November 1869, TITAN (wooden schooner, 132 foot, 361 gross tons, built in 1856, at Oswego, New York) was carrying 17,500 bushels of wheat on Lake Michigan in a terrific gale. She was driven toward shore. Her anchors were dropped as she came close in and they held for about an hour. However, the ship finally dragged ashore, losing both of her masts and breaking up as she struck. Of the nine on board, only one survived and that one was found crawling along the beach in a dazed state. When she was new, TITAN broke the record by completing the trip from Chicago to Oswego in only 8 days and 4 hours. Her record only lasted one day since the schooner SURPRISE broke it by 6 hours the following day. In the summer of 1875, the propeller EAST ran down and sank the tug JOE MAC, not even pausing to save her crew from drowning. The following winter Messrs. Seymour & Co., owners of the JOE MAC, obtained a judgment in a U.S. Court against the owners of the EAST. Since the EAST was a Canadian vessel, they were unable to seize her because the judgment could only be effected in American waters. On Sunday morning, 05 Nov 1876, the steam tug SEYMOUR, with a United States Marshal and posse on board, proceeded up to Allens (presumably at Ogdensburg, New York), and there lay in wait for the EAST, which went up by the Crossover light channel into American waters. The SEYMOUR ran out and captured the vessel and brought her to Averells wharf in U.S. waters to await justice. CALCITE II arrived in Sarnia at 6 a.m. on Sunday, 05 Nov. 2000, for lay-up. After leaving Cleveland the previous day, she anchored in Western Lake Erie, so she could arrive at the North Slip in Sarnia when shoreside personnel would be on-hand to assist. A chartered bus from Rogers City left about noon to take many of the crew home. Around 4:10 p.m., the downbound MYRON C. TAYLOR passed her fleetmate CALCITE II, perhaps for the last time in USS Great Lakes Fleet colors, and she blew her sister an extended 3 long and 2 short master salute. The TAYLOR was bound for Cleveland with a load of stone. 1885: The Canadian Pacific passenger and freight steamer ALGOMA cleared Owen Sound on its final trip with 11 passengers and headed for the Canadian Lakehead. 1897: IDAHO departed Buffalo and was caught in a wild storm on Lake Erie. The wooden passenger and freight carrier fell into the trough and only two survived. They had climbed the mast and were plucked from the crows nest the next morning in a heroic effort by the crew of the MARIPOSA. 1940: SPARTA was wrecked near the Pictured Rocks after stranding on a reef in a heavy gale. The hull was abandoned on November 11 but salvaged in 1941 and never repaired. 1957: The Finnish freighter KORSO struck a drifting World War Two mine off Cape Mondjego, Portugal, and sank as a belated casualty of the conflict. The vessel had been built at Kingston, ON in 1942 as H.M.C.S. IRONBOUND and converted for mercantile use in 1948. 1962: EDWIN REITH, a West German salty, grounded near Tibbetts Point, Lake Ontario, and had to be lightered to P.S. BARGE NO. 1. It was released and came to Toronto to unload on November 14. 1967: The Canadian laker MOHAWK DEER, enroute to La Spezia, Italy, for scrapping, ran aground in the Gulf of Genoa near Portofino, Italy, and sank the next day. 1987: CATHARINA WIARDS sank in the Red Sea as d) TRADER after the engine room flooded during a voyage from Augusta, Italy, to China. The vessel was a year old when it came through the Seaway for the first time in 1970. 1991: OLYMPIC PEACE, a Seaway trader for the first time in 1976, arrived at Piraeus, Greece, with damage to the main engine cooling system as c) FREE PEACE. It was later seized by Banco-Hellenique and sold at auction. The ship was scrapped in China during 1994 as e) PATMOS I.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 14:38:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015