Today in Great Lakes History

[yachtsmanwilly]

In 1949, sea trials for the largest freighter built on the Great Lakes, the WILFRED SYKES, were held off Lorain, Ohio. SYKES was converted to a self-unloader in 1975.

In 1942, the Canadian grain carrier JUDGE HART grounded and then sank in Ashburton Bay, Lake Superior. The entire crew of the JUDGE HART was rescued by the JAMES B. EADS, Captain Stanley J. Tischart, and the whaleback JOHN ERICSSON, Captain Wilfred E. Ogg.

On 28 November 1867, MARQUETTE (wooden bark, 139 foot, 426 tons, built in 1856, at Newport [Marine City], Michigan) was carrying corn from Chicago to Collingwood, Ontario when she sprang a leak during a storm on Lake Huron. She was run ashore on Hope Island on Georgian Bay.

On November 28, 1905, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company vessel MATAAFA was wrecked as it tried to re-enter the Duluth Ship Canal in a severe storm. The MATAAFA had departed Duluth earlier but had decided to return to safety. After dropping her barge in the lake, the vessel was picked up by waves, was slammed against the north pier and was swung around to rest just hundreds of feet offshore north of the north pier, where it broke in two. Much of the crew froze to death in the cold snap that followed the storm, as there was no quick way to get out to the broken vessel for rescue. The MATAAFA was repaired prior to the 1906, season; she ultimately ended her career as an automobile carrier for the T.J. McCarthy Steamship Company and was sold for scrap in 1965.

The CANADIAN OLYMPIC's maiden voyage was 28 Nov 1976, to load coal at Conneaut, Ohio for Nanticoke, Ontario. Her name honored the Olympic games that were held at Montreal that year.

On November 28, 1983, while up bound after leaving the Poe Lock, the INDIANA HARBOR was in a collision, caused by high winds, with the downbound Greek salty ANANGEL SPIRIT resulting in a 10 foot gash in the laker's port bow.

LANCASHIRE (Hull#827) was launched at Lorain, Ohio on November 28, 1942. She would soon be renamed b) SEWELL AVERY.

CATHY B towed the GOVERNOR MILLER to Vigo, Spain on November 28, 1980, where she was broken up.

BENSON FORD was renamed e) US265808 and departed River Rouge on November 28, 1986, towed by the Sandrin tugs TUSKER and GLENADA bound for Ramey's Bend in the Welland Canal.

FRONTENAC arrived at the Fraser Shipyard, Superior, Wisconsin on November 28, 1979. Her keel, which had hogged four feet, was declared a constructive total loss.

The BRANSFORD stranded on a reef off Isle Royale in Lake Superior during a major storm on 28 November 1905, (the same storm that claimed the steamer MATAAFA). She was recovered.

On her third trip in 1892, the ANN ARBOR NO 1 again ran aground, this time three miles north of Ahnapee (now called Algoma). There was $15,000 damage to her cargo.

In 1906, the ANN ARBOR NO 4 left Cleveland bound for Frankfort on her maiden voyage. The ANN ARBOR NO 4 ran aground off Kewaunee in 1924.

On 28 November 1905, AMBOY (2-mast wooden schooner-barge, 209 foot, 894 gross tons, formerly HELENA) was carrying coal in tow of the wooden propeller GEORGE SPENCER in a gale on Lake Superior. In an effort to save both vessels, AMBOY was cut loose. The SPENCER was disabled quickly and was driven ashore near Little Marais, Minnesota. AMBOY struggled against the gale for a full day before finally going ashore near Thomasville, Ontario on 29 November. No lives were lost from either vessel.

On 28 November 1872, W O BROWN (wooden schooner, 140 foot, 306 tons, built in 1862, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying wheat in a storm on Lake Superior when she was driven ashore near Point Maimanse, Ontario and pounded to pieces. Six lives were lost. Three survivors struggled through a terrible cold spell and finally made it to the Soo on Christmas Day.

On 28 Nov 1874, the propeller JOHN PRIDGEON JR was launched at Clark's shipyard in Detroit, Michigan. She was built for Capt. John Pridgeon. Her dimensions were 235 X 36 X 17 feet. The engines of the B F WADE were installed in her.

On 28 Nov 1923, the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Company and Bob-Lo docks were destroyed by a fire caused by an overheated stove in the ferry dock waiting room. The blaze started at 3 a.m.

CANADIAN TRANSFER underwent repairs most of Tuesday, 28 Nov. 2000, at the Algoma Steel dock at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She had run aground the previous night in the Canadian channel approaching Algoma Steel. CANADIAN TRANSFER was freed by two Purvis Marine tugs. The vessel suffered a crack or hole in the hull plating about 10 feet from the bottom along its port side.

1918: The bow section of the former passenger steamer NORTH WEST sank in Lake Ontario. The ship had been cut in two for a tow out of the Great Lakes. The stern was later rebuilt as b) MAPLECOURT.

1923: LINDEN, a wooden bulk carrier, burned as a total loss in Tawas Bay.

1932: The Canadian freighter GEORGIAN stranded at Munising while downbound from Port Arthur to Detroit. The crew was rescued on December 3. The first salvage attempt failed on December 5 and the vessel was not released until May 1933.

1961: IQUITOS, enroute from Callao, Peru, to Manzanillo, Mexico, with fish meal, caught fire off the coast of Mexico and was abandoned by the crew. The vessel first visited the Great Lakes as a) RUTENFJELL in 1936 and returned on numerous occasions. It was back as b) POLYRIVER from 1951 to 1958. The abandoned IQUITOS drifted for months and was finally sunk by a U.S. destroyer as a hazard to navigation about 100 miles southeast of the Christmas Islands, on April 9, 1962.

1966: The Liberty ship TEGEAN ran aground on The Sisters rocks in fog south of Halifax while inbound for bunkers. All on board were saved by Coast Guard and Navy helicopters. The hull broke into 3 pieces and was dynamited by Navy divers as a hazard on December 16, 1966. The vessel had traded through the Seaway as b) ST. MALO in 1962.

1981: LONDON EARL went aground at Pointe aux Trembles while outbound from Thunder Bay to Hamburg, West Germany, with a cargo of wheat. Five tugs released the ship, with only minimal damage, on November 30. The vessel later returned through the Seaway as b) OLYMPIC LIBERTY beginning in 1983, as c) STABERG in 1990 and as d) ITHAKI in 1996. It was scrapped at Alang, India, in 2001.


At 4:00 a.m. on 27 November 1872, the wooden schooner MIDDLESEX was struck by a terrible winter storm on Lake Superior. The winds caught the vessel with such force that she listed at a 45 degree angle and her cargo shifted. In danger of sinking, the crew jettisoned much of the cargo and the ship righted herself. Her lifeboat and much of her rigging and sails were washed away. She limped into Waiska Bay and anchored to ride out the storm. However, she had developed a leak and it was so cold that her pumps had frozen. To save the vessel, she was run ashore and sank in shallow water. The crew climbed into her rigging until the tug W. D. CUSHING rescued them.

ALGOSEA entered Lake service as a self-unloader for the first time with salt loaded at Goderich, Ontario and passed down bound in the Welland Canal November 27, 1976, for Quebec City.

AVONDALE was condemned and was not allowed to carry cargo after she arrived at Toledo, Ohio on November 27, 1975, to load soybeans.

The steam barge CHAUNCY HURLBUT was launched at the shipyard of Simon Langell at St. Clair, Michigan on Thanksgiving Day, 27 November 1873. She was built for Chandler Bros. of Detroit.

On 27 November 1886, COMANCHE (wooden schooner, 137 foot, 322 tons, built in 1867, at Oswego, New York) was carrying corn in a storm on Lake Ontario when she ran on a shoal and sank near Point Peninsula, New York. A local farmer died while trying to rescue her crew of 8. His was the only death. She was later recovered and rebuilt as THOMAS DOBBIE.

The PERE MARQUETTE 22 collided with the WABASH in heavy fog in 1937.

In 1966, the CITY OF MIDLAND 41 ran aground at Ludington, Michigan in a storm. Stranded on board were a number of passengers and 56 crewmen. Ballast tanks were flooded to hold the steamer on until the storm subsided. She was pulled off four days later by the Roen tug JOHN PURVES.

The propeller MONTGOMERY, which burned in June 1878, was raised on 27 November 1878. Her engine and boiler were removed and she was converted to a barge. She was rebuilt at Algonac, Michigan in the summer of 1879.

On 27 November 1866, the Oswego Advertiser & Times reported that the schooner HENRY FITZHUGH arrived at Oswego, New York with 17,700 bushels of wheat from Milwaukee. Her skipper was Captain Cal Becker. The round trip took 23 days, which was considered "pretty fast sailing".

The CITY OF FLINT 32 was launched in Manitowoc on 27 Nov 1929. Cut down to a rail barge at Nicholson's, Ecorse in 1970, renamed b.) ROANOKE.

On Monday, 27 Nov 1996, the Cyprus flag MALLARD of 1977, up bound, apparently bounced off the wall in the Welland Canal below Lock 1 and into the path of the CANADIAN ENTERPRISE. It was a sideswipe rather than a head on collision. The ENTERPRISE was repaired at Port Weller Dry Docks. The repairs to the gangway and ballast vent pipes took six hours. The MALLARD proceeded to Port Colborne to be repaired there.

At 10:20 p.m. on Monday, 27 Nov. 2000, CANADIAN TRANSFER radioed Soo Traffic to report that the vessel was aground off Algoma Steel and "taking on water but in no danger." The crew reported that they had two anchors down and one line on the dock. Purvis Marine was contacted.

1905: LAFAYETTE stranded at Encampment Island, Lake Superior, broke in two and was a total loss. MANILA, its consort barge, also came ashore but was later salvaged.

1942: JUDGE HART stranded at Fitzsimmons Rock, Ashburton Bay, Lake Superior, enroute to Toronto with 101,500 bushels of grain. All on board were rescued and the ship later slid off the rocks, drifted and sank.

1981: LOUKIA, a Greek flag visitor to the Great Lakes in 1976, arrived at Monrovia, Liberia, as f) DESPOULA and was abandoned. The vessel was looted before being sold for scrap. On September 2, 1982, while under tow for Yugoslavia for dismantling, the vessel broke loose in heavy seas and grounded about 14 miles north of Monrovia.

2006: SPAR OPAL had mechanical problems and ran aground near the Iroquois Lock. It was released on November 29. It did not return through the Seaway in 2007 but was back for two final trips in 2008. The ship was renamed h) ARWAD PRINCESS in 2012 and re-registered in Belize.



In 1952, the PHILIP R. CLARKE was launched at the American Ship Building yard at Lorain, Ohio. The 647- foot-long freighter became the flagship of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. She was lengthened by 120 feet in 1974 and converted to a self-unloader in 1982.

On 26 November 1856, CHEROKEE (2-mast wooden schooner, 103 foot, 204 tons, built in 1849, at Racine, Wisconsin) foundered in a gale 7 miles south of Manistee, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. All aboard (estimates range from ten to fourteen persons) were lost.

The U.S.C.G.C. MESQUITE departed Charlevoix and locked through the Soo on November 26, 1989, to begin SUNDEW's normal buoy tending duties on Lake Superior.

The ELIZABETH HINDMAN was launched November 26, 1920, as a.) GLENCLOVA (Hull#9) at Midland, Ontario, by Midland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

On 26 November 1872, the steamer GEO W. REYNOLDS burned at 1 in the morning at the dock in Bay City. The fire supposedly originated in the engine room. She was owned by A. English of East Saginaw.

On 26 November 1853, ALBANY (wooden side wheel passenger/package freight, 202 foot, 669 tons, built in 1846, at Detroit, Michigan) was carrying passengers and miscellaneous cargo in a storm on Lake Huron.. She was making for the shelter of Presque Isle harbor when the gale drove her over a bar. Her crew and 200 passengers came ashore in her boats. Plans were made to haul her back across the bar when another storm wrecked her. Her boiler and most of her machinery were recovered the following year.

LAKE BREEZE (wooden propeller, 122 foot, 301 gross tons, built in 1868, at Toledo, Ohio) burned at her dock in Leamington, Ontario, on 26 November 1878. One man perished in the flames. She was raised in 1880, but the hull was deemed worthless. Her machinery and metal gear were removed in 1881, and sold to an American company.

The ANN ARBOR NO 5 (steel carferry, 359 foot, 2,988 gross tons) was launched by the Toledo Ship Building Company (Hull #118) on 26 Nov 1910. She was the first carferry to be built with a sea gate, as a result of the sinking of the PERE MARQUETTE 18 in September of 1910.

On 26 Nov 1881, JANE MILLER (wooden propeller passenger-package freight coaster, 78 foot, 210 gross tons, built in 1878, at Little Current, Ontario) departed Meaford, Ontario, for Wiarton - sailing out into the teeth of a gale and was never seen again. All 30 aboard were lost. She probably sank near the mouth of Colpoy's Bay in Georgian Bay. She had serviced the many small ports on the inside coast of the Bruce Peninsula.

HIRAM W. SIBLEY (wooden propeller freighter, 221 foot, 1,419 gross tons, built in 1890, at E. Saginaw, Michigan) was carrying 70,000 bushels of corn from Chicago for Detroit. On 26 Nov 1898, she stranded on the northwest corner of South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan during blizzard. (Some sources say this occurred on 27 November.) The tugs PROTECTOR and SWEEPSTAKES were dispatched for assistance but the SIBLEY refloated herself during the following night and then began to sink again. She was put ashore on South Fox Island to save her but she broke in half; then completely broke up during a gale on 7 December 1898.

During the early afternoon of 26 Nov 1999, the LOUIS R. DESMARAIS suffered an engine room fire while sailing in the western section of Lake Ontario. Crews onboard the DESMARAIS put out the fire and restarted her engines. The DESMARAIS proceeded to the Welland Canal where she was inspected by both U.S. and Canadian investigators. No significant damage was noted and the vessel was allowed to proceed.

1924: The wooden steamer J.C. FORD was destroyed by a fire while on the St. Marys River near DeTour.

1940: The coal-laden CHEYENNE went aground in a storm near Port Colborne while enroute to Montreal. The ship was released on December 1. It last sailed as c) SORELDOC (ii) in 1965 before being scrapped at Hamilton.

1942: L.E. BLOCK went aground in the Straits of Mackinac during a snowstorm.

1951: JOHN H. PRICE was at Ste. Anne des Monts to load pulpwood when a storm swept the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The ship broke loose early the next day, drifted to shore and was pounded on the rocks. All on board were saved and the vessel was refloated May 30, 1952.

1964: The Norwegian tanker STOLT DAGALI, a Seaway caller as a) DAGALI in 1960-1962, was sliced in two by the passenger vessel SHALOM about 28 miles southeast of the Ambrose Channel Light Vessel. The stern of the tanker sank but the bow was rebuilt using the stern of the C.T. GODSTAD that had grounding damage. The rebuilt ship resumed sailing as STOLT LADY.

1979: Despite clear visibility, PIERSON DAUGHTERS and JABLANICA collided off Alexandria Bay, NY, and both ships were damaged. The latter went aground on Broadway Shoal and had to be lightered before being released. It was a regular Seaway trader and was also back as b) ELLIE beginning in 1993. The ship was scrapped at Alang, India, as d) PINE TRADER in 2009.

1981: EURO PRINCESS, a Seaway trader beginning in 1976, went aground in the Atlantic near Sable Island and the crew of 26 was airlifted to safety. Despite a cracked hull, the ship was refloated and was back on the Great Lakes as c) EUROPEGASUS in 1985 and survived until scrapping in India in 1997-1998.

2000: The former BALSA I, a Seaway trader beginning in 1981, reported taking water off Hainan Island in the South China Sea and sank. The crew was saved by a passing freighter.

11/26 - The 144-year-old shipwreck of a rare sailing vessel that typically wasn't used for long voyages on the Great Lakes has been found in deep water off Lake Ontario's New York shore, according to two underwater explorers.

Western New York-based explorers Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski announced Friday that they identified the wreck as the Black Duck in September, three years after initially coming across it while using side-scan sonar in 350 feet of water off Oswego, New York.

The 51-foot-long, single-mast ship known as a scow-sloop sank during a gale while hauling goods along the lake's eastern end in August 1872. The ship's captain, his wife and a crewmember, the only people on board, all survived by getting into a small boat and reaching shore eight hours later.

Only a few scow-sloops sailed the Great Lakes, Kennard told The Associated Press. A search of nautical records turned up only about a dozen references to scow-sloops being built in the region, he said. The Black Duck wreck is believed to be the only fully intact scow-sloop to exist in the Great Lakes, Kennard said.

"It's definitely a rarity," said Carrie Sowden, archaeological director at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, which sponsors the New York team's explorations.

The vessels' simple design — squared bow and stern and a flat bottom — allowed it to be run up on beaches for loading and unloading of cargo. "Scows, because of their shape, are workhorses," Sowden said. "They're not there to move fast through the water. They're there to carry a lot of cargo."

Typically used on rivers or for short voyages on the Great Lakes, scow-sloops weren't constructed for high winds and waves in open water. The Black Duck got caught in such conditions on Aug. 8, 1872, during the 40-mile trip from Oswego to Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario's eastern end. The ship sank soon after springing a leak during a gale.

"They weren't built to withstand that kind of pounding," Kennard said.

The Black Duck is the latest Lake Ontario shipwreck discovery for Pawlowski, of Rochester, and Kennard, of nearby Fairport. Earlier this year, they and a third member of their team, Roland "Chip" Stevens, announced they had found the wreck of the sloop Washington, which sank during a storm in 1803. The find was the second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes, the explorers said.

Associated Press


11/26 - Port McNicoll, Ont. – The S.S. Keewatin returned to Port McNicoll to great fanfare in 2012. Now, its home is getting a big facelift. Redevelopment is currently underway at the Confederation Gateway to the West Docks of the 109-year-old steamship, located at the foot of Talbot Street. Eric Conroy, president and CEO of Friends of the Keewatin, said the work is part of a larger project to develop a park at the site.

“We are rebuilding the docks that were built in 1912,” he said. “It’s part of a project to turn the park over to the Township of Tay.” Conroy said the years have not been kind to the Keewatin’s original dock.

“The old dock is made out of wood,” he said. “Over the years, the water would go up and down and the wood started to rot. So what we’ve had to do is put a steel facing all the way around.”

Conroy said the work, which he hopes to see finished by Christmas, will also involve taking out old building foundations and railway tracks. “It’s probably the most money that’s been spent on a community project in Port McNicoll in many years,” said Conroy. “And it hasn’t cost the local taxpayers a penny.”

The dock redevelopment cost of $1 million is being shared between the Canada 150 Fund and Skyline Investments, the owner of the Keewatin. Conroy said the larger park project has already been designed and soon work will start on raising the estimated $2.5 million to finish it. The aim, once again, is to not use any municipal money.

“The Keewatin is a fabulous piece of Canadian history, but it really doesn’t have a nice ambience being in the middle of a parking lot,” said Conroy. “When it’s finished, it’s going to be really something.”

Simcoe.com


11/26 - Cheboygan, Mich. – The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw is getting ready to deliver 1,200 Christmas trees to Chicago.

A northern Michigan family had been delivering Christmas trees from northern Michigan to Chicago on what is known as the "Christmas Ship" since the late 1800's, but in 1912, the ship sank, taking the entire crew with it.

The Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw has been making the trip since the year 2000, but the story goes back a century.

“To provide for these families in need, it’s just been an ongoing tradition and it's a great way to memorialize those that were lost at sea, and here we are continuing the tradition," said Jonathan Gardner with the U.S. Coast Guard.

“Everyone sees how much Christmas trees can go for these days. And just having that little bit of extra money in their pockets so they can give their little one a gift that they thought they weren’t going to be able to afford, to see the smile on their face just knowing it’s going to make their Christmas a little extra special, it brings a smile to our face, it brings a smile to their face and it just makes us feel a little bit warmer during this holiday season.”

The trees come from all over northern Michigan.

The Mackinaw will be greeted by teams of organizations at the Navy Pier that will help unload the trees and bring them to families who need them this holiday season.

“We’re all looking forward to getting the trees on board and providing the families down in Chicago with a little present this holiday season," said Gardner.

The trees will be loaded onto the ship at 8 a.m. Monday morning, and then it will take about two days to travel to the Navy Pier in Chicago.

UpNorthLive

[yachtsmanwilly]

11/29 - A strong southeast gale, with winds expected Monday night to gust over 40 mph near lakes Michigan and Huron and along the shoreline of Whitefish Bay, sent several vessels to anchor. Heavy rain is also expected.

On Lake Superior, Cason J. Callaway and Edgar B. Speer sought shelter near the shore just east of Marquette Monday evening. In the St. Marys River, Buffalo, Herbert C. Jackson and the tug Victory / barge Kuber were anchored above DeTour. The tug Anglian Lady and her barge were anchored in Maud Bay.

On Lake Huron, Philip R. Clarke and Arthur M. Anderson were loaded but waiting out the weather at Calcite. In the Mackinac Straits, the tug/barge Victorious/John J. Carrick were stopped between Waugoshance Point and Mackinaw City, while Saginaw was at anchor west of the bridge.


11/29 - Buffalo, N.Y. – The ill-fated ship had left the Bethlehem Steel Corp. in Lackawanna, heading toward Minnesota to pick up iron ore when it ran into a horrific storm packing winds exceeding 65 mph and creating 30-foot waves on frigid Lake Huron.

That combination proved deadly for the brittle steel hull of the SS Daniel J. Morrell, a Great Lakes freighter that split in two and sank, killing 28 of its 29 crewmen. The sinking of the Morrell occurred on Nov. 29, 1966 – 50 years ago today.

As often happens with national tragedies, the disaster had a strong Western New York connection. The 28 victims included eight local men – seven from Buffalo, Hamburg, Kenmore, Williamsville and Niagara Falls, plus a South Buffalo native who had moved to Wisconsin. And the ship had left Lackawanna on a planned route heading from Lake Erie to Lake Huron and, ultimately, to Lake Superior to pick up iron ore in Taconite Harbor, Minn.

Oddly enough, the Morrell had the same number of people on board, 29, as the much more heralded Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in another November storm, on Lake Superior, nine years later. The Fitzgerald has remained a popular subject, thanks in part to the 1976 Gordon Lightfoot song about the tragedy.

The Morrell has no such cult following.

But the real story of the Lake Huron shipwreck was the plight of its lone survivor, watchman Dennis N. Hale, of Ashtabula, Ohio.

Hale, who died last fall at the age of 75, was the only person with a firsthand account of the Morrell shipwreck. He told that story to newspaper reporters, in speeches around the Great Lakes area and in his autobiography, "Shipwrecked: Reflections of the Sole Survivor."

Read more and view photos at this link: buffalonews.com/2016/11/27/50-years-great-lakes-shipwreck-took-28-lives-lone-survivors-tale



In 1953, BENJAMIN F. FAIRLESS, Captain H. C. Buckley, transported the last iron ore of the season through the Soo Locks. The ore originated at Two Harbors and was unloaded at Conneaut. After unloading, the FAIRLESS headed for Monroe, Michigan, for layup.

On 29 November 1886, ALFRED P. WRIGHT (wooden propeller tug, 56 gross tons, built in 1877, at Buffalo, New York) was towing the schooner A J DEWEY in a blizzard and gale in the harbor at Manistee, Michigan. The towline parted and fouled the WRIGHT's propeller. Disabled, she capsized and her crew clung to the overturned hull. One crewman swam 1,000 feet to shore and summoned the U.S. Lifesaving Service. The WRIGHT's and DEWEY's crews were both rescued but three lifesavers were lost in this effort.

On November 29, 1966, the DANIEL J. MORRELL sank approximately 20 miles north of Harbor Beach in Lake Huron. Her nearly identical sistership, the EDWARD Y. TOWNSEND, was traveling about 20 miles behind the MORRELL and made it to the Lime Island Fuel Dock in the St. Marys River where cracks were found in her deck; the TOWNSEND proceeded to Sault Ste. Marie where she was taken out of service. The TOWNSEND sank in the Atlantic on October 7, 1968, while being towed overseas for scrap.

E. B. BARBER was laid up for the last time at Toronto, Ontario, on 29 Nov. 1984.

On November 29, 1903, snow and stormy seas drove the two-and-a-half year old J. T. HUTCHINSON onto an uncharted rock (now known as Eagle River Reef) one-half mile off shore and 10 miles west of Eagle Harbor, Michigan near the northwestern coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

On November 29, 1974, the PERE MARQUETTE 21 was loaded with remnants of Port Huron's Peerless Cement Dock, which reportedly were bound for Saudi Arabia, and cleared there in tow of the Great Lakes Towing Co., tugs AMERICA and OHIO.

SYLVANIA was in a collision with the DIAMOND ALKALI in the Fighting Island Channel of the Detroit River on 29 Nov 1968, during a snow squall. SYLVANIA's bow was severely damaged.

The propeller BURLINGTON had barges in tow up bound on Lake Erie when she was damaged by the ice and sank in the Pelee Passage.

On 29 November 1856, ARABIAN (3-mast wooden bark, 116 foot, 350 tons, built in 1853, at Niagara, Ontario) had stranded on Goose Island Shoal, 10 miles ENE of Mackinac Island ten days earlier. She was relieved of her cargo and was being towed to Chicago by the propeller OGONTZ when a gale blew in and the towline parted. ARABIAN made for shore, her pumps working full force and OGONTZ following. During the night they were separated and ARABIAN sank off Point Betsey in Lake Michigan. Her crew escaped in her yawl.

In 1903, the PERE MARQUETTE 19 arrived Ludington on her maiden voyage. Captain John J. Doyle in command.

On 29 November 1881, the 149 foot wooden propeller NORTHERN QUEEN, which had been involved in a collision with the 136 foot wooden propeller canaller LAKE ERIE just five days before, struck the pier at Manistique so hard that she was wrecked. Besides her own crew, she also had LAKE ERIE's crew on board.

On 29 Nov 1902, BAY CITY (1-mast wood schooner-barge, 140 foot, 306 gross tons, built in 1857, at Saginaw, Michigan as a brig) was left at anchor in Thunder Bay by the steamer HURON CITY during a storm. BAY CITY's anchor chain parted and the vessel was driven against the Gilchrist dock at Alpena, Michigan and wrecked. Her crew managed to escape with much difficulty.

1902: The wooden bulk freighter CHARLES HEBARD (i) stranded on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior at Point Mamaise in a snowstorm. The hull broke up but all on board were rescued.

1950: ESSO ROCHESTER, a T-2 tanker, broke in two in heavy weather off Anticosti Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence while enroute, in ballast, from Montreal to Aruba. The two sections were taken in tow but the bow had to be cut loose in a storm on December 21, rolled over and was lost. The stern was taken to Newport News, VA and rebuilt. It was a Seaway trader in 1959 and scrapped at Onimichi, Japan, in July 1966.

1959: VILJA went aground in fog while outbound through the Brockville Narrows. The 14-year old ship was refloated on December 13 and had to spend the winter at Prescott. The Norwegian-flag freighter never returned inland and was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as c) SILVER HOPE in 1974.

1960: FRANCISCO MORAZON went aground on the rocks of South Manitou Island, Lake Michigan and the remains of the hull are still there.

1960: CATO II, a small survey vessel, was cut loose by vandals at Port Dalhousie, drifted with the current into Lake Ontario, and stranded on the rocks of the west pier off Port Weller. Despite gale force winds and cold, the hull was salvaged the next day. At last report, the ship was still intact and was owned by Seneca College of Toronto.

1964: The MARIA COSULICH was wrecked at the breakwall at Genoa, Italy, when the engine failed while outbound. The crew was saved but the vessel was a total loss. It had been built at Sturgeon Bay in 1943 as WILLIAM HOMAN.

1985: JALAGODAVARI sliced into the St. Louis road and rail bridge on the Seaway and navigation had to be suspended for seven days. The vessel was removed, taken to Montreal and arrested for damages. The ship was repaired and survived until scrapping as f) BLUE OCEAN in 2000-2001.

[yachtsmanwilly]

On 30 November 1896, CITY OF KALAMAZOO (wooden propeller passenger/package freight steamer, 162 foot, 728 gross tons, built in 1892, at South Haven, Michigan) burned at her lay-up dock at South Haven, Michigan, with the loss of four lives. She was rebuilt and lasted until 1911, when she burned again.

On November 30, 1910, ATHABASCA (steel propeller passenger steamer, 263 foot, 1,774 gross tons, built in 1883, in Scotland) collided with the tug GENERAL near Lime Island in the St. Mary's River. As a result of the collision, the GENERAL sank. She was later recovered and rebuilt as a bulk freighter and lasted until she was broken up in 1948.

On 30 November 1934, HENRY CORT (steel propeller whaleback crane vessel, 320 foot, 2,394 gross tons, built in 1892, at W. Superior, Wisconsin as PILLSBURY) was driven onto the north pier at Muskegon, Michigan, in a storm. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ESCANABA rescued her crew, but one Coast Guardsman lost his life. The vessel settled in shallow water and then broke in half. Her remains were scrapped the following year.

CANADIAN PIONEER suffered a major engine room fire on 30 Nov 1987, at Nanticoke, Ontario.

On November 30, 1981, A.H. FERBERT was laid up for the last time at the Hallett Dock #5, Duluth, Minnesota. The PERE MARQUETTE 22 passed down the Welland Canal on November 30, 1973 in tow of the tugs JOHN PURVES and YVON SIMARD en route to Sorel, Quebec, where she was cut down to a barge for off-Lakes use.

On 30 Nov 1967, the CITY OF FLINT 32 was laid up, never to run again.

On 30 Nov 1900, ALMERON THOMAS (2-mast wooden schooner, 50 foot, 35 gross tons, built in 1891, at Bay City, Michigan) was carrying gravel in a storm on Lake Huron when she sprang a leak and ran for the beach. She struck bottom and then capsized. She broke up in twenty feet of water near Point Lookout in Saginaw Bay. No lives were lost.

The schooner S.J. HOLLY came into the harbor at Oswego, New York, on 30 November 1867, after a hard crossing of Lake Ontario. The previous day she left the Welland Canal and encountered a growing gale. Capt. Oscar Haynes sought calm water along the north shore, but the heavy seas and freezing winds made sailing perilous. The ropes and chains froze stiff and the schooner was almost unmanageable. The only canvas out was a two-reef foresail and it was frozen in place. With great skill, the skipper managed to limp into port, having lost the yawl and sustained serious damage to the cargo. Fortunately no lives were lost.

1905: The steel consort barge MADEIRA stranded at Split Rock, while under tow of the WILLIAM EDENBORN, broke in two and became a total loss.

1908: D.M. CLEMSON (i) disappeared on Lake Superior while upbound with a cargo of coal from Lorain to Superior. All 24 on board were lost and only 2 bodies were ever found.

1911: Three lives were lost when the wooden steamer RALEIGH sank off Port Colborne. The crew took to the yawl boats but these capsized. Spectators on shore helped pull the sailors to safety.

1922: MAPLEHURST foundered near the West Portage entry Lake Superior while upbound with coal. The captain sought shelter from a storm but the engine failed and the anchors did not hold. There were 11 casualties and the ship was a total loss.

1924: MAPLEDAWN was wrecked at Christian Island, Georgian Bay while downbound with barley. The hull was pounded and could only be salvaged in pieces for scrap about 1942.

1926: CITY OF BANGOR stranded on Keweenaw Point in a blizzard with zero visibility. The ship fell into the trough and was carried ashore. It could not be salvaged and the hull was cut up for scrap during World War II.

1943: RIVERTON, aground for two weeks at Lottie Wolf Shoal, Georgian Bay, was released and taken to Collingwood for repairs. It resumed sailing in 1944 as MOHAWK DEER.

1945: OUTARDE (i) sank at the Consul-Hall Coal Dock, Clayton, NY after being repeatedly pounded against the structure in a wild storm and holed by an underwater piece of steel. The ship was finally refloated on April 18, 1946.

1961: ALGOWAY (i) was damaged while shifting at Port Arthur when it hit a discarded underwater oxygen tank.

1987: A fire aboard the ULS self-unloader CANADIAN PIONEER at Nanticoke damaged the wiring under the control panel. The ship went to the Welland Dock for repairs and then left the Seaway for Sorel where it was reflagged Vanuatu and renamed b) PIONEER.

1997: The tug CAROLYN JO suffered a fire in the engine room off Snake Island, Lake Ontario, and had to be towed to Kingston. The ship is still sailing as d) SEAHOUND.


11/30 - Duluth, Minn. – Fifty years ago, in the early morning of Nov. 29, 1966, the freighter Daniel J. Morrell was steaming up the Great Lakes, bound for Taconite Harbor to pick up a load of iron ore, and struggling to push through a wicked November storm on Lake Huron.

The 60-year-old, 603-foot-long ship and its crew of 29 had been pounded for hours by 65 mph winds and 20, 25, 30-foot waves when the aged ship started breaking up. In the frigid darkness on the open lake, with alarms sounding, the crew — five of whom had ties to the Northland — scrambled to reach life rafts as the vessel split in two.

Only one member of the crew would be rescued to tell the tale of tragic loss and incredible survival. Dennis Hale was a 26-year-old watchman from Ohio when the Morrell began its 34th and last scheduled trip of the 1966 shipping season, departing Buffalo in ballast for Taconite Harbor.

While the storm raged outside at about 2 a.m. on Nov. 29, Hale was off-duty and asleep; an ominous bang jolted him awake. Figuring the anchor was bouncing off the hull of the vessel, he rolled over and closed his eyes. But then there was another bang, louder than the first. And then the boat's alarms sounded, he recounted in interviews with the News Tribune in 2002 and again in 2012; Hale died in September 2015 at age 75 after years of sharing his story and keeping alive the memory of his ship and crewmates.

Wearing only his sleeping clothes — a pair of boxer shorts — Hale grabbed a life jacket and a peacoat and sloshed barefoot across the boat's flooded deck.

The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the pre-1948 low-carbon steel used to build the Morrell had a propensity for "brittle fracture.'' The big boat snapped in half under the stress of the storm. The stern slammed the bow broadside and then, remarkably, pushed past.

Hale, several shipmates and a life raft were pitched into the 44-degree water. He thought he was a dead man.

"I thought, If I can get to the raft, I stand a better chance," he told the News Tribune in 2012. "I looked around and I couldn't see the raft. Finally I saw it between waves."

He swam to the raft, joining John J. Cleary Jr. and Arthur E. Stojek. Charles Fosbender arrived shortly afterwards. The four watched the bow sink. The stern, its engine still running, disappeared in the darkness to sink several miles away. The men fired emergency flares; they talked of home and their chances of seeing family again. The air temperature hovered around freezing.

Cleary and Stojek died about 6 a.m. About 2 p.m. Fosbender and Hale talked about families and being home.

"Then we grew silent again until just before he passed away" about 4 p.m., Hale recalled in 2012. "He boosted himself up on the raft and put one hand on my hip and said that it wouldn't be long until we would be bottoming out on the beach."

It was hard watching shipmates die, Hale said, but under the circumstances, "you don't care if you live or die, you just want it over. The first wave we went through, I was there." But he survived another 24 hours in the raft, alone except for the bodies of his three shipmates.

"I remember looking at John Cleary in front of me and seeing that he was all encased in ice," Hale said. "I got angry and got up on my elbow and shook my fist at the sky and cussed God, asking him why he was making me suffer so much."

He also remembers praying, playing mind games and moving his limbs in an effort to hold off frostbite. On the afternoon of Nov. 30, Hale had an out-of-body experience. A visitor came to him. A ghost, an angel — Hale said years later that he didn't know. It was a strange-looking man.

"Don't eat the ice off your peacoat," the man warned. "You'll lower your body temperature and die."

Later, Hale recalled in a 2002 interview with the News Tribune, he hovered above his raft. He could see himself and his crewmates below. Through a cloud above he could see a bright white footbridge. Relatives who had died before him stood on the far end. They beckoned him across. But his crewmates were there, too, the ones who had perished the night before. So was the Morrell.

"No,'' a crewmate said to him. "It's not your time. You have to go back.'' Hale found himself back on the raft.

Meanwhile, efforts to find the Morrell and its crew had finally begun. At about noon Nov. 30 the ship's owners notified the Coast Guard that the ship — which never had a chance to transmit a distress call — was missing. At 1:12 p.m. another vessel reported sighting a body wearing a life jacket stenciled with the missing ship's name. About 4 p.m., two Coast Guard helicopters spotted a life raft aground on a shoal along the shore near Harbor Beach, Mich., about 100 miles north-northeast of Detroit.

Hale saw one and waved. A searcher later said Hale's wave was so slight and feeble he believed the helicopter's rotor wash might have caused it. Both helicopters descended, and rescuers converged on the raft. It took the whole helicopter crew to lift the frostbitten Hale out of the raft.

Hale told the News Tribune in 2002 that he remembered being rescued. He remembers the Coast Guard helicopter, being carried to an ambulance and then to a hospital. He remembers the priest offering him last rites, nurses gasping at how blue he was, doctors telling him he would be all right, but probably not believing it.

Hale suffered severe frostbite to his feet, vascular damage to his lower legs and a gash under his chin that required stitches.

Hale was a heavier man who withstood a huge weight loss over two days. Wearing only undershorts on his lower body, he wasn't bogged down by heavy, frozen pants. He didn't eat the ice off his coat. His life jacket being under the peacoat helped insulate his heart and lungs.

Among the 28 men who died in the loss of the Morrell were five from the Northland: George A. Dahl, 38, and Joseph A. Mahsem, 59, both of Duluth; Alfred G. Norkunas, 39, of Superior; Albert P. Wieme, 51, of Knife River; and Phillip E. Kapets, 51, of Ironwood, Mich.

And there nearly was a sixth victim from the area. Hjalmer Edwards, 61, of Ashland became ill with pneumonia when the ship was downbound and was transferred from the ship to a Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., hospital. He was still in the hospital when the Morrell sank.

Hale later suffered from decades of substance abuse and the torment of guilt. Like many survivors of tragedies, he asked himself time and again: "Why me? Why did I survive when so many others perished?"

His public silence lasted for years, including after the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in another November storm, on Lake Superior, nine years later with the loss of its crew of 29.

The Fitzgerald has remained vivid in the collective memory of the Great Lakes region thanks in part to the Gordon Lightfoot song about the tragedy. The Morrell has no such cult following. Eventually Hale agreed to attend a screening of a documentary about the Morrell. He said a few words about it and felt better.

That gradually led Hale to devote the last 25 years of his life to sharing his story. He even agreed to be hypnotized, to unearth more memories of his 38-hour ordeal.

"That was very therapeutic for him," his widow, Barbara Hale, told the Buffalo News. "It got to the point that he wanted his shipmates to be remembered. You hear all about the Fitzgerald. You never heard about the Morrell. He wanted his shipmates remembered. That was his family."

Hale visited the Northland several times to speak about his experience, including at the Gales of November conference in Duluth in 2002. He also wrote a book and contributed to another on the Morrell

"He didn't think of himself as a hero," Barbara Hale said. "He said he was put into a situation, and he happened to survive it."

Several remembrances of the 50th anniversary are being held this week, including a memorial service today in Ashtabula, Ohio, where a bell will be rung for each of the 28 victims. "And now that Dennis has passed," his widow said, "they'll ring the bell for him, too."

Duluth News Tribune

[yachtsmanwilly]

12/1 - Barrie, Ont. – We could be in for quite a bit of snow, if recent water temperatures in the Great Lakes are any indication of what’s to come. According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, surface water temperatures in the lakes are the warmest they’ve seen in late November since at least 2010.

The NOAA says water temperatures are hovering at around 7 C as of Tuesday. Last year the temperatures were at about 5 C, while in 2014 they were closer to 4 C.

“The combination of warm lake waters and cold winter winds blowing across them is a perfect combination for lake effect snow,” the NOAA said in a statement on Monday.

Environment Canada has said the frontend of winter would likely be on the mild side. The numbers from the NOAA also match up with their prediction for lake effect snow. Environment Canada says there’s a chance that snow could arrive before Christmas.

Barrie CTV News


In 1940, the Columbia Transportation steamer CARROLLTON laid up in the Cuyahoga River with a storage load of 75,000 bushels of potatoes.

On 01 December 1884, the N BOUTIN (wooden propeller tug, 68 foot, 46 gross tons, built in 1882, at Buffalo, New York) sank in ten feet of water near Washburn, Wisconsin. Newspaper reports stated that she was leaking badly and was run toward shore to beach her but no details are given regarding the cause of the leak. She was recovered and repaired.

On December 1, 1974, the Canadian motor vessel JENNIFER foundered on Lake Michigan in a storm. Her steel cargo apparently shifted and she foundered 24 miles southwest of Charlevoix, Michigan. The JENNIFER went to the bottom in water too deep for any salvage attempt.

FRED G. HARTWELL, the last boat built for the Franklin Steamship Co., was delivered to her owners on December 1, 1922, but her maiden voyage didn't occur until early 1923, because of unfavorable weather conditions.

The SASKATOON's ownership was transferred to the Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., Montreal, on December 1, 1913, when the company was formed and all six vessels of the Merchants Mutual Line were absorbed by CSL in 1914.

HUDSON TRANSPORT was put up for sale by Marine Salvage in December 1982.

On 1 December 1875, BRIDGEWATER (3-mast wooden schooner, 706 tons, built in 1866, at Buffalo, New York, as a bark) grounded on Waugoshance Point in the Straits of Mackinac. She was released fairly quickly and then was towed to Buffalo, New York, for repairs. In Buffalo, she was gutted by fire. In 1880-82, the propeller KEYSTONE was built on her hull.

In 1909, the MARQUETTE & BESSEMER NO 2 sank on Lake Erie, 31 lives were lost.

December 1, 1985 - SPARTAN broke loose from her moorings at Ludington in a storm and ended up near Buttersville Island. She was pulled off on December 5, by the Canonie tugs SOUTH HAVEN and MUSKEGON with the help of the CITY OF MIDLAND 41. It took about 10 hours.

On 1 December 1875, the Port Huron Times reported: "The schooner MARY E. PEREW went ashore in the Straits of Mackinac and by the brave efforts of the people on shore, her crew was rescued from perishing in the cold. Her decks were completely covered with ice and the seas were breaking over her. The vessel has a large hole in her bottom made by a rock that came through her. She will prove a total loss." On 7 December 1875, that newspaper reported that MARY E. PEREW had been raised by a wrecker and would be repaired.

On 1 December 1882, DAVID M. FOSTER (wooden 3-mast schooner, 121 foot, 251 tons, built in 1863, at Port Burwell, Ontario as a bark) was carrying lumber from Toronto to Oswego, New York, in a storm. She was picked up by a harbor tug outside of Oswego for a tow into the harbor, but the towline broke. The FOSTER went bows-on into the breakwater. She was holed and sank. No lives were lost. Her loss was valued at $3,300.

On 01 December 1934, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ESCANABA (WPG 64) (165 foot, 718 gross tons, built in 1932, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was involved in the rescue of the crew of the whaleback HENRY CORT off the piers at Muskegon, Michigan. Also that winter, she delivered food to the residents of Beaver Island, who were isolated due to the bad weather.

SULLIVAN BROTHERS (steel straight-deck bulk freighter, 430 foot, 4897 gross tons, built in 1901, at Chicago, Illinois as FREDERICK B. WELLS) grounded at Vidal Shoal on Tuesday evening, 01 Dec 1953. She was loaded with grain and rested on solid rock. She was recovered.

1934: The whaleback steamer HENRY CORT hit the north pier at Muskegon, MI and was wrecked. All on board were saved but one rescuer perished when the U.S.C.G. surfboat overturned. HENRY CORT was cut up for scrap on location during World War Two.

1961: The Canada Steamship Lines bulk canaller ELGIN struck the Charelvoix Bridge on the Lachine Canal when the structure did not open properly due to a faulty bridge mechanism. The waterway was closed for several days but the ship was not damaged.

1961: ARIE H., a Liberian flagged Liberty ship, went aground near the Snell Lock but was refloated and, the following day, departed the Seaway as the last oceangoing ship of the season.

[yachtsmanwilly]

On this day in 1942, the tug ADMIRAL and tanker-barge CLEVCO encountered a late season blizzard on Lake Erie. The ADMIRAL sank approximately 10 miles off Avon Point, Ohio, with a loss of 11. The CLEVCO sank 30 hours later off Euclid Beach with a loss of 19.

On 02 December 1857, the NAPOLEON (wooden propeller, 92 foot, 181 tons, built in 1845, at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, as a schooner) went to the assistance of the schooner DREADNAUGHT. In the rescue attempt, the NAPOLEON bent her rudder and disabled her engine. Helpless, she went on a reef off Saugeen, Ontario, and was pounded to pieces. Her engine, boiler and gear were salvaged in the autumn of 1858, and sold at Detroit, Michigan.

Hall Corporation of Canada’s OTTERCLIFFE HALL (Hull # 667) was launched December 2, 1968, at Lauzon, Quebec, by Davie Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

GEORGE R. FINK, b) ERNEST T. WEIR under tow passed Gibraltar on December 2, 1973, and arrived at Gandia, Spain, prior to December 7, 1973, for scrapping.

Pittsburgh Steamship Co.’s GOVERNOR MILLER (Hull # 810) was launched in1937, at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co.

NIPIGON BAY last ran in 1982, and was laid up at Montreal on December 2nd.

December 2, 1975, the brand new carferry WOLFE ISLANDER III sailed into Kingston from Thunder Bay, Ontario. The new 55-car ferry would replace the older ferries WOLFE ISLANDER and UPPER CANADA.

On 2 December 1874, the steam barge GERMANIA was launched at King's yard in Marine City, Michigan. The Port Huron Times of 4 December 1874 reported that she "is probably the cheapest boat ever built in Marine City, wages and material, iron, etc. being very low." This was due to the nation just recovering from the "Panic of 1873." The vessel's dimensions were 144 feet overall x 56 feet 2 inches x 11 feet 9 inches.

On 2 December 1832, the wooden schooner CAROLINE was carrying dry goods worth more than $30,000 from Oswego to Ogdensburg, New York, in a violent storm. She capsized and sank off Ducks Island on Lake Ontario with the loss of one life. Five survived in the yawl and made it to the island in 6 hours. After much suffering from the cold and snow, they were rescued by the schooner HURON.

Duluth - December 2, 1950 - In the early part of this week there were as many as 41 Great Lakes vessels lined up in the Duluth-Superior harbor awaiting their turn to take on their cargoes of iron ore. Freezing temperatures prevailed at the head of the lakes and ore steaming operations permitted loading only of about 10 boats per day.

1964: The anchors of AGIOS NICOLAOS II dragged in a storm on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the ship drifted aground at Sea-Cow Head, near Summerside, Prince Edward Island. The ship was released and towed to Halifax but not repaired. It had first come through the Seaway as a) ALKAID in 1961 and made one trip inland as b) AGIOS NICOLAOS II in 1964. Following a sale for scrap, the ship arrived at Bilbao, Spain, under tow of the tug PRAIA DE ADRAGA, on April 2, 1965.

1967: The tanker LUBROLAKE and tug IRVING BEECH were blown aground on Cape Breton Island, near New Waterford, NS at a site called the No. 12 Stone Dump. Both ships were abandoned and broken up to the waterline there at a later date.

1976: PEARL ASIA went aground off Port Weller while waiting clearance to head upbound to Thorold with a cargo of bauxite. After being lightered to MAPLEHEATH, the vessel was pulled free. It had begun Seaway trading as a) CRYSTAL CROWN in 1960 and first returned as b) PEARL ASIA in 1971.

1977: KEFALONIA SKY arrived at New Orleans with engine trouble that was later deemed beyond economic repair. The vessel was sold for scrapping at Brownsville, Texas, in 1978. It had first visited the Seaway as NIEUWE TONGE in 1960 and returned as b) AMSTELDIEP in 1963.

2006: The tug SENECA broke loose of the SUSAN B. HOEY on Lake Superior and was blown aground 21 miles east of Grand Marais, Mich. It was refloated on Dec. 23 and taken to Sault Ste. Marie for assessment.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Fuel crunch means icebreaking in Green Bay all winter

12/5 - Green Bay, Wis. – A broken gasoline pipeline could cut into on-ice recreational options in the bay of Green Bay this winter.

U.S. Venture Inc. has asked the U.S. Coast Guard to keep a 75- to 125-foot-wide navigable channel open from Lake Michigan to the Port of Green Bay through the end of January to ensure that the Kimberly-based company can continue to deliver gasoline and other petroleum products to the region.

The continued closure of the West Shore Pipe Line, which supplied gasoline to northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from Milwaukee, means U.S. Venture needs a channel to ensure ship access to its Green Bay terminal.

“We have a pipeline that’s closed and there’s a need to get petroleum products into Northeast Wisconsin,” Brown County Port and Resource Recovery Director Dean Haen said. “U.S. Venture is interested in bringing in that product and it’s cheaper to do so by water than truck.”

U.S. Venture officials were not available for comment.

Normally, Haen and the port staff would be wrapping up the 2016 season about now. Instead, Haen is preparing for an extended season and prepping a public outreach campaign to warn people about the change in conditions this season.

“That’s probably the biggest challenge — educating the public. The bay, in recent memory, hasn’t really been open in the winter, so snowmobilers and ice fishermen use the bay,” he said. “There may be snowmobilers who cross the bay, so we need to educate them that there will be a loose swath of ice.”

Brown County Snowmobile Alliance President Mike Tilleman said the 10 clubs that form the alliance likely will discuss the issue with club leaders when they meet later this month.

Tilleman said he expects Coast Guard operations will impact only a handful of snowmobilers in the area.

“Not many people go across the bay because there’s still some unsafe spots,” Tilleman said. “A lot of people will ride to Door County on the edges of the bay. As far as the impact, it won’t affect a majority of snowmobilers, but it will affect some.”

Haen said he plans to contact bars, restaurants, fishing guides, bait shops, snowmobile clubs, tavern leagues and other venues to let them know about the change and to pass the information along to others.

In addition to Green Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard will keep channels open to Sturgeon Bay, Marinette and Escanaba, Mich.

Green Bay Press Gazette


12/5 - Longtime mineworkers on the Iron Range often say they're used to the ups and downs, the booms and the busts of the notoriously cyclical mining industry. "I've been laid off seven times from Keetac in 17 years," said Tony Drazenovich, 47, of Grand Rapids. "That's a lot of layoffs."

But most of those layoffs from the taconite iron ore mining and processing facility in Keewatin were short, he said. And that's what he anticipated for this one, too, when he was laid off in May of last year.

"Everybody at that time was thinking it was just going to be a little blip," Drazenovich said.

But the layoff has dragged on, month after month, for about 200 workers at Keetac. Another 400 workers on the Range also still are out of work because of closures at smaller iron ore facilities, part of a wave of shutdowns that hit the Iron Range over the past two years during a major downturn in the global steel industry.

"I've heard stories of members just dropping off their house keys at the bank, and basically jumping in their cars and heading out," said Cliff Tobey, president of Steelworkers Local 2660 in Keewatin. "Some of them I think may come back if things turn around, but I think some of them have made the decision that they're out of here."

Dozens of laid-off mine workers, including Drazenovich, have made a different decision. They've gone back to school, through a federal program known as TAA, or trade adjustment assistance, which pays to retrain workers who lost their jobs because of global trade.

Many are enrolled at Hibbing Community College in the Industrial Systems Technology program. It teaches welding, electrical and other skills to prepare students for work in a wide variety of manufacturing plants.

"When we graduate we'll have another set of skills," said David Meyer, who also was laid off from Keewatin Taconite. "Dedicated employees that want to get a paycheck for their work. "

For many of these workers, it's been 20 years or longer since they've been in school. Meyer helps tutor many of them. Some, he said, need basic help operating computers.

"It's been a struggle, I won't lie," said Kevin Maxie, 51, who lost his job at Mining Resources near Chisholm. "I do a lot of homework, I spend a lot of time looking at books, keep up with it as best you can."

Maxie is taking physics for the first time. He sometimes studies with his high-school-aged daughter.

"I've had to actually ask her help for algebra, because she's right about at the same point I'm at," he said. She'll say " 'really, Dad? That's easy.' I'm like, 'not for me it's not.' "

Maxie has stuck it out, and plans to graduate in May. Like most of the other students, he hopes to return to a good paying mining jobs.

But Meyer said most are thinking of a Plan B. "They want this training so that if the mine doesn't open up, they can go relocate. Because it really worries them about how non-dependable the feeling is in the industry."

U.S. Steel has given no indication of when, or even if it plans to reopen Keetac. The company initially idled the plant because of low steel prices and a high level of steel imports, including foreign steel that was later proven to be illegally dumped in the U.S.

In a statement the company said those factors continue to have an impact.

"If I was a Keetac worker, I'd be making plans for a long shutdown," said College of St. Scholastica economist Tony Barrett. "The pattern of these cycles is the steel industry generally does not come back to where it was at the beginning of the downturn."

Despite several trade rulings that slapped new tariffs on imported steel, Barrett said, demand just hasn't rebounded enough for U.S. Steel to reopen KeeTac.

U.S. Steel also has slashed its steel production to cut costs, said industry analyst Andrew Lane with Morningstar in Chicago. The company has shut down a huge steel mill in Granite City, Ill., outside St. Louis. That means the company needs fewer iron ore pellets from Minnesota.

"For management to reopen some of its steelmaking capacity and mining capacity," said Lane, "they'd have to buy into the notion that higher steel demand is here to stay, for an extended period of time."

Some believe a Trump administration will help, if it follows through on campaign promises to impose additional tariffs on imported steel and boost infrastructure spending. U.S. Steel's stock price has jumped more than 50 percent since the election.

Minnesota Public Radio News


In 1927, ALTADOC crashed on the rocks of the Keweenaw Peninsula when her steering gear parted during a Lake Superior storm. The machinery and pilothouse of the wreck were recovered in 1928. The pilothouse was eventually refurbished in 1942 and opened as the Worlds Smallest Hotel in Copper Harbor, Michigan. The owners resided in the captains’ quarters, a gift shop was set up in the chart room, a guest lounge was set up in the wheelhouse, and there were two rooms for guests.

On 05 December 1897, the GEORGE W. MORLEY (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 193 foot, 1045 gross tons, built in 1888, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was sailing light from Milwaukee to Chicago when a fire started near her propeller shaft. It blazed up too quickly for the engineer to put it out and before he could get the fire pump started, the flames drove on deck. The firemen were kept at their posts as the vessel was steered to shore. She sank 100 yards off Greenwood Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. Luckily no lives were lost. The vessel’s engine was recovered in October 1898.

Tanker SATURN (Hull#218) was launched in 1973, for Cleveland Tankers at Jennings, Louisiana, by S.B.A. Shipyards, Inc.

SIR JAMES DUNN (Hull#109) was launched in 1951, for Canada Steamship Lines at Port Arthur, Ontario, by Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

The keel was laid for the E.G. GRACE on December 5, 1942. This was the last of the six ships built by AmShip in the L6-S-A1 class for the United States Maritime Commission and was traded to the Interlake Steamship Company in exchange for older tonnage. She would later become the first of the "Maritime Class" vessels to go for scrap in 1984.

On 5 December 1874, the steam barge MILAN was scheduled to be hauled ashore at Port Huron to replace her "Mississippi wheel" with a propeller.

The wooden 100-foot schooner BRILLIANT was close to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on 5 December 1857, where she was scheduled to pick up a load of lumber when she went on a reef close to shore and sank. No lives were lost.

1909: HENRY STEINBRENNER (i) sank in a snowstorm on Mud Lake following a collision with the HARRY A. BERWIND. The superstructure remained above water and the ship was later refloated and repaired.

1927: The wooden steamer ADVANCE went aground off Manitoulin Island and two sailors were lost. The ship was salvaged but tied up at Cornwall later in the month and never operated again.

1935: The lumber carrier SWIFT caught fire at Sturgeon Bay and was a total loss. The remains were scrapped in 1936.

1935: The 65-year old wooden tug LUCKNOW burned outside the harbor at Midland and the ship was beached as a total loss.

1952: The wooden tug GARGANTUA departed Collingwood under tow and sought shelter from a storm early the next day behind Cabot Head. The ship was scuttled to avoid the rocky shore with the main part of the hull above water. The intent was to refloat the vessel in 1953 but it was abandoned instead.

1964: FAYETTE BROWN, enroute to Bilbao, Spain, for scrap, broke loose of the tug BARENTSZ ZEE in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and drifted aground on the south shore of Anticosti Island. Salvage efforts were not successful and the remains of the hull, now broken into many pieces, are still there.

1971: VENUS CHALLENGER was sunk by a missile in the India-Pakistan war while 26 miles south of Karachi. The ship broke in two and sank in 8 minutes. All 33 on board were lost. The vessel was completely darkened and going at 16 knots when hit. The ship had been a Seaway trader earlier in 1971 and as b) PLEIAS in 1968.

1976: TATIANA L. and RALPH MISENER sustained minor damage from a collision in the St. Lawrence. The former was scrapped at Gadani Beach, Pakistan, as c) LUCKY LADY in 2009, while the latter arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, for dismantling as c) DON in September 2012.

1987: The CASON foundered off Punta Rostro, Spain, enroute from Hamburg to Shanghai, due to heavy weather. There were 8 survivors but another 23 sailors perished. There were explosions and fires in deck containers and the hull broke in two during a salvage effort in May 1988. The ship had come through the Seaway as b) WOLFGANG RUSS in 1978 and FINN LEONHARDT in 1979.

In 1947, EMORY L. FORD, Captain William J. Lane, departed the Great Northern Elevator in Superior, Wisconsin, with the most valuable cargo of grain shipped on the Great Lakes. The shipment, valued at more than $3 million, consisted of 337,049 bushes of flax valued at $7 a bushel and 140,000 bushels of wheat.

On 04 December 1891, the side-wheel wooden passenger steamer JEANIE, owned by John Craig & Sons, caught fire at the Craig & Sons shipyard in Toledo, Ohio, and burned to the water's edge. She was valued at $25,000 and insured for $10,000.

Algoma Central Marine's ALGOSOO was the last ship built on the Lakes with the traditional fore and aft cabins; her maiden voyage took place today in 1974.

IMPERIAL QUEBEC entered service on December 4, 1957. Renamed b.) SIBYL W. in 1987, and c.) PANAMA TRADER in 1992. Scrapped in Mexico in 1997.

LIGHTSHIP 103 completed her sea trials December 4, 1920.

At 0210 hours on December 4, 1989, the U.S.C.G.C. MESQUITE ran aground in 12 feet of water at a point one-quarter nautical mile off Keweenaw Point. After a struggle to save the ship, the 53 persons aboard abandoned ship at 0830 hours and boarded the Indian salty MANGAL DESAI, which was standing by.

On 4 December 1873, a gale struck Saginaw Bay while the CITY OF DETROIT of 1866 was carrying 8,000 bushels of wheat, package freight and 26 crew and passengers. She was also towing the barge GUIDING STAR. The barge was cut loose in the heavy seas at 3:30 a.m. and about 7 a.m. the CITY OF DETROIT sank. Captain Morris Barrett of the GUIDING STAR saw three of the CITY OF DETROIT's crew in one lifeboat and only one in another lifeboat. The CITY OF DETROIT went down stern first and the passengers and crew were seen grouped together on and about the pilothouse. Capt. Barrett and his crew of seven then abandoned GUIDING STAR. They arrived at Port Elgin, Ontario on 6 December in their yawl with their feet frozen. The barge was later found and towed in by the tug PRINDEVILLE.

On 4 December 1838, THAMES (wooden passenger/package-freight side-wheeler, 80 foot, 160 tons, built in 1833, at Chatham, Ontario) was burned at her dock in Windsor, Ontario by Canadian "patriots" during a raid on Windsor involving more than 500 armed men.

EMERALD ISLE completed her maiden voyage from Beaver Island to Charlevoix on December 4, 1997. Her first cargo included a few cars and 400 passengers. EMERALD ISLE replaced BEAVER ISLANDER as the main ferry on the 32-mile run.

1920: The first RENVOYLE went to saltwater for war service in 1915. It foundered in shallow water on this date in the Bay of Biscay in 1920. Salvage attempts failed. The hull was broken up by the elements and part was scrapped on site.

1951: CAPTAIN C.D. SECORD was disabled and under tow of the SIR THOMAS SHAUGHNESSY when it broke loose in a storm off Isle Royale. The ship was retrieved by U.S.C.G. WOODRUSH and taken to safety and eventually to Port Arthur for repairs.

1966: NAKWA RIVER sustained extensive fire damage at Montreal. The flames broke out while outbound from the Great Lakes.

1986: AMERICAN REPUBLIC was blown on the breakwall at Lorain, Ohio, and received a five-foot gash on the side about 15 feet above the waterline.

1990: IONIA caught fire in the engine room about 90 miles south of Puerto Rico while enroute from Tampa to Chittagong, Bangladesh. The damage was not repaired and the hull was towed to Aliaga, Turkey, as f) ONIA in 1991 and scrapped. The vessel began Seaway service in 1971 as the British flag freighter ZINNIA, returned as b) TIMUR SWIFT in 1983 and as d) ZENOVIA in 1985.

1992: ZEUSPLEIN caught fire in the bridge at Campana, Argentina, and became a total loss. The vessel was sold to shipbreakers in India and arrived for scrapping on June 1, 1993. It had first traveled the Seaway as a) ZEUS in 1972 and had been rebuilt as a container ship in 1983.


In 1918, the forward end of the former Pittsburgh steamer MANOLA sank during a gale on Lake Ontario. The after end received a new forward end and sailed for several years as the MAPLEDAWN.

On 03 December 1881, the DE PERE (wooden propeller, 736 tons, built in 1875, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin) was caught in a severe southwest gale and blizzard on Lake Michigan. She was driven ashore near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. All efforts to free her failed, so she was left to winter where she lay. In April 1882, she was pulled free by the Goodrich tug ARCTIC and towed to Manitowoc for repairs. Little damage was found and she was back in service quickly.

On 03 December 1891, the OGEMAW (wooden propeller freighter, 167 foot, 624 gross tons, built in 1881, at St. Clair, Michigan) sprang a leak on Big Bay de Noc and sank. Her decks and cabins were blown off as she sank in 11 fathoms of water, 1 1/2 miles northwest of Burnt Bluff. Her crew was rescued by her consorts MAXWELL and TILDEN. Although the vessel was removed from enrollment as a total loss, she was later raised, rebuilt, and re-documented in 1894. However, 03 December was a fateful date for this steamer because on that date in 1922, she burned 1-1/2 miles below Grand Point, near Harsens Island, on the St. Clair River Ð this time to a total and final loss.

Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd.'s CANADIAN AMBASSADOR (Hull#70) was launched December 3, 1982, at St. Catharines, Ontario, by Port Weller Drydocks Ltd.

ROBERT W. STEWART, b.) AMOCO MICHIGAN in 1962) was launched in 1927, at Lorain, Ohio (Hull # 802), by the American Ship Building Co.

In 1909, LE GRAND S. DEGRAFF collided with the steamer HARVARD while down bound in the Detroit River in fog.

IRVING S. OLDS was laid up for the final time on December 3, 1981, at the Hallett Dock #5, Duluth, Minnesota, due to market conditions and her inability to compete with the 60,000-ton carrying capacity of the self-unloading thousand-foot bulk freighters.

On 3 December 1872, the officers and crew of the schooner E. KANTER arrived home in Detroit, Michigan. They reported that their vessel was driven ashore near Leland, Michigan in Lake Michigan on 26 November and was broken up by the waves.

On 3 December 1850, HENRY CLAY (2-mast wooden brig, 87 foot, 163 tons, built in 1842, at Huron, Ohio) was driven ashore at Point Nipigon in the Straits of Mackinac. She suffered little damage, but she was high and dry and unsalvageable. Her crew and passengers were picked up by the passing steamer TROY.

Back during the rough days of November on the lakes, the crews of the Imperial Oil tankers would wet the tablecloths in the mess rooms to keep plates, glasses and silverware from sliding off the tables.

1909: BARGE 101, a whaleback built on the Great Lakes in 1888, sank off Seal Island, Maine enroute from Boston to Halifax with coal tar. The crew of seven was lost.

1942: Yesterday and today the tug ADMIRAL and petroleum barge CLEVECO were lost with all hands off Euclid Beach, Ohio. A total of 32 sailors perished.

1954: The tug ROUILLE sank off Cape Smoky, NS with the loss of 5 lives. The vessel was built in 1929 as Hull 83 at the Collingwood Shipyard and had been on the lakes earlier in the year.

1959: THEODORUS A., seized earlier on Lake St. Clair due to debts, went aground twice while under tow to be unloaded. The vessel was released and spent the winter on the lakes. The crew was sent home.

1963: LIONEL and MANCHESTER MERCHANT collided at the entrance to the Seaway. The former caught fire and was beached at Ronde Island with heavy damage. It was rebuilt at Drammen, Norway, in 1964, returned inland as b) SKAGATIND in 1965 and was scrapped following another fire as e) ALECOS in 1982.

1967: TORONTO CITY, a Seaway trader from 1959 through 1962, went aground near the Elbe I Light enroute from Rostock, Germany, to Rotterdam, Holland, as d) EMMANUEL M. The crew was rescued and the ship was refloated July 7, 1970, sold for scrap, and broken up at Hamburg, Germany.

1985: An engine room fire broke out aboard the SKRADIN at Augusta, Italy, and the ship was a total loss. It had been a Seaway trader as b) BALTIC WASA beginning in 1971 and first returned under the current name in 1976. The damaged vessel was quickly sold for scrap and arrived at Split, Yugoslavia, December 28, 1985, for dismantling.

1987: The former Straits of Mackinac passenger and auto ferry VACATIONLAND sank off Oregon while under tow for scrapping in the Far East.

1993: HOPE I was seriously damaged when it hit bottom east of Quebec City. The ship had traded inland as a) NOSIRA MADELEINE beginning in 1983 and had returned as b) HOPE I earlier in 1993. It was repaired at Lauzon and continued Great Lakes service through 2002. The bulk carrier was back as c) HOPE in 2004.

1995: The former Canada Steamship Lines bulk carrier RIMOUSKI, renamed b) CANADIAN HARVEST, broke in two 114 miles NE of Sable Island while under tow for scrapping in India. The stern sank first. The bow was released two days later and was also lost.

[yachtsmanwilly]

On 06 December 1886, C. McElroy purchased the steamer CHARLIE LIKEN for use as a ferry at St. Clair, Michigan to replace the burned CLARA.

In 1988, Canada Steamship Lines’ HON. PAUL MARTIN was renamed b.) ATLANTIC ERIE.

American Steamship Co.’s H. LEE WHITE (Hull#711) was launched December 6, 1973, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Co.

CONSUMERS POWER was laid up for the last time at Erie, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1985.

On December 6, 1988, an arsonist set fire to the after end of FORT CHAMBLY while she was laid up at Ojibway Slip in Windsor, Ontario.

GOLDEN HIND was launched at Collingwood, Ontario on December 6, 1951, as the tanker a.) IMPERIAL WOODBEND (Hull#147).

N.M. Paterson & Sons LAWRENDOC (Hull#174) was launched December 6, 1961, at the Collingwood Shipyards.

On 6 December 1874, the Port Huron Times reported that the Port Huron Dry Dock Co. had been declared bankrupt and Mr. John Johnston had been appointed assignee of the company by the U.S. District Court.

OCONTO grounded near Charity Island in Saginaw Bay on 6 December 1885. The passengers and crew were saved. She was built at Manitowoc in 1872, by Rand & Co. and owned by Capt. Gregory W. McGregor and Rensselaer VanSycle. She was later recovered but only lasted until July 1886, when she went down in the St. Lawrence River with a valuable cargo of merchandise. Although several attempts were made to recover her, she remains on the bottom and is a frequent charter dive target to this day.

1906: MONARCH, carrying a cargo of bagged flour, struck Blake Point, Isle Royale and broke in two. The stern sank in deep water and the survivors huddled on shore. They were spotted the next day by the passing steamer EDMONTON who had help sent out from Port Arthur. Only one life was lost.

1906: R.L. IRELAND went aground off the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, while loaded with coal. Some of the crew rowed a lifeboat to Bayfield for help. The vessel was salvaged and last sailed as c) ONTADOC (i)in 1970.

1909: BADGER STATE caught fire at Marine City, drifted downstream and stranded off Fawn Island. The hull burned to the waterline. 1910: DUNELM went aground on Isle Royale while downbound with grain for Montreal. It was salvaged on December 21 and taken to Port Arthur for repairs.

1917: TUSCARORA, recently cut in two, towed through the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals, and rejoined at Montreal, sank with the loss of all hands off Cape Breton Island on the delivery voyage to the East Coast.

1924: MIDLAND PRINCE was swept onto a reef while under tow in the outer harbor at Port Colborne and sank the tugs JOSEPH H. and HOME RULE in the process. The laker was released the next day but the tugs were a total loss.

1961: The listing freighter MARIANGELA B. was abandoned on the Mediterranean south of Formentera, Spain, after the cargo of zinc shifted in a storm. The vessel was towed to Cartagena, Spain, on December 8 but soon sold to Italian shipbreakers for dismantling at La Spezia in 1962. The vessel had been built at Sturgeon Bay as LABAN HOWES in 1943.

1977: The passenger ship ROYAL CLIPPER caught fire in the engine room at Montreal. After five hours, the ship rolled on its side and sank. It was salvaged in 1982, towed to Port Maitland, and scrapped during 1984-1986.

1992: WILLIAM R. ROESCH was inbound at Holland, Mich., with a cargo of slag when it went aground. The ship was stuck for two hours.

2001: NANCY MELISSA visited the Great Lakes in 1980. It began taking water as e) EMRE BAY in the Ionian Sea and the crew abandoned the ship. The grain laden vessel was taken in tow to safety but was later sold for scrap and arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, for dismantling as f) RESBE on April 9, 2003.

2002: SAGINAW sustained rudder damage while backing away at Thorold and had to go to Hamilton for repairs.

[yachtsmanwilly]

REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR... December 7. 1941


12/7 - Marcon International shipbrokers report that Port City Marine Services of Muskegon, Mich., have purchased two more tugs from McAllister Towing and Transportation of New York.

On December 4, the Katie G. McAllister (a. Hull 671, b. Libby Black) departed New York towing the Colleen McAllister (a. Hull 685, b. Ellena Hicks). Both tugs are products of the Gulfport Shipbuilding Co of Port Arthur, Texas, in 1966 and 1967 respectively, and are powered by 12 cylinder EMDs totaling 4300 bhp.

The tugs were built for Gulf Coast Transit of Tampa, which later became TECO Transit, and were sold to McAllister in 2003. The tugs are equipped with elevated pilothouses and are to be fitted with with Bludworth coupler systems. A sister tug Prentiss Brown (a. Betty Culbreath, b.Michaela McAllister) was acquired by Port City in 2009. The tugs expect to clear the Seaway before it closes for the season.


12/7 - A bill that would have eliminated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority in regulating ballast water discharge from cargo vessels was struck from the finalized 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

A Congressional Research Service report conducted last year stated that the goal of the legislation is to set a single ballast water management standard overseen by the Coast Guard.

However, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway advocacy groups, including Save the River, denounced the legislation, fearing that removal of EPA control over ballast water discharges could cause a wider spread of invasive species. U.S. Rep. Elise M. Stefanik (R-New York) said the Coast Guard was not “equipped” to handle the new discharge standards.

Dubbed the “Vessel Incidental Discharge Act,” the nondefense-related bill directs the U.S. Coast Guard to establish new standards for ship discharge of ballast water, which is water carried in vessel ballast tanks to improve stability and discharged at port when cargo is loaded or unloaded.

Under VIDA, ballast water discharges would be exempt from Clean Water Act permits that are renewed every five years, which allows for re-evaluation, water level monitoring and improvements to treatment technology. Additionally, vessels operating in the Great Lakes or other “geographically limited areas,” according to the bill, would be exempt from ballast water treatment requirements.

Ms. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, had been working to remove the bill from the NDAA since May. In the NDAA’s initial development, the bill was added without a roll-call vote. While Ms. Stefanik had put forth an amendment to strike the bill from the NDAA, it was ultimately ruled out of order by the Rules Committee, allowing VIDA to remain until the finalized bill.

Stefanik said the ballast water issue was one she fought for vigorously in the conference committee. “It shows how important it is to have a seat at the table for these issues,” she said. “The St. Lawrence River has an unique role in the health of the Great Lakes.”

With the legislation struck from the NDAA, Save the River Executive Director D. Lee Willbanks said he was happy Stefanik helped see it done. “It was a great local issue, but it was a big, important national issue,” he said. “It shows a nice environmental sensitivity on her part that we appreciate.”

Watertown Daily Times


On 07 December 1893, the hull of the burned steamer MASCOTTE (steel ferry, 103 foot, 137 gross tons, built in 1885, at Wyandotte, Michigan) was towed from New Baltimore to Detroit by the tug LORMAN for repairs. She was rebuilt and put back in service. She went through nine owners in a career that finally ended with another fire in Chicago in 1934.

In 1990, the ENERCHEM LAKER was sold to Environment Protection Services, Inc., Panama and departed Montreal on December 7, 1990, for off-lakes service with the new name d) RECOVERY VIII. Built for Hall Corp. of Canada as a.) ROCKCLIFFE HALL, converted to a tanker renamed b.) ISLAND TRANSPORT in 1985, and c.) ENERCHEM LAKER in 1986. Renamed e.) MORGAN TRADER in 1993, and currently serves as a bunkering tanker in Suez, Egypt as f.) ANNA II, renamed in 1997.

The LEADALE, a.) JOHN A. KLING sank in the Welland Canal on December 7, 1982, and was declared a constructive total loss.

The GEORGE R. FINK, under tow, arrived at Gandia, Spain prior to December 7, 1973, for scrapping.

W. W. HOLLOWAY was laid up December 7, 1981, for the last time in Toledo’s Frog Pond.

On December 7, 1932, the MARQUIS ROEN caught fire at Meacher's dock at Bay City, and before the fire was brought under control, the cabins and after end were destroyed.

Captain John Roen of the Roen Steamship Co. died on December 7, 1970.

On December 7, 1906, the R. L. IRELAND stranded on Gull Island in the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior. PERCIVAL ROBERTS JR. (Hull#398) was launched December 7, 1912, for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co at Lorain, Ohio by the American Ship Building Co.

The steel side-wheel passenger steamer EASTERN STATES (Hull#144) was launched on December 7, 1901, by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company for the Detroit and Buffalo Steamship Company.

The railcar ferry ANN ARBOR NO 2 (Hull#56), was launched on December 7, 1892 at Toledo, Ohio by Craig Ship Building Co. Sold in 1914 and cut down to a barge, renamed b.) WHALE in 1916, abandoned in 1927.

In 1906, the ANN ARBOR NO 4 arrived Frankfort on her maiden voyage.

On 7 December 1894, KEWEENAW (steel steamer, 291 foot, 2511 gross tons, built in 1891, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was seen groping toward the coast of the State of Washington in a severe gale. With distress signals flying, she put back to sea and foundered. She was built by F. W. Wheeler (Hull #73) for saltwater service. Built in two pieces, she was towed down the St. Lawrence and reassembled at Montreal.

On 7 December 1866, M. BALLARD (2-mast wooden schooner, 116 foot, 288 tons, built in 1855, at Cleveland, Ohio) was lost with all hands in a storm on Lake Ontario.

The wooden propeller bulk freighter MORLEY was launched at Marine City on 7 December 1878. She was on the stocks for two years and was built for the Morley Brothers and Hill. She was a double decker with side arches between decks with iron straps. She also had iron trusses running through the center. Her boiler was on the main deck and she had the engine from the tug WM PRINGLE. She had three spars, a centerboard, and could carry 45,000 bushels of grain.

1909: MARQUETTE & BESSEMER NO. 2 disappeared with all hands in the overnight hours of December 7-8 while crossing Lake Erie from Conneaut to Port Stanley with 30 loaded railway cars. The hull has never been located.

1912: The whaleback BARGE 134 was operating on the East Coast as b) BANGOR when it stranded and broke up near Hampton Roads, Va. The hull was salvaged by blasting and dredging in 1975.

1917: SIMCOE, of the Canadian Department of Marine & Fisheries, left the Great Lakes earlier in the fall for new work on the Bay of Fundy. It sent out an S.O.S. that it was sinking in heavy seas and the ship was never seen again. The only trace was a lifering that came ashore at Sable Island. There were 44 on board.

1927: KAMLOOPS, inbound for the Canadian Lakehead, disappeared with all hands overnight December 6-7. The hull was finally found by divers off 12 O'Clock Point, Isle Royale, in 1977.

1927: AGAWA stranded on Advance Reef, Georgian Bay along the south shore of Manitoulin Island. It spent the winter aground and was not released until Nay 16, 1928. The hull had been declared a total loss but was rebuilt at Collingwood as the ROBERT P. DURHAM and then later sailed as c) HERON BAY (i).

1927: The first MARTIAN went aground off Hare Island, Lake Superior and was not released until December 14.

1929: ULVA sank in the ice at Port Colborne but was raised, refitted and returned to service in 1930. The British built freighter operated between Maritime Canada and the Great Lakes until about 1939. It was torpedoed and sunk by U-60 northwest of Ireland on September 3, 1940.

1941: The tanker MAKAWELI was reported to be anchored at Pearl Harbor during the infamous Japanese attack and damaged. The ship was built at Ashtabula as COWEE in 1919 and returned to the Great Lakes for Lakeland Tankers in 1946.

1967: FIR HILL, a Seaway trader in 1961, went aground off Yasuoka, Japan, as d) UNIVERSAL CRUSADER. It was lightered and released but sold for scrap and broken up at Hirao, Japan, in 1968. 1969: The bulk carrier PETITE HERMINE and TEXACO CHIEF (ii) collided in fog near Prescott and both ships had slight damage. The former became c) CANADIAN HUNTER while the latter last operated on the lakes as c) ALGONOVA (i).

1976: The Liberian flag bulk carrier UNIMAR grounded leaving Thunder Bay with a cargo of grain and was not released until December 15.

1976: HARRY L. ALLEN of the Kinsman fleet went aground in Lake St. Clair, near St. Clair, Mich., and was held fast in the ice before being freed by tugs.

1982: LEADALE (ii) finished unloading salt at Thorold and backed into a concrete dolphin while departing the dock. A hole was punched in the hull and the ship sank while trying to get back to the dock. LEADALE was refloated December 19, towed to Port Colborne and scrapped by Marine Salvage in 1983. 1983: UNISOL had been docked at Chandler, Que., to load newsprint but left to ride out an approaching storm after being pounded against the dock. The ship ran aground while outbound and the crew was saved by a Canadian Forces helicopter. The vessel, noted as the first Peruvian flag freighter to transit the Seaway earlier that year, broke up in the storm.

1983: The Norwegian freighter WOODVILLE began visiting the Great Lakes in 1962. It ran aground near Palau Mungging, Malaysia, enroute from Bangkok, Thailand, to Malacca, Malaysia, as d) PETER RICH and was abandoned as a total loss.

1989: CAPITAINE TORRES, enroute from the Great Lakes, got caught in a vicious storm on the Gulf of St. Lawrence on December 7-8 after the cargo shifted. All 23 on board were lost when the ship went down.

2005: ZIEMIA LODZKA collided with and sank the VERTIGO in shallow water in the Great Belt off Denmark. All were saved. The former began Great Lake trading in 1992.

2010: The passenger ship CLELIA II, a Great Lakes visitor in 2009, was hit by a monstrous wave in the Antarctic Ocean smashing the pilothouse window and damaging electronic equipment. The vessel made Ushusia, Argentina, safely and only one member of the crew had a minor injury.

[yachtsmanwilly]

12/8 - Detroit, Mich. – Detroit is home to a port that's tied to some 15,000 jobs and generates nearly $300 million in state and federal taxes as part of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System.

And yet many are completely unaware of its existence.

To make his point about the Port of Detroit being an afterthought -- if even that -- the head of the authority watching over the $300 million economy likes to use a story of border patrol agents being unaware of its existence.

"There is a crewman who comes into the port (from Canada), and when he gives the customs agent his reason for coming, the agent says: 'There's no port here,'" said John Loftus, executive director of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, about general unfamiliarity with the Port of Detroit.

"So, the agent has to call the Coast Guard just to confirm that there is a port here. There is no better way to show the challenge we face than a customs agent not knowing there is a port in Detroit. "

Read more, see photos and a video at this link


12/8 - Duluth, Minn. – A busy year of projects on the westernmost Great Lakes saw $60 million poured into 254 construction and dredging contracts, the Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported in a news release early this month.

"These projects help the Corps further its mission of providing great engineering services and sustainable solutions to the Great Lakes Region," said Lt. Col. Dennis Sugrue, district engineer, in the news release.

Modernization and maintenance work on and around the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., comprised roughly a third of that dollar figure. The Soo Locks between lakes Superior and Huron comprise a vital link in the nation's manufacturing supply chain.

Among 16 sets of locks on the Great Lakes, the Soo Locks specifically are integral to the nation's steel industry as taconite iron ore mined on the Iron Range is taken by lake freighter from Duluth, Superior, Two Harbors and Silver Bay to the country's steel mills — generally located along the Great Lakes. A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that 50 percent of the iron ore used by the country's steel mills is shipped directly through the Poe Lock — one of two working Soo Locks and the only one capable of handling the 1,000-foot lake freighters that typically haul the tons of taconite iron ore pellets.

The Soo Locks are scheduled to close Jan. 15 for the annual offseason, ushering in roughly two months of intense work on the locks.

Dredging, as it always does, also comprised a large part of the Detroit District's budget.

In the Twin Ports, two dredging contracts worth more than $2.6 million were awarded to separate contractors from Ohio and Wisconsin. Together, the ongoing dredging will result in almost 340,000 cubic yards of dredged material being taken out of shipping channels in the bays between Duluth and Superior.

"The dredging work removes the natural siltation that occurs in the 19 miles of authorized channels and can be compared to plowing the snow from city streets," said Jim Sharrow, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority's director of port planning and resiliency. "This work keeps the channels open for the waterborne movement of the raw materials so critical to the economy of Northern Minnesota and to industrial economy of North America."

Much of the dredged material that tests as clean is being reused for habitat restoration in two locations within what is an aquatic habitat restoration site in the bay visible from 21st Avenue West.

"The goal of the project is to restore the aquatic habitat within the 350-acre site by placing the dredged materials to create optimal water depth and flow conditions that will help establish diverse aquatic vegetation and healthy benthic organisms," said Nelson French, supervisor for the Lake Superior Unit of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency based in Duluth.

The process will be repeated in other environmental hot spots along the St. Louis River estuary that are outlined in a project called the St. Louis River Remedial Action Plan. French said the project "is making a significant contribution to cleaning up" the estuary and called it a creative use of dredged material. For its creativity — dredged material has rarely been used in this manner before — the restoration project was a recipient of a 2016 Minnesota State Government Innovation Award from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and The Bush Foundation.

Since the first pilot year in 2013, 510,000 cubic yards of navigational dredged materials has been placed at the site off of 21st Avenue West and work is expected to be completed in 2017, said French — with similar habitat restoration projects continuing farther up the river in the years that follow.

The president's budget for fiscal year 2017 (ending in October) includes $67.5 million for the Detroit District but has yet to be approved by the United States Congress.

Duluth News Tribune



On 08 December 1917, DESMOND (wooden propeller sand-sucker, 149 foot, 456 gross tons, built in 1892, at Port Huron, Michigan) sprang a leak off Michigan City, Indiana, during gale and then capsized within sight of the lighthouse at South Chicago, Illinois. Seven lives were lost. Six others were rescued by the tugs WILLIAM A. FIELD, GARY and NORTH HARBOR.

CANADIAN ENTERPRISE (Hull#65) was christened December 8, 1979, at St. Catharines, Ontario, by Port Weller Drydocks. Ltd.

JAMES DAVIDSON was laid up for the last time on December 8, 1969, at Toledo, Ohio.

MERLE M. McCURDY collided with U.S. Steel’s PHILIP R. CLARKE opposite Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan on Lake St. Clair, December 8, 1974.

On 8 December 1886, BELLE (2-mast wooden schooner, 61 foot, 40 gross tons, built in 1866, at Port Dalhousie, Ontario) burned while frozen in at anchor.

On 8 December 1854, WESTMORELAND (wooden propeller passenger/package freight vessel, 200 foot, 665 tons, built in 1853, at Cleveland, Ohio) was carrying supplies for Mackinac Island, including liquor and supposedly $100,000 in gold. She capsized in a storm due to the heavy seas and the weight of the thick ice on her superstructure. She sank in the Manitou Passage in Lake Michigan and dragged one of the loaded lifeboats down with her. 17 lives were lost. There were many attempts to find her and recover her cargo. Some reports indicate the wreck was found in 1874, however it was not discovered until 2010 by Ross Richardson.

1876: IRA CHAFFE was driven ashore in a severe snowstorm near the Chocolay River, Lake Superior, near Munising. All on board were saved and the ship was eventually released.

1909: Fire broke out in the hold of the CLARION off Southeast Shoal, Lake Erie. Six sailors who huddled on the stern were picked up in a daring rescue by the LEONARD C. HANNA the next day. Another 14 were lost when their lifeboat was swept away in the storm and one more perished when he went into the hold to fight the fire.

1909: W.C. RICHARDSON stranded on Waverley Shoal, 2 miles west of Buffalo. A storm had prevented entrance to Buffalo and the ship was riding out the weather on the lake. The hull had to by dynamited as a navigational hazard when salvage efforts failed. Five lives were lost.

1927: ALTADOC (i) stranded on the rocks of the Keweenaw Peninsula when the steering failed while upbound, in ballast, for Fort William. The hull could not be salvaged and it was cut up for scrap on location during World War Two.

1927: LAMBTON stranded on Parisienne Shoal, Lake Superior, with the loss of 2 lives. The engine was removed for the FERNIE and the hull salvaged in 1928 for further work as the barge c) SALVUS.

1963: FORT ALBANY sank in the St. Lawrence off Lanorie after a collision with the PROCYON, and five members of the crew were lost. Heavy fog persisted at the time. The hull was refloated in June 1964, taken to Sorel, and scrapped.

1971: HARMATTAN was attacked with missiles and gunfire by Indian Naval units south of Karachi, Pakistan, and heavily damaged. Seven sailors were killed and the ship was abandoned. It arrived at Karachi March 2, 1972, and was scrapped. The ship had been a Seaway trader earlier in 1971.

1982: The Liberian freighter GENIE came through the Seaway in 1972. It was badly damaged by an explosion and fire on this date while laid up the Seychelles Islands. The hull was taken to Karachi, Pakistan, and scrapped in 1985.

1983: AKTION, a Seaway trader for the first time in 1970, was laid up at Piraeus, Greece, as e) ELISA when fire broke out and the vessel was heavily damaged aft. The hull was towed into Aliaga, Turkey, in October 1984, and broken up for scrap.

[yachtsmanwilly]

12/9 - In 2009, Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri S.p.A, purchased the assets of the Manitowoc Marine Group, which included Bay Shipbuilding Company. Located in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., Bay Shipbuilding was the “feather in the cap,” with a long history in U.S. commercial shipbuilding and repair. Maritime Reporter & Engineering News recently visited the shipyard and found an enviable level of new builds and repair activity; which gave us a better understanding why the yard is dubbed the “best kept secret in shipbuilding.”

Read more and view photos at this link: www.marinelink.com/news/shipbuilding-secret-kept418660.aspx


12/9 - Duluth, Minn. – Magnetation LLC late Wednesday said it is asking for bankruptcy court permission to sell all its remaining assets to ERP Iron Ore LLC in a deal, if approved, that could see some operations resume.

The request follows Magnetation’s shutdown in late September after more than a year after bankruptcy court proceedings failed to reach a deal with the company’s creditors.

If approved by the bankruptcy court, the deal would give ERP Magentiton’s now idled plants in Keewatin, Bovey and near Grand Rapids that turn former waste iron ore into valuable iron ore concentrate.

The deal also includes all of Magnetation’s rail loading and rail services operations and the company's pellet making plant in Reynolds, Ind.

A Dec. 15 bankruptcy hearing has been scheduled in federal court in St. Paul to consider the sale. The deal could mean former Magnetation employees at some of the facilities could be back to work sometime soon.

Magnetation LLC was founded in 2006 and is a joint venture between Grand Rapids-based Magnetation Inc. and AK Iron Resources LLC, an affiliate of steelmaker AK Steel. Magnetation recovers valuable iron ore from waste dumps left behind by long-closed mining operations.

Duluth News Tribune



While tied up at Port Colborne, Ontario, waiting to discharge her cargo of grain, a northeast gale caused the water to lower three feet and left the EDWIN H. OHL (steel propeller bulk freighter, 420 foot, 5141 gross tons, built in 1907, at Wyandotte, Michigan) on the bottom with a list of about one foot. The bottom plating was damaged and cost $3,460.19 to repair.

Cleveland Tankers’ JUPITER (Hull#227) was christened December 9, 1975, at Jennings, Louisiana, by S.B.A. Shipyards, Inc.

JEAN PARISIEN left Quebec City on her maiden voyage December 9, 1977.

CLIFFS VICTORY ran aground December 9, 1976 near Johnson’s Point in the ice -laden Munuscong Channel of the St. Marys River.

The FRANK C. BALL, b.) J.R. SENSIBAR in 1930, c.) CONALLISON in 1981) was launched at Ecorse, Michigan by Great Lakes Engineering Works as (Hull #14) on December 9, 1905.

ARTHUR B. HOMER was towed by the tugs THUNDER CAPE, ELMORE M. MISNER and ATOMIC to Port Colborne, Ontario, December 9, 1986, and was scrapped there the following year.

HILDA MARJANNE was launched December 9, 1943, as a.) GRANDE RONDE (Hull#43) at Portland, Oregon, by Kaiser Co., Inc.

The keel for Hall Corporation of Canada’s SHIERCLIFFE HALL (Hull#248) was laid on December 9, 1949, at Montreal, Quebec by Canadian Vickers Ltd.

On 9 December 1871, CHALLENGE (wooden schooner, 96 foot, 99 tons, built in 1853, at Rochester, New York) missed the piers at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in heavy weather, stove in some of her planking and sank. She was a particularly sleek craft, actually designed as a yacht and once owned by the U.S. Light House Service as a supply vessel.

On 9 December 1874, the Port Huron Times reported that "the old railroad ferry steamer UNION at Detroit is having machinery taken out and preparing to go into permanent retirement, or perhaps to serve as a floating dining room for railroad passengers."

1910: JOHN SHARPLES of the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Transportation Co., stranded on Galops Island in the St. Lawrence due to low visibility. The vessel was holed fore and aft and not released until April 1911 with the help of the tug HECLA.

1943: SARNIAN, the first member of what became the Upper Lakes Shipping fleet, stranded on Pointe Isabelle Reef, Lake Superior, while downbound with 162,489 bushels of barley. The vessel was not refloated until July 24, 1944, and never sailed again.

1956: FORT HENRY, a package freighter for Canada Steamship Lines, hit Canoe Rocks approaching the Canadian Lakehead, cutting open the hull. It reached the dock safely, quickly unloaded, and went to the Port Arthur shipyard for repairs.

1968: NORTH CAROLINA lost power and sank in Lake Erie five miles west of Fairport, Ohio, in rough weather. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the three-member crew. The hull went down in about 30 feet of water and is a popular dive attraction.

1980: The salt-laden KINGDOC (ii) was released by the tugs POINT VALIANT and IRVING BIRCH after an earlier grounding at Pugwash, NS

1983: The saltwater ship d) IAPETOS was struck by Iraqi gunners in the Khor Musa Channel about 30-40 miles from Bandar Khomeini, Iran. It was abandoned and struck again by a missile and bombs on March 29, 1984. The vessel began Seaway service as a) JAROSA in 1965 and returned as b) IVORY STAR in 1973 and c) TURICUM in 1975. It was refloated about 1984 and scrapped at Sitalpur, Bangladesh.

2001: The former HAND LOONG, a Seaway trader beginning in 1977, sank as b) UNA in the Black Sea off Sinop, Turkey, enroute from Algeria to Romania with 11,000 tons of iron ore. Seventeen sailors were rescued but one was missing and presumed lost.

2003: STELLAMARE capsized on the Hudson River at Albany, N.Y., while loading turbines. The cargo shifted and three members of the crew were lost. The ship was righted, refloated and repaired as c) NANDALINA S. It was broken up for scrap at Aliaga, Turkey, as d) DOUAA A. in 2011. This heavy-lift freighter first came through the Seaway in 1989 and returned inland from time to time.

2011: VSL CENTURION lost its stern anchor while downbound in the Welland Canal at Port Colborne. Shipping was held up until it was found. The ship first visited the Seaway as a) SAGITARRIUS in 1990 and became d) PHOENIX SUN in 2012.