Today in Great Lakes History

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/16 - Michigan's Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie are a connector for shipping iron, coal, grain and other materials from the shores of Lake Superior to the rest of the country. In 2016, U.S.-flagged Great Lakes freighters moved 83.3 million tons of cargo, according to the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers Association.
Currently, the biggest of the locks, the Poe Lock, is operating normally. But many worry an unexpected breakdown of the lock could throw the shipping industry into chaos.
An upgrade to convert two smaller locks into another lock the size of Poe has mostly languished without funding since it was initially authorized 1986. Michigan's Congressional delegation has renewed the push to fund this project by appealing to other members of Congress and President Donald Trump's administration, but it could be a while before that happens.
Although there have been no major issues with the Poe Lock in recent years, experts say any major breakdown in the lock would cause a major hit to both the Michigan economy and the U.S. economy as a whole.
A Department of Homeland Security report concluded a hypothetical unexpected breakdown at the Poe Lock lasting six months would cripple the United States economy and cost 11 million jobs, and predicted the national unemployment rate would hit 11.3 percent.
The report found a shutdown of Great Lakes steel production caused by a sudden halt in ore transportation would in turn shut down almost all North American appliance, automobile, construction, farm and mining equipment, and railcar production within weeks.
"In terms of an impact to the North American economy, it is hard to conceive of a single asset more consequential than the Poe Lock," the report author concluded.
Read more and view photos at this link

10/16 - Cleveland, Ohio – The U.S. Coast Guard rescued seven people Saturday evening off their grounded vessel on Buckeye Reef near Middle Bass Island in Western Lake Erie. Shortly after 7:30 p.m. Saturday, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Detroit received a report of a 28 foot vessel that was hard aground on Buckeye Reef with five adults and two children aboard. The vessel was reported to be severely listing and one of the adults was experiencing a panic attack thought to be brought on by the situation.
A crew from Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, aboard a 25-foot response boat, responded. A local commercial salvage crew responded as well. An urgent marine information broadcast was not sent due to concerns for public safety, given the shallow and rocky area.
After arriving on scene, neither the Marblehead or salvage crew was able to approach the vessel due to water depth. A crew from Coast Guard Air Station Detroit was launched aboard an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter in order to rescue the people.
Once on scene, the air station crew hoisted four of the people and took them to the Middle Bass Island Municipal Airport where they were met by the Put-in-Bay police and EMS personnel. The helicopter crew returned to the stricken vessel and hoisted the remaining three people. After being evaluated by EMS, with no reported injuries, all seven people were taken from Put-in-Bay to Station Marblehead by a crew from Station Marblehead aboard a 45-foot response boat.
Arrangements for vessel salvage were being made by the owner for Sunday, depending on favorable weather conditions. Pollution responders from Marine Safety Unit Toledo were notified regarding possible pollution and are following up. No pollution has been reported.
USCG

10/15 - Cleveland, Ohio – The Coast Guard is urging caution across the waters of the Great Lakes due to potentially hazardous weather conditions throughout the weekend.
Gale watches and warnings have been issued for many areas throughout the Great Lakes for Saturday and continuing through the weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, a gale watch is issued when the risk of gale force winds of 39 to 54 mph has significantly increased but the specific timing and/or location is still uncertain. It is intended to provide additional lead time for mariners who may wish to consider altering their plans.
People visiting shoreline areas should exercise caution while the watches and warnings remain in effect. It is strongly encouraged to stay off rocks, jetties and piers, as high waves and heavy surf can unexpectedly sweep a person into the water.
Always check the weather forecast before recreating on or near the water. Staying aware of weather conditions could easily save your life. Even after hazardous weather patterns have moved through the area, it can still take an additional day for lake conditions to calm.
USCG

10/15 - Ludington, Mich. – Lake Michigan Carferry has canceled its final sailing of the season, which had been scheduled for Sunday, due to inclement weather. "This decision is made with our passengers comfort in mind, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. This also means service for 2017 has ended, no further crossings will be available this year," the company stated.
The National Weather Service has called for up to 55 mph winds on Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan Carferry

On this day in 1953, Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland, submitted a successful bid of $118,111 for six retired lakers to be scrapped by the U.S. Maritime Commission. The six boats were the CHACORNAC, COLONEL, MUNISING, NEGAUNEE, YOSEMITE and AMAZON.
On 14 October 1871, the LEVANT (2-mast wooden schooner, 91 foot, 115 tons, built in 1854, at Chicago, Illinois) was loaded with lumber when she was overtaken by a severe gale and went over on her beam ends off Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan. The 6-man crew lashed themselves to the vessel so as not to be washed away by the waves. Throughout the night the men died one by one. At daylight, the schooner D P DOBBINS found the wreck with floating bodies tied to it and three still alive (two of them were barely alive). One died during the rescue attempt and another died within minutes of being rescued. Only Peter J. Thornum survived.
DEAN RICHMOND (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 238 foot, 1,432 gross tons, built in 1864, at Cleveland, Ohio) sailed from Toledo, Ohio, on Friday the 13th of October 1893, with a load of bagged meal, flour, zinc and copper ingots. She encountered hurricane force winds of over 60 mph and battled the storm throughout the night. She was seen on 14 October 1893, off Erie, Pennsylvania, missing her stacks and battling the wind and waves. The following day, wreckage and bodies were washing ashore near Dunkirk, New York. Among the dead were the captain, his wife and three children. A few crewmembers managed to make it to shore however all but one died of exposure. The only survivor was found on the beach near Van Buren Point two days later. During the search for bodies, three volunteers lost their lives. The wreck was found in 1984.
The keel to the JAMES R. BARKER was laid on October 14, 1974. She was to become Interlake's first 1000 footer and the flagship of the fleet for Moore McCormack Leasing, Inc. (Interlake Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio, mgr.).
On October 14, 1983, the CHI-CHEEMAUN encountered 48-knot winds after departing Tobermory with 113 passengers bound for South Baymouth. Due to high wind and waves the captain decided to find shelter rather than to continue on or return to port. The ferry made her way around the Bruce Peninsula southeast to Dyer Bay where she dropped anchor for the night, however she had no overnight accommodations. Complimentary meals were served and activities were organized by the crew. The anchor was lifted the next morning and the ferry returned to Tobermory.
The GEORGE A. STINSON departed Detroit on her maiden voyage October 14, 1978, light for Superior, Wisconsin, to load iron ore pellets for delivery to the Great Lakes Steel Division of the National Steel Corp. at Zug Island in River Rouge, Michigan. Renamed b.) AMERICAN SPIRIT in 2004.
On 14 October 1875, it was discovered that thieves had completely stripped the canvass and rigging from the schooner FORWARDER owned by Little & Brown. The schooner was lying about three miles below Port Huron.
On 14 October 1822, APPELONA (wooden schooner, 45 foot, 37 tons, built in 1814, at Henderson, New York) was bound from Oswego for Genesee, New York, when she was struck by lightning in Lake Ontario and sank about 15 minutes. All hands were injured but abandoned her for shore and all survived.
The tug NELSON burned at Chicago on Saturday, 14 October 1876. She was one of the smaller class of tugs and the damage was so great that she was not considered to be worth repairing.
October 14, 1911 - The ANN ARBOR NO 4 ran aground while enroute to Manistique, Michigan, at full speed, damaging several plates. The ANN ARBOR NO 3 pulled her off.
On 14 October 1876, NEW YORK (wooden propeller freighter, 183 foot, 704 tons, built in 1856, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying lumber and towing the schooner BUTCHER BOY and barges NELLIE MC GILVERAY and A. J. CORREY from Cove Island in Georgian Bay to Buffalo when they encountered a severe storm near Pointe aux Barques. The towline parted and the NEW YORK could not regain it in the heavy seas. She then sprang a leak and the water rose rapidly enough to put out her fires. The crew (15 men and one woman) abandoned in the yawl as NEW YORK was overwhelmed and sank. The open boat was adrift for five hours when the 74-foot schooner NEMESIS came upon it. NEMESIS tried twelve times to approach the yawl in the rough seas, losing a portion of her deck load of tanbark each time that she came about, but at last she got alongside the yawl. The NEW YORK's crew managed to get aboard the NEMESIS except for Fireman William Sparks, who fell between the yawl and the schooner and was lost. The other vessels in the tow all made it to Port Huron safely.
On 14 October 1883, NELLIE GARDNER (wooden schooner-barge, 178 foot, 567 gross tons, built in 1873, at Marine City, Michigan) was loaded with 39,000 bushels of corn while being towed by the steamer JOHN PRIDGEON JR in a storm on Lake Huron. The GARDNER released herself from the tow in the heavy weather to run for the shelter of Thunder Bay under sail. However, she was unable to make it, and turned back for Tawas, Michigan, but struck a reef, broke in two and was wrecked 1 mile SE of Scarecrow Island. Her crew made it to shore in her yawl.
1895: The wooden steamer AFRICA struck a reef near Cove Island enroute to Georgian Bay, broke up and sank with the loss of all 13 crew.
1922: ARROW, a steel sidewheeler, partially burned at the dock in Put-in-Bay.
1954: The Dutch freighter PRINS WILLEM V. sank off Milwaukee after a collision with the barge SINCLAIR XII pushed by the SINCLAIR CHICAGO. All 30 sailors on board were rescued but the overseas vessel was never salvaged. It was replaced in 1956 by another PRINS WILLEM V.
1966: The STONEFAX and ARTHUR STOVE collided in the Welland Canal between Allanburg and Port Robinson. The former, a member of the Halco fleet, sank with its cargo of potash and remained on the bottom until November 25. The latter subsequently visited the Seaway as b) TIARET and was scrapped at Nantong, China, as c) CLARET in 1984-1985.
1983: The British freighter HOUSTON CITY visited the Great Lakes in 1966. It ran aground at Mayotte Island, part of the Comoros, while enroute from the Far East to South Africa as c) ALPAC AFRICA. The ship was stuck until October 22 and scrapped at Shanghai, China, in 1984.
1985: FURIA was trapped in Lock 7 when a section of the lock wall collapsed. The Welland Canal was closed until November 7. The vessel arrived at Shanghai, China, for scrapping as b) YRIA on November 1, 2001, after it made a final trip inland as such in 2000.
1987: GEORGE A. SLOAN sustained major bottom damage going aground in the Amherstburg Channel and was repaired at Toledo. The ship is still sailing as c) MISSISSAGI.

On this day in 1893, according to reports in Buffalo newspapers, First Mate Ben Lewis was washed off the decks of the JAY GOULD during a storm. A succeeding wave picked him up and dropped him back on the deck of the GOULD.
On October 15, 1871, LA PETITE (wooden schooner, 94 foot, 122 gross tons, built in 1866, at Huron, Ohio) was carrying lumber from Alpena, Michigan, to Huron, Ohio, when she was caught in a terrific gale on Lake Huron. The heavy seas carried away the lumber strapped on deck. Then the vessel sprang a leak and turned on her beam ends. Capt. O. B. Smith, his wife, and four other sailors rode out the storm on the wreck until found by the tug BROCKWAY. The schooner was towed to Port Huron and repaired.
On her maiden voyage, Branch Lines new tanker LEON SIMARD was spotted traveling eastward on the St. Lawrence River on October 15, 1974. Renamed b.) L'ORME NO 1 in 1982. Sold off the lakes, renamed c.) TRADEWIND OCEAN in 1997 and d.) AMARA in 2001.
The self-unloader WOLVERINE departed the American Ship Building Co., October 15, 1974, on her maiden voyage from Lorain, Ohio, light to load stone at Stoneport, Michigan, for delivery to Huron, Ohio.
HERBERT C. JACKSON cleared Fraser Shipyard on October 15, 1988, after having the 1000 h.p. bowthruster motor installed from the JOHN SHERWIN. The motor from the JACKSON was later repaired and placed in the SHERWIN's cargo hold for future use.
The PAUL H. CARNAHAN came out on her maiden voyage October 15, 1961.
On October 15, 1984, JOHN O. McKELLAR of 1952, was sold to P.& H. Shipping of Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd., Mississauga, Ont., and renamed b.) ELMGLEN.
Scrapping began on October 15, 1988, of JOHN T. HUTCHINSON at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, by Li Chong Steel & Iron Works Co. Ltd.
C. H. McCULLOUGH JR was laid up on October 15, 1969, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
COVERDALE (Hull#34) was launched at Midland, Ontario, on October 15, 1949, for Canada Steamship Lines, Montreal, Quebec. Renamed b.) GEORGE HINDMAN in 1973 and c.) MELDRUM BAY in 1979. Scrapped at Lisbon, Portugal in 1985.
SCOTT MISENER of 1954 struck bottom on October 15, 1973, near Whaleback Shoal on the St. Lawrence River reportedly damaging 60 of her bottom plates. She proceeded to the Port Arthur shipyard for drydocking and repairs from October 20th through the 28th.
On October 15, 1980, the NIPIGON BAY, loaded with ore for Hamilton, Ontario, grounded at the "crossover" near Brockville, Ontario, on the St. Lawrence River and sustained a 100-foot rip in her bottom plates. She proceeded to Thunder Bay arriving there on October 24th where repairs were made at an estimated cost of $500,000.
R. P. MASON (3 mast wooden schooner, 115 foot, 155 gross tons, built in 1867, at Grand Haven, Michigan) was bound from Chicago for Detroit when she struck a rocky reef near Waugoshance Point in the Straits of Mackinac on October 8. 1871. Water gushed in an 8-foot hole. However, she was temporarily patched and her cargo of grain, flour and meat was taken off over the next few days. The tug LEVIATHAN took her in tow, going to Little Traverse Bay when, on October 15, they encountered a gale near Cross Village, Michigan. The MASON broke free and capsized. 5 died and 4 were rescued. The MASON drifted ashore upside down. She was eventually salvaged and sailed for another 46 years. She ended her days when she burned in Lake Michigan in 1917.
The tug DOUGLAS caught fire near Wyandotte while going down the Detroit River and sank. The crew all jumped overboard and was saved by the steam yacht JOSEPHINE, except for John Cassidy, one of the firemen, who drowned. A few days later, plans were made to raise and rebuild the DOUGLAS.
On October 15,1871, R. G. COBURN (wooden propeller passenger/package freight steamer, 193 foot, 867 tons, built in 1870, at Marine City, Michigan) was carrying 15,000 bushels of wheat, 3,500 barrels of flour and 30 barrels of silver ore from Lake Superior to Detroit. As she came down Lake Huron, she encountered a terrific gale that had driven most vessels to seek shelter. The COBURN fought the wind at Saginaw Bay throughout the night until she lost her rudder and turned broadside to the waves. Her large stack fell and smashed the cabin area and then the cargo came loose and started smashing holes in the bulwarks. About 70 passengers were aboard and almost all were terribly seasick. As the ship began her final plunge beneath the waves, only a few lifeboats were getting ready to be launched and those were floated right from the deck as the ship sank. 32 people perished, including Capt. Gilbert Demont. No women or children were saved.
On October 15, 1900, the wooden 186-foot freighter F. E. SPINNER was sunk in a collision with the steamer H. D. COFFINBERRY in the St. Marys River. She was raised from 125 feet of water, one of the deepest successful salvage operations to that time. She was later renamed HELEN C and lasted until 1922.
October 15, 1910 - After the sinking of the PERE MARQUETTE 18 of 1902, built at Cleveland, Ohio, the previous September, a new PERE MARQUETTE 18 of 1911, was ordered by the Pere Marquette Railway from the Chicago Ship Building Co.
On 15 October 1871, the EXCELSIOR (3-mast wooden schooner, 156 foot, 374 gross tons, built in 1865, at Buffalo, New York) was struck by a gale near Thunder Bay on Lake Huron. She sailed through the early morning hours only to sink about 4:30 a.m. Only Charles Lostrom survived. He was on the cabin roof, which blew off when the vessel went down. Mr. Lostrom remained on the floating roof-raft for two days and two nights until he was rescued by fishermen near South Hampton light on the Canadian side of Lake Huron.
1916: The wooden bulk freighter L. EDWARD HINES was sold to Nicaraguan owners and left the Great Lakes in 1916. The ship had loaded coal in New Orleans for Venezuela for its maiden voyage on this date in 1916 but got caught in a hurricane and sank with the loss of 17 lives while 45 miles east of Belize, British Honduras.
1971: SINGAPORE TRADER was upbound with general cargo from Japan to Detroit, on its first trip to the Great Lakes, when it ran aground in the Thousand Islands. The vessel was released on November 29 and towed back to Montreal on December 16. The ship was arrested there and offered for sale, by court order. The successful bidder for the 27-year-old vessel was a shipbreaker at Santander, Spain, and the ship arrived there for dismantling on June 22, 1972.
1977: The three-year old Panamanian bulk carrier GOLDEN STAR damaged its rudder when it struck the opposite bank while backing from the dock at Huron, Ohio. The vessel, bound for the United Kingdom, needed four tugs when it was towed out of the Seaway for repairs at Sorel, QC. The vessel was last noted as c) FUN JIN under the flag of Panama in 1993.
1978: The West German freighter FRANCISCA SARTORI made 21 trips through the Seaway from 1959 through 1967. It was lying at Piraeus, Greece, as f) GIOTA S. when the engine room flooded on this date in 1978. The ship departed for Chalkis on October 24, 1979, but further leaks developed and the vessel had to be beached at Laurium, Greece.

On this day in 1950, the JOHN M. McKERCHEY of the Kelley's Island Lime and Transport Company sank at 2:30 a.m. while returning from the pumping grounds with a load of sand. Captain Horace S. Johnson went down with the boat, but the remaining 19 crewmembers were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
On October 16,1855, SENECA (wooden propeller tug, 92 foot, 73 tons, built in 1847, at Buffalo, New York) was towing the brig LANSING past the foot of Randolph Street at Chicago, Illinois, when her boiler exploded. Her skipper and engineer were killed instantly and several others were injured. The vessel was later recovered.
On October 16, 1990, the JOHN B. AIRD's loop belt caught fire while loading mill scale at Inland Steel Mill, East Chicago, Illinois. Fueled by coal dust left over after unloading coal at the mill, 1,400 feet of the rubber conveyor belt burned causing nearly $500,000 in damages.
ALGOWEST set a cargo record carrying 27,517 tons of grain down the Seaway October 16, 1982, to Port Cartier, Quebec. She was converted to a self-unloader in 1998, and renamed b.) PETER R. CRESSWELL in 2001.
The Cayman Islands-registered tanker RIO ORINOCO grounded off Anticosti Island, Quebec on October 16, 1990, and was abandoned. Later she was salvaged by Le Groupe Desgagnes (1981) Inc., refloated, repaired and renamed d.) THALASSA DESGAGNES.
Sea trials of MERTON E. FARR were successfully completed October 16, 1920.
On October 16, 1954, the SCOTT MISENER of 1954 became the first laker to load a record 800,000 bushels of grain on the Great Lakes when she was loaded with barley at Fort William, Ontario, for delivery to Port Colborne.
WILLIAM G. MATHER of 1925 was towed from her Cuyahoga River berth on October 16, 1990, by the Great Lakes Towing tugs IDAHO and DELAWARE. She was placed next to the 9th Street Pier of Cleveland's North Coast Harbor and now serves as a marine museum.
On October 16, 1912, JAMES BUCKLEY (2 mast wood schooner-barge, 161 foot, 442 gross tons, built in 1884, at Quebec City) was carrying coal and being towed by the tug WILLIAM PROCTOR in consort with the barges H B and MENOMINEE in Lake Ontario. The BUCKLEY separated from this group in a storm and was driven into the shallows off the coast of Jefferson County, New York. The tug PROCTOR delivered MENOMINEE to Cape Vincent, then returned in time to take BUCKLEY’s crew out of the rigging - hand over hand on a heaving line - before BUCKLEY finally sank.
On October 16, 1855, the brig TUSCARORA was carrying coal from Buffalo to Chicago. She anchored off Chicago's Harrison Street, but a storm dragged her in. Volunteers from shore were unable to get to the stricken vessel. A group of 9 ship captains and 4 seamen then organized a rescue party and took two new "Francis" metal lifeboats out and rescued the entire crew of eleven. By 21 October, TUSCARORA was pounded to pieces.
On October 16, 1853, PHILO SCOVILLE (2-mast wooden brig built in 1853, at Sheboygan, Wisconsin) was carrying flour, wheat, pigs and barreled fish when she encountered a gale in the eastern Straits of Mackinac. She was dismasted and drifted ashore where she was pounded to pieces. Her crew was saved by floating ashore while clinging to the floating main mast.
1880: ALPENA, a wooden sidewheel passenger steamer, was lost in Lake Michigan in a violent storm. All 67 on board perished.
1928: PARKS FOSTER ran aground, due to fog, in Lake Huron near Alpena. The ship was lightered, pumped out and refloated. While declared a total loss, the vessel was rebuilt as b) SUPERIOR and eventually dismantled at Port Weller in 1961.
1940: TREVISA was torpedoed and sunk by U-124 while 600 miles off the coast of Ireland. The ship had become a straggler from convoy SC-7 that had been attacked over a period of 3 nights. Seven lives were lost when TREVISA was hit in the engineroom by a single torpedo.
1968: The NORMAN P. CLEMENT was at Collingwood for examination of the grounding damage of earlier in the month when an onboard explosion on this date injured 11. The hull was contaminated with chemicals and declared a total loss.
1969: FREDEN V. came to the Great Lakes in 1958 and returned through the Seaway in 1959. The small tanker was heavily damaged as c) YARIMCA in an engine room fire at Sinop, Turkey, but that was repaired in 1972 and the ship survived until scrapping at Aliaga, Turkey, as f) ORTAC in 2004.
1971: The Cypriot freighter UNION came through the Seaway in 1971 after prior visits as c) MICA beginning in 1965. Fire broke out in the engine room and the ship was abandoned 130 miles off Freetown, Sierra Leone, on October 10, 1971. The vessel sank on October 16 and had been enroute from Gdynia, Poland, to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/17 - Alpena, Mich. – Ellen Barr of St. Clair believes her late husband, Leonard’s vast maritime collection of vessel photographs, books and other research materials found the proper home after his passing. She recently donated 31 boxes of materials representing his lifelong passion for ships to the Thunder Bay Sanctuary Research Collection housed at Alpena County Library.
“It took me a long time to decide what I really wanted to do with his collection – if I even wanted to do anything with it,” Barr said.
In the end, she worked with Special Collections librarian Marlo Broad and maritime historian Patrick LaBadie to make the transfer to Alpena. Multiple factors contributed to her ultimate decision. Chief among them was the reputation of the library for managing its collections and making them digitally accessible to researchers all over the country and even the world.
“Len wanted for his collection to be used for research,” Barr said. “He wanted it to be viewed. Marlo assured me that once it’s digitized, people can go online to see it. That makes it very worthwhile and makes me very happy. I know Len would be extremely ecstatic.”
Barr lists a second more personal reason for choosing Alpena. More than 50 years ago, LaBadie served as best man at the couple’s wedding. A shared love of maritime history originally brought the two men together back when LaBadie worked at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum in Detroit and Leonard served in an active marine historical society. Even though they had lost touch over the years, Barr said her husband knew both LaBadie’s reputation as a historian and that LaBadie had donated his own valuable collection of maritime materials to Alpena County Library.
“We were married almost 50 years. We were shy by six months,” Barr said. “Len knew Patrick before he knew me. I did this because Patrick’s collection was there. I knew I was doing the right thing.”
Both Broad and LaBadie are thrilled to receive the donation of the Leonard J. Barr II Maritime Collection. While LaBadie’s own extensive collection held at the library focuses on ships from the 19th century, the new collection focuses on the next century.
“It’s really a step forward because the existing collection is almost exclusively 19th century and this is 20th century, which is more popular with researchers,” LaBadie said, adding that he’s extremely pleased with Barr’s decision to make the donation because he knows of many other historians and collectors whose materials after their deaths didn’t go to a public institution where it could be shared with others.
“It’s sad when collections like Leonard’s are split up and sold on eBay,” he said.
Assimilating the donated materials into the already existing collection falls to Broad, who shared LaBadie’s enthusiasm for the new addition to the library. She is in the process of storing all materials in acid free folders and books. She plans to inventory everything and then begin the process of digitizing the materials. Several seasoned volunteers already have stepped forward to help with the digitizing process, she said.
The new collection includes 50 binders filled with photographs and data sheets on 19th century freighters and tankers as well as 10 boxes of books, six boxes of journals, many original photographs, slides, glass plates and negatives.
“The collection really complements Patrick’s because there is so little duplication of materials,” said Broad, who traveled with LaBadie to St. Clair to meet Barr and make the transfer. She hopes one day to bring Barr to Alpena so that she can see firsthand where her husband’s collection now is housed.
Doing so would be bittersweet for Barr, who remembers with affection her first date with her late husband. Along with dinner, she said, their unusual date featured a ship meeting at the Port Huron YMCA.
“I thought this is interesting. I’ve not quite been on anything like this before,” said Barr. What followed was a long and fulfilling life built together.
“My husband and I were one person,” she said. “We did everything that we could together because we were each other’s best friend. If he loved ships and it was important to him, then I loved it. I wasn’t as involved as he was, but I don’t think anyone could have loved it as much as he did, except for maybe Patrick.”
Often, she said, they planned vacations to Sault Ste. Marie and Welland Canal in Canada just so they could watch the ships passing through the locks.
Barr said her husband’s passion for ships began in boyhood, and even though he enjoyed a rewarding career as a senior executive for Munder Capital Management, he did spend one season back in 1964 working on the Sewell Avery, part of the US Steel Pittsburgh Corp. fleet.
“He just always loved the water, always loved the ships,” Barr said. “His hobby was his passion. He was very meticulous and took excellent photos, documenting ships when he could.”
Already the collection has paid dividends for others visiting Alpena. When it was announced last month that two new shipwrecks had been discovered north of Presque Isle, family members of the captain of one of those vessels, the Choctaw, traveled to Alpena to find out more about the shipwreck. Thanks to the Leonard J. Barr II maritime collection, Broad was able to locate a historic photograph of the vessel that struck the Choctaw on July 12, 1915, causing it to sink.
“It was a very emotional time for the family who came, including the 94-year-old granddaughter of the captain and several other family members,” Broad said. “The timing was perfect.”
Barr said she is thrilled to know someone already has benefited from her husband’s collection coming to Alpena.
The Alpena News


On this day in 1889, the whaleback 103 completed her maiden trip by delivering 86,000 bushels of Duluth wheat to Buffalo.
On this day in 1936, the 252-foot sand sucker SAND MERCHANT rolled over and sank when a 50 mph gale swept across Lake Erie. The steamer THUNDER BAY QUARRIES, Captain James Healey, rescued three survivors and the steamer MARQUETTE & BESSEMER NO 1, Captain George Wilson, rescued four additional survivors. Eighteen crewmembers and one female passenger drowned in the accident.
On October 17, 1887, Henry McMorran and D. N. Runnels bought the engine and boiler of the tug GEORGE HAND at the U.S. Marshall's sale in Port Huron, Michigan, for $500.
The CARLTON (Hull#542) was launched October 17, 1963, at Sunderland, England, by Short Brothers, Ltd., for Chapman & Willan, Ltd. Renamed b.) FEDERAL WEAR in 1975. Purchased by Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd. in 1975, renamed c.) ST LAWRENCE PROSPECTOR in 1975. Lengthened to Seaway size and renamed d.) CANADIAN PROSPECTOR in 1979. Scrapped in 2009 at Aliaga, Turkey.
The EMS ORE was launched October 17, 1959, for Transatlantic Bulk Carriers, Monrovia, Liberia. Purchased by Hall Corp. of Canada in 1976, reconstructed for lake service and renamed b.) MONTCLIFFE HALL in 1977. Renamed c.) CARTIERDOC in 1988, she sails today as d.) CEDARGLEN.
With an inexperienced Taiwanese crew, boiler problems and the collapse of Lock 7's west wall in the Welland Canal on October 17th, SAVIC's (CLIFFS VICTORY) departure was delayed until December 17, 1985, when she departed Chicago under her own power.
The carferry PERE MARQUETTE 19 was launched October 17, 1903.
In 1893, the FLINT & PERE MARQUETTE NO 1 was damaged by fire while in Ludington.
In 1988, the Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee purchased CITY OF MILWAUKEE from the City of Frankfort for $2.
On October 17,1871, CASCADEN (2 mast wood schooner, 138 tons, built in 1866, at Saugeen, Ontario) was carrying much needed supplies for the Cove Island Lighthouse keeper and his family who were in desperate straits. But she went ashore 3 miles below Cape Hurd near Tobermory, Ontario, in a storm and was wrecked.
On October 17, 1843, the wooden schooner ALABAMA collided with a pier during a storm at the mouth of the Grand River at Fairport, Ohio, and was a total loss.
On October 17, 1871, the 42-ton wooden schooner SEA HORSE stranded on Fitzwilliam Island at the mouth of Georgian Bay in a storm. She was a total loss.
1923: The bulk carrier LUZON went aground in Lake Superior, northeast of Passage Island, due to poor visibility from the dense smoke of local forest fires. The vessel sustained serious bow damage but, fortunately, the bulkhead held. It was enroute from Fort William to Buffalo with grain at the time. The ship returned to service as b) JOHN ANDERSON in 1924 and was last known as G.G. POST.
1936: SAND MERCHANT sank in Lake Erie about 13.5 miles off Cleveland with the loss of 19 lives. The ship began taking on water faster than it could be pumped out and only 7 sailors survived.
1951: GEORGE F. RAND and HARVEY H. BROWN collided just below the Huron Cut at Port Huron and the former was beached with a starboard list. After being refloated, this vessel unloaded its cargo of silica sand at Port Huron and then went to Toledo for repairs. The latter later sailed as PARKER EVANS and MARLHILL.
1980: The Canadian tanker GULF CANADA and MEGALOHARI II collided at Montreal with minor damage. The former had been built at Collingwood as a) B.A. PEERLESS in 1952 and was scrapped at Alang, India, as d) COASTAL I in 1990. The latter had begun Seaway trading in 1965 and was scrapped at Alang as b) AGIOS CONSTANTINOS in 1985.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/18 - Mackinaw City, Mich. – The vessel used for many years to keep the shipping channels in the Great Lakes open during the winter will soon get a facelift, bringing her back to her original glory.
The United States Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw WAGB-83 was decommissioned on June 10, 2006 and turned into the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum. That museum was awarded $300,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Monday morning to repaint the vessel and resurface the deck in a ceremony held on its deck.
“What a moment, the State of Michigan to open the bank and give us some money to refurbish this beautiful boat,” said Museum Board of Directors President William Shepler. “This courageous boat.”
The Mackinaw has quite a story behind it. In December 1941, the United States Congress took the initial step toward the creation of the vessel shortly after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, authorizing the money, hiring a marine architect firm and contacting a shipyard in Toledo, Ohio.
“Construction was immediately started,” said Shepler. “And why? Why was this vessel so important? It’s called iron ore, in Lake Superior.”
The iron ore is used to create steel and there was a large demand for the steel, in order to make more aircraft carriers. Much of the United States Navy’s fleet was destroyed in Pearl Harbor, and it needed to be replaced.
The USCG Cutter Mackinaw WAGB-83 was commissioned on Dec. 20, 1944 and was the biggest and most powerful icebreaker in the world when it was built. “It was designed wide enough not to go through the Welland Canal, so nobody’s going to take it out of the Great Lakes,” said Shepler.
When she was completed, the vessel came from Toledo and was only in port in Cheboygan for a couple of hours before she was called to rescue a ship.
The vessel could go through three foot of blue ice at five knots without a problem. “She’s saved ships from going aground, she’s saved ships from being stuck, she won the war, as far as I’m concerned, back in those days,” said Shepler.
The Mackinaw was created with 20,000 horsepower in her hull and used the old method of icebreaking that was discovered back in the late 1800s. It then moved to the new method of icebreaking, with a propeller in the front and one in the back.
Cheboygan Daily Tribune

10/18 - Windsor, Ont. – Bad winters usually translate into good business for the Port of Windsor, and a big spike in 2017 sales of its No. 1 export — salt — is helping make this year one of its best ever. “We’re having a terrific year so far — shipping is up about 20 per cent till the end of September,” said David Cree, president and CEO of the Windsor Port Authority.
Windsorites enjoyed a relatively mild 2016-17 winter, but many of the other K+S Windsor Salt Ltd. clients endured a harsher-than-usual season, resulting in higher-than-normal road salt demand. Cree said Port of Windsor salt exports as of Sept. 30 were up more than 30 per cent over the same period in 2016.
Gravel and other construction aggregates, the local port’s No. 2 shipped product, was up more than eight per cent; grain, in third spot, was up 28 per cent and “general cargo” — primarily steel — shot up 27 per cent, indicating a healthy economy with lots of construction.
This year’s shipping volumes will probably not match those of the 2015 record year, but Cree said the last five years have been “very good” and 2017 so far is ahead of projections.
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway cargo shipments as a whole are up 14 per cent over 2016 volumes as of the end of September, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation reported Tuesday. The total of 24.3 million metric tons in cargo shipped from March 20 to Sept. 30 represents a three million tonne jump from the same period in 2016.
Tuesday was Marine Day on the Hill, when the Chamber of Marine Commerce and shipping executives and their customers meet with Canadian federal government representatives. Despite the high cargo volumes carried by ships in the Great Lakes, Cree said there is still “lots of room to grow … without any additional infrastructure requirements.”
The Port of Windsor’s 13 terminals are, on average, under 60 per cent capacity, he said.
With “tremendous potential to grow,” Chamber of Marine Commerce president Bruce Burrows told officials that government needed to recognize “marine shipping’s significant environmental and economic benefits in its approach to transportation planning and policy-making.”
From the beginning of the 2017 shipping season to the end of September, about 70 freighters picked up 1.5 million tonnes of salt in Windsor, said Cree. During that period, 494 cargo ships stopped in the Port of Windsor (compared to 466 in 2016), loading or unloading about 3.8 million tonnes of cargo.
Weather, market demand and maintenance schedules usually mean Windsor sees its last freighter stops of the year by about mid-December, said Cree.
Windsor Star

10/18 - There are thousands of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes - many of which haven’t been seen by human eyes for more than a century. The area off the coast of Ozaukee, Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties is home to 37 known wrecks, and researchers say there could be as many as 80 undiscovered shipwrecks.
That’s why the Wisconsin Historical Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are pushing to make the area a national marine sanctuary. The move would make the 1,075 square foot area the first marine sanctuary in Lake Michigan.
"It’s between the Milwaukee-Ozaukee County line and all the way up to the north end of Manitowoc County. If you look at those shipwrecks as a subset of all that we have in Wisconsin, it really tells our story here, our maritime history of Wisconsin," says Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program.
Thomsen explains that part of the reason this area has so many shipwrecks is simply because Milwaukee was a major port in the Midwest. She says "It’s hard to imagine now, but before interstate highways and even before train systems, all of our products were brought in and out by ship."
While some of these wrecks have been looted (an act made illegal by the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987), many are essentially time capsules that reveal old shipping practices and what life was like on these crafts.
According to Thomsen, creating a sanctuary would give these wrecks in Lake Michigan an extra layer of federal protection, which could help researchers preserve and research the area in more depth.
"In order to enact the Abandoned Shipwreck Act, all of the shipwrecks as they're discovered need to be evaluated - usually by [my] office - to determine weather they are eligible for the national register of historic places," she explains.
To qualify for the Act, the ship has to meet a number of criteria. Among other qualifications, it has to be relatively intact and have some historical value or an association with a significant person or event. Right now, the state applies for this protection on a ship-by-ship basis and it takes a lot of time.
"We do about one shipwreck a year, we sometimes will get as many as three done in a year to look at, and that's state wide. So what the sanctuary will do is it will provide those protections as a blanket to this area," she says.
View photos and a video at this link: wuwm.com/post/hidden-treasure-trove-shipwrecks-may-become-sanctuary-lake-michigan#stream/0

On October 18, 1869, GERALDINE (3-mast wooden schooner, 232 tons, built in 1856, at Wilson, New York as a bark) was carrying coal from Buffalo to Detroit in heavy weather. During the night, she collided with the schooner E. M. PORTCH five miles below "The Cut" at Long Point on Lake Erie and sank in 5 minutes. The PORTCH stood by while the GERALDINE's crew got off in the yawl. No lives were lost.
ALVA C. DINKEY departed Quebec City October 18, 1980, in tandem with her former fleet mate GOVERNOR MILLER, towed by the FedNav tug CATHY B., in route to Vigo, Spain, for scrapping.
Tragedy struck on the WILLIAM C. MORELAND's fifth trip October 18, 1910, Loaded with 10,700 tons of iron ore from Superior for Ashtabula, Ohio, the vessel stranded on Sawtooth Reef off Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on Lake Superior. Visibility had been very limited due to forest fires raging on the Keweenaw Peninsula and the lake was blanketed with smoke as far as one mile off shore. The MORELAND hit so hard and at such speed that she bounced over the first reef and came to rest on a second set of rocks. The stern section was salvaged and combined with a new forward section she became b.) SIR TREVOR DAWSON in 1916. Renamed c.) CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON in 1920, d.) GENE C. HUTCHINSON in 1951, sold into Canadian registry in 1963, renamed e.) PARKDALE. Scrapped at Cartagena, Spain in 1970.
On October 18, 1896, AUSTRALASIA (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 282 foot, 1,829 gross tons, built in 1884, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was carrying 2,200 tons of soft coal when she caught fire, burned to the waterline and sank 3 miles east of Cana Island in Lake Michigan. The Bailey's Harbor Lifesavers saved her crew.
At 8 p.m., on October 18, 1844, the steamer ROCHESTER left Rochester, New York for Toronto. She encountered a severe gale about halfway there. Captain H. N. Throop had the vessel put about to return to Rochester. The gale was so severe that all thought they were lost. When they finally arrived in Rochester, the passengers were so grateful that they had survived that they published a note of gratitude to Almighty God and Captain Throop in The Rochester Daily Democrat on 19 October 1844 -- it was signed by all 18 passengers.
On October 18,1876, the schooner R. D. CAMPBELL filled with water and capsized on Lake Michigan about 10 miles from Muskegon, Michigan. The crew clung to the vessel's rigging until rescued by the tug JAMES MC GORDAN. The schooner drifted to the beach some hours later.
1905: The schooner TASMANIA became waterlogged while under tow of the steamer BULGARIA and sank in the Pelee Passage
1911: ARUNDELL had been laid up at Douglas, MI, for about 2 weeks when fire Poke out, destroying the iron hulled passenger and freight vessel.
1917: ABYSSINIA had been under tow of the MARUBA when both ships stranded at Tecumseh Shoal in heavy seas. The grain-laden vessels had been following the north shore due to high winds when they struck bottom. The barge began leaking and was pounded apart but there was no loss of life but the steamer was refloated.
1933: The wooden steam barge MANISTIQUE caught fire on Lake Huron and the remains either sank or was scuttled.
1973: The AGIOS ANTONIOS first visited the Seaway in 1972 and, as a) SILVERWEIR, had come inland beginning in 1964. The ship had loaded iron ore at Coondapoor, on the southwest coast of India, and went aground leaving for Constanza, Romania. The vessel was abandoned as a total loss.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/19 - Erie, Pa. – A huge repair project at the Erie shipyard drydock may wrap up sooner than anticipated. Crews, aided by good weather, have nearly completed putting in a new concrete base and making major drainage improvements.
All the old crumbling concrete must be ripped up and removed, before the thick new layer is poured. The project is designed to improve safety and efficiency when crews from the shipyard operator, Donjon Shipbuilding & Repair, are working on large ships.
The plan was to get most of the work done by this fall, then finish the job next spring. Now the hope is the entire job can be done by December.
"By being able to accomplish that this fall, that will not only save the port authority money with not having to re-mobilize in the spring, but also allow Donjon to have a wide open calendar for scheduling their winter work,” said Erie Port Authority Executive Director Brenda Sandberg.
The authority is now negotiating with the contractor to see if the job can be finished this year. State grants are funding the $5.2 project.
ErieNewsNow

At 2 a.m. October 19, 1901, the Barry line steamer STATE OF MICHIGAN (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 165 foot, 736 gross tons, built in 1875, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin) sank in 60 feet of water about four miles northwest of White Lake harbor on Lake Michigan. The crew and captain reached shore in boats with the assistance of the White Lake Life Saving crew and the tug MC GRAFF. The vessel was sailing in good weather when a piston rod broke and stove a hole through the bottom of the boat. The water came gushing in. By the time the tug MC GRAFF came and took on the crew, the STATE OF MICHIGAN was in serious trouble. She went down shortly after the tug began towing her toward shore.
On October 19, 1871, ELIZA LOGAN (2-mast wooden schooner, 130 foot, 369 gross tons, built in 1855, at Buffalo, New York) foundered in rough weather about 12 miles off Erie, Pennsylvania, on Lake Erie. She was sailing from Toledo, Ohio, to Buffalo, New York, with a load of wheat when she sank. Captain Lawson and one sailor were lost, but the six others scrambled up the rigging and held on to the crosstrees for 42 hours until they were rescued by the schooner EMU at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of 21 October.
GEORGE A. SLOAN ran aground off Bob-Lo Island in the Amherstburg Channel on October 19, 1987. She was released when she unloaded part of her cargo to the CALCITE II. SLOAN was repaired in Toledo. Purchased by Lower Lakes Towing in 2001, renamed c.) MISSISSAGI.
ALGOSEA, a.) BROOKNES, was christened on October 19, 1976, at Port Colborne, Ontario. She was renamed c.) SAUNIERE in 1982. Scrapped in Turkey in 2011.
BUFFALO was able to leave the Saginaw River once it opened to traffic on October 19, 1990. The river was closed after the tanker JUPITER exploded as the BUFFALO passed.
KINSMAN VOYAGER was launched October 19, 1907, as a.) H. P. BOPE for the Standard Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
WILLIAM LIVINGSTONE of 1908, had the honor on October 19, 1912, of being the first vessel to navigate the opening of the Livingstone Channel named after the man who helped conceive the idea of a separate down bound channel on the east side of Bob-Lo Island in the lower Detroit River. Mr. Livingstone, President of the Lake Carriers Association at the time, piloted his namesake vessel in the channel on that historic trip. Renamed b.) S B WAY in 1936 and c.) CRISPIN OGLEBAY in 1948. She was scrapped at Santander, Spain, in 1974.
The crew on the stranded WILLIAM C. MORELAND was removed in gale force winds on October 19, 1910, by the Portage life saving crew.
On October 19, 1923, SAMUEL MATHER was driven onto Gull Rock on Lake Superior near Keweenaw Point during a snowstorm and gale winds. The crew was safely removed from the badly exposed steamer on October 21st by the Eagle Harbor life saving crew. Renamed b.) PATHFINDER in 1925, sold Canadian in 1964, renamed c.) GODERICH, d.) SOO RIVER TRADER and e.) PINEGLEN in 1982. Scrapped at Port Maitland, Ontario in 1984.
Michigan Limestone's self-unloader B. H. TAYLOR sailed from Lorain on her maiden voyage on October 19, 1923. She was renamed b.) ROGERS CITY in 1957, and scrapped at Recife, Brazil in 1988.
On October 19, 1868, PARAGON (wooden schooner, 212 tons, built in 1852, at Oshawa, Ontario as a brig) was being towed up the St. Clair River by the tug WILLIAM A MOORE with a load of lumber in the company of four other barges. During a gale, the tow was broken up. While the tug MOORE was trying to regain the tows, she collided with PARAGON causing severe damage. Four were drowned, but two were rescued by the Canadian gunboat/tug PRINCE ALFRED. PARAGON was then towed into Sarnia, but she sank there and was abandoned in place.
October 19, 1919 - ANN ARBOR NO 4, while on the Grand Haven to Milwaukee run, got caught in a gale, stretching the normal 6-hour crossing to 27 hours.
On October 19,1876, MASSILON (3-mast wooden schooner with foretop and topgallant sails, 130 foot, 298 gross tons, built in 1857, at Cleveland, Ohio, as a bark) was sailing from Kelley's Island for Chicago with limestone when she sprang a leak 20 miles above Pointe aux Barques at the mouth of Saginaw Bay. She was abandoned at about 2:00 a.m. and then sank. The crew was in an open boat until 7 a.m. when they were rescued by the tug VULCAN.
On October 19, 1873, JOHN F. RUST (wooden schooner-barge, 161 foot, 347 gross tons, built in 1869, at East Saginaw, Michigan) was carrying lumber in tow of the steamer BAY CITY in a storm when she broke her towline and went ashore a few miles north of Lakeport, Michigan.
1901: The wooden freighter STATE OF MICHIGAN, a) DEPERE sank off Whitehall, MI enroute to Manistee to load salt. A piston rod had broken and fractured the hull the previous day and the vessel went down slowly. All on board were saved.
1905: KALIYUGA foundered in Lake Huron with the loss of 18 lives. The ore laden steamer was enroute to Cleveland.
1905: SIBERIA sank in a storm on Lake Erie while eastbound with a cargo of grain. All on board were saved.
1916: The wooden schooner D.L. FILER, loaded with coal and enroute from Buffalo to Saugatuck, MI, became waterlogged and sank near the mouth of the Detroit River 3.5 miles east of Bar Point Light. The vessel settled in shallow water with the crew clinging to the masts. The forward mast cracked throwing the sailors into the water and all 6 were lost. Only the captain on the after mast survived.
1947: MANCHESTER CITY went aground off Cap Saumon, QC, while inbound from the United Kingdom with freight, 12 passengers and a crew of 50. The ship stranded in fog and the passengers were removed safely before the vessel was lightered. The vessel made 17 trips through the Seaway from 1959 to 1963 before being scrapped at Faslane, Scotland, in 1964.
1981: ELSIE WINCK first came through the Seaway in 1962. It was bombed and sunk at Bandar Khomeini, Iran, as e) MOIRA on this date and was a total loss.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/20 - Canada's Algoma Tankers was served with a strike notice from a local seafarer's union after contract negotiations broke down. The Canadian Merchant Service Guild says the 72-hour notice covers 32 navigation officers working for the tankers unit of Algoma Central.
The labor action will hit all six of Algoma's owned tankers and one other vessel under long-term hire. The Guild says its members will walk off their posts once the vessels are safely moored starting Oct. 21.
The step was taken after the Guild says a 13-hour mediation session did not yield a "vastly improved" offer from the company.
Navigation and engineering officers are represented by six separate bargaining units of the Guild, Algoma says in its annual report. Four of those agreements expired May 31, 2016 and the remaining two expired July 31, 2016.
Both Algoma and the Guild were not yet available to comment on the issue.
Tradewinds

On this day in 1916, the whaleback JAMES B. COLGATE sank off Long Point in Lake Erie with a loss of 26. The lone survivor was Captain Walter J. Grashaw who was picked up two days after the sinking. Captain Grashaw had sailed as First Mate on the COLGATE for ten years and was conducting his first trip as Captain. The "Black Friday" storm also claimed the MERIDA, D.L. FLYER, and M.F. BUTTERS.
On 20 October 1875, the wooden schooner F.C. LEIGHTON was loaded with ore when she struck a rock in the St. Marys River and sank a few miles from Detour, Michigan. A tug was sent right away to raise her.
On 20 October 1916, MERIDA (steel propeller bulk freighter, 360 foot, 3,261 gross tons, built in 1893, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was heavily loaded with iron ore when she encountered the "Black Friday" Storm on Lake Erie. She sank about 24 miles east of Erieau, Ontario. All 24 onboard were lost. A few days later the wheelhouse was found floating 15 miles south of Port Stanley. 21 bodies were eventually found, but not the bodies of Capt. Harry L. Jones or crewman Wilfred Austin. The wreck was found in 1975 by Larry Jackson, a commercial fisherman.
The SCOTT MISENER of 1954 proceeded to the Port Arthur shipyard for dry docking and repairs on October 20th, after striking bottom October 15, 1973, near Whaleback Shoal on the St. Lawrence River.
The JAMES S. DUNHAM was launched October 20, 1906, for the Chicago Navigation Co. (D. Sullivan & Co., mgr.) Duluth, Minnesota. Renamed b.) LYNFORD E. GEER in 1926, and c.) OTTO M. REISS in 1934. Scrapped at Castellon, Spain in 1973.
PETER A.B. WIDENER was launched October 20, 1906, for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. (later the U.S. Steel Corp. in 1952), Cleveland, Ohio.
The tug RESCUE was sent from Port Huron to Tawas, Michigan to release the 246-foot barge OCEAN that was grounded. After pulling the barge free, Capt. Fitch of RESCUE began towing her down Lake Huron, but the storm got so bad that he was about to turn back and run for Tawas. However, the captain of OCEAN yelled that they were all right and to go ahead down the lake. Soon the seas got the better of the barge. The tug kept with her until she was about to sink. Then the line was cut, the tug turned about, ran under her lee, and rescued her crew of 9 from the lifeboat. The barge sank. On the way down Lake Huron, opposite Port Sanilac, the RESCUE picked up 6 men and 1 woman from the wrecked barge JOHN F. RUST. In this one trip, the RESCUE earned her name by rescuing 16 persons!
October 20, 1898 - The SHENANGO NO 2 (later PERE MARQUETTE 16) was arriving Milwaukee when her steering gear failed, causing her to crash into a grain elevator that was under construction.
October 20, 1926 - The keel was laid for the twin screw lake passenger and railcar ferry WABASH (Hull#177) of the Toledo Shipbuilding Co.
On 20 October 1863, E. S. ADAMS (3 mast wooden bark, 135 foot, 341 gross tons, built in 1857, at Port Robinson, Ontario) was carrying 18,500 bushels of wheat on a clear night when she collided with the American bark CONSTITUTION resulting in the loss of the ADAMS. One life was lost. Neither vessel was blamed for the accident.
On 20 October 1854, JOHN J. AUDUBON (wooden brig, 370 tons, built in 1854, at Black River, Ohio) was carrying railroad iron from Buffalo to Chicago when she was struck amidships by the schooner DEFIANCE on a dark night, halfway between Thunder Bay and Presque Isle, Michigan. AUDUBON was cut almost in half. Both vessels sank quickly. No lives were lost.
On 20 October 1844, DAYTON (2-mast wooden schooner, 69 foot, 85 tons, built in 1835, at Grand Island, New York) capsized and sank in Lake Erie off Dunkirk, New York in a terrific gale. All onboard were lost.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/23 - Canada is selling its last inshore coastal surveyor ship, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Matthew, in an auction that closes on Friday with a minimum bid of $1 million. If it sells, a lot of history will go with it.
Its loss also “decimates” a crucial maritime capability, to map the sea floor off Canada’s coastline, according to people who sailed on the CCGS Matthew over its quarter century of service.
“It’s absolutely appalling,” said Michael Lamplugh, a retired hydrographer with Canadian Hydrographic Service, who led the team on the Matthew for ten years until 2012. Just the sonar on board is worth more than Canada is asking, he said. And with no replacement, Canada risks not only domestic maritime safety, such as for cruise ships in the Northwest Passage, but also its geopolitical credibility in disputes over sovereignty in the Arctic Ocean.
When Swissair flight 111 from New York to Geneva crashed nose first into the ocean off Peggy’s Cove, N.S., in 1998, the Matthew sailed immediately out of Halifax, reaching the scene just after the local fishing boats.
But she had no hydrographic crew to run her surveying equipment. Lamplugh, who lives near the crash site in St. Margaret’s Bay, was on board by dinner time the first day, as the hydrographer in charge. John Hughes Clarke, then a professor of engineering at the University of New Brunswick, flew in to Halifax and the Navy got him on board too.
“We were mowing the lawn, if you like,” said Hughes Clarke, who is now with the University of New Hampshire. They were using sonar to systematically criss-cross a sea floor that was already naturally strewn with car-sized boulders, looking for a plane. “We mapped fields of boulders and we looked for clusters,” he said.
In the end, the largest piece recovered was an engine block. “Nothing on that spot looked like a plane,” Lamplugh said. The only man-made thing they could recognize was a mostly forgotten scuttled submarine from the Second World War.
Sailing the eastern coasts of Canada, Matthew received a fair share of distress calls.
In August 2011, it took part in the rescue of two lost kayakers from Montreal, a man and a woman, off the coast of southern Labrador. Another time off Yarmouth, N.S., the crew saw a fire on the horizon, investigated, and two crewmembers discovered a fisherman who had been blown off his boat by an explosion. They performed CPR until they got him to shore, but he died.
Mainly, though, Matthew was used for mapping the coastal sea floor, showing routes into harbors, and enabling smaller vessels to hug the coast on their journeys, rather than travel far offshore with the big ships.
It surveyed all around Newfoundland and the Bay of Fundy, sometimes updating charts for the first time since the days of the British Admiralty and Capt. James Cook. It also investigated sinkholes in Bras d’Or Lake of Cape Breton, an inlet from the sea despite its name.
Lamplugh said the most interesting work was on the shipping corridors up the coast of Labrador, jagged with “pinnacle shoals, underwater mountains.” His last work on Matthew was a new chart for Gros Morne National Park.
“That I think is the capability we don’t have any more,” said Hughes Clarke. Losing it just to save money is a sorry shame, he said. “Canada still needs more surveys of her coast.”
The east and west coasts, right up against the U.S. border, are pretty well surveyed now, Hughes Clarke said. But as you head north it gets slimmer until the Arctic, where cruise ships with state of the art global positioning equipment are navigating according to outdated, insufficient maritime charts. They know exactly where they are, but not what is underneath them.
“Canada led the world in sea floor mapping for probably a solid decade,” from about the early 1990s until 2005, said Dick Pickrill, retired manager of marine geoscience at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, in Dartmouth, N.S., where the Matthew is today, awaiting its new owner. Since it came out of service last year, Canada has nothing with the same capability as Matthew on the east coast, and the only similar research vessel, the ancient and decrepit CCGS Hudson, is currently in Burlington, Ont., with its repair contract cancelled.
It’s part of a broader “rust-out” of Canadian maritime science, Pickrill said. “It seems bizarre.”
The National Post

10/23 - Far out on the lake, a tug-barge can look like any of the other monster freight vessels that loll along the horizon. But as it closes in, finer points emerge. Two distinct names — one painted on the barge, one on back of the tug — and the sight of a tug tucked into the backside of the barge.
"Most of the tug-barge combinations are converted from old ships," said 21-year Great Lakes pilot John Swartout, who guides foreign-flagged vessels to ports inland from the Atlantic Ocean.
The slow rise of the tug-barge on the Great Lakes really began with the story of the thousand-foot lake freighter.
Read more at this link: www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4347255-advent-tug-barge-lake-freighter-yields-barge-traffic-domestically

On this day in 1949, the new Canada Steamship Line steamer HOCHELAGA successfully completed her sea trials in Georgian Bay. She departed Collingwood the next day to load her first cargo of grain at Port Arthur.
On October 23,1887, the small wooden scow-schooner LADY ELGIN was driven ashore about one mile north of Goderich, Ontario, in a severe storm that claimed numerous other vessels. By October 26, she was broken up by the waves.
The CARL GORTHON, was launched October 23, 1970, for Rederi A/B Gylfe, Hsingborg, Sweden. Sold Canadian in 1980, renamed b.) FEDERAL PIONEER and c.) CECILIA DESGAGNES in 1985. In 2000, she was used as a movie set, unofficially renamed LADY PANAMA.
The rail car ferry GRAND RAPIDS was launched October 23, 1926, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Grand Trunk-Milwaukee Car Ferry Co., Muskegon, Michigan. She entered service in December of 1926.
WILLIAM B. SCHILLER (Hull#372) was launched October 23, 1909, at Lorain, Ohio, for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
October 23, 1953 - The steamer SPARTAN arrived Ludington on her maiden voyage. Captain Harold A. Altschwager was in command.
On October 23, 1868, F. T. BARNEY (wooden schooner, 255 tons, built in 1856, at Vermilion, Ohio) collided with the schooner TRACY J BRONSON and sank below Nine Mile Point, Northwest of Rogers City in Lake Michigan. The wreck was found in 1987, and sits in deep water, upright in almost perfect condition.
On October 23, 1873, the wooden steam barge GENEVA was loaded with wheat and towing the barge GENOA in a violent storm on Lake Superior. She bent her propeller shaft and the flailing blades cut a large hole in her stern. The water rushed in and she went down quickly 15 miles off Caribou Island. No lives were lost. This was her first season of service. She was one of the first bulk freighters with the classic Great Lakes fore and aft deckhouses.
On October 23, 1883, JULIA (2-mast wooden schooner, 89 foot, 115 gross tons, built in 1875, at Smith's Falls, Ontario) was coming into Oswego harbor with a load of barley when she struck a pier in the dark and sank. No lives were lost.
1906: The wooden steamer SHENANDOAH backed into a wharf at South Chicago and then went full ahead into the opposite wharf. The captain was found to be drunk and his certificate was suspended.
1917: KATAHDIN was built at West Bay City in 1895 but was sold off-lakes in 1899. The ship was damaged as b) EXPORT in a collision on this date with the Japanese freighter TOKAYAMA MARU in the Delaware River. As a result of the accident, the ship was scrapped in 1918.
1956: GREY BEAVER ran aground on Stoney Crest Island, near Alexandria Bay, NY while downbound with wheat from Toronto to Trois Rivieres, QC. The vessel was released with bottom damage and required a trip to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs.
1968: NORMAN P. CLEMENT, damaged by a grounding and then an on board explosion, was scuttled in the deep water of Georgian Bay near Christian Island.
1987: CANADIAN ENTERPRISE stranded in the Amherstburg Channel. The ship was lightered of 1,840 tons of coal and then pulled free by 4 tugs before going to Thunder Bay for repairs.

On October 22,1903, while being towed by the GETTYSBURG in the harbor at Grand Marais, Michigan, in a severe storm, the SAVELAND (wooden schooner, 194 foot, 689 gross tons, built in 1873, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was torn away and thrown against some pilings which punctured her hull. She sank to her main deck and was pounded to pieces by the storm waves. No lives were lost.
The tug PRESQUE ISLE completed her sea trials on October 22, 1973, in New Orleans.
On October 22, 1986, ALGOCEN spilled about four barrels of diesel fuel while refueling at the Esso Dock at Sarnia.
TOM M. GIRDLER departed South Chicago light on her maiden voyage, October 22, 1951, bound for Escanaba, Michigan, where she loaded 13,900 tons of ore for delivery to Cleveland, Ohio.
THORNHILL of 1906 grounded on October 22, 1973, just above the Sugar Island ferry crossing in the St. Marys River.
On October 22, 1887, C.O.D. (wooden schooner-barge, 140 foot, 289 gross tons, built in 1873, at Grand Haven, Michigan) was carrying wheat in Lake Erie in a northwest gale. She was beached three miles east of Port Burwell, Ontario, and soon broke up. Most of the crew swam to shore, but the woman who was the cook was lashed to the rigging and she perished.
On October 22, 1929, the steamer MILWAUKEE (formerly MANISTIQUE MARQUETTE AND NORTHERN 1) sank in a gale with a loss of all 52 hands. 21 bodies were recovered. Captain Robert Mc Kay was in command.
On October 27, 1929, a Coast Guard patrolman near South Haven, Michigan, picked up a ship's message case, containing the following handwritten note: "S.S. MILWAUKEE, OCTOBER 22/29 8:30 p.m. The ship is taking water fast. We have turned around and headed for Milwaukee. Pumps are working but sea gate is bent in and can't keep the water out. Flicker is flooded. Seas are tremendous. Things look bad. Crew roll is about the same as on last payday. (signed) A.R. Sadon, Purser."
On October 22, 1870, JENNIE BRISCOE (wooden schooner, 85 foot, 82 tons, built in 1870, at Detroit, Michigan) was raised from where she sank off Grosse Ile, Michigan, a couple of months earlier. She was in her first season of service when she collided with the propeller FREE STATE and sank there. Her raised wreck was sold Canadian in 1871, and she was rebuilt as the propeller scow HERALD.
In a severe gale on 22 October 1873, the three barges DAVID MORRIS, GLOBE, and SAGINAW from Bay City grounded and sank off Point Pelee on Lake Erie.
On October 22, 1887, DOLPHIN (wooden schooner-barge, 107 foot, 147 tons, built in 1855, at Milan, Ohio) and G. D. NORRIS (2-mast wooden schooner, 128 foot, 262 gross tons, built in 1856, at Cleveland, Ohio) were both carrying lumber and were in tow of the steamer OSWEGATCHIE in a storm on Lake Huron. The towline broke when the vessels were off Harbor Beach, Michigan. The DOLPHIN capsized and foundered. All 6 or 7 onboard perished. The NORRIS sank to her decks and her crew was rescued by the passing steamer BRECK. The NORRIS drifted ashore near Goderich, Ontario.
1929: N.J. NESSEN, a wooden bulk freighter, stranded in Lake Erie off Leamington, ON. The ship had been anchored for weather but the wind switched to the south, leaving it exposed. The hull broke up, but all on board were saved.
1929: YANTIC, a former wooden naval reserve training ship tied up at Detroit for use as a heating plant, sank at the dock. All 3 on board got off safely.
1979: J.N. McWATTERS struck the lighthouse at the main entrance to Cleveland with heavy damage to the structure.

On this day in 1980, the converted ELTON HOYT 2ND loaded her first cargo of 1,000 tons of pellets at Taconite Harbor. After field-testing her new self-unloading gear, she loaded 21,000 tons of pellets for delivery to Chicago.
The Anchor Line's CONEMAUGH (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 251 foot, 1,609 gross tons, built in 1880, at West Bay City, Michigan), and the Union Line's NEW YORK (wooden propeller package freighter, 269 foot, 1,922 gross tons, built in 1879, at Buffalo, New York) collided on the Detroit River at 7:30 p.m. The CONEMAUGH sank close to the Canadian shore. She was carrying flour and other package freight from Chicago to Buffalo. She was later raised and repaired, and lasted until 1906, when she was lost in a storm on Lake Erie.
The JOHN B. AIRD arrived at Sarnia, Ontario, on October 21, 1990, for repairs after suffering a conveyor belt fire a week earlier.
The JAMES A. FARRELL and fleet mate RICHARD TRIMBLE were the first vessels to lock down bound in the newly-opened Davis Lock at the Soo on October 21, 1914.
On October 21, 1954, the GEORGE M. HUMPHREY set a record when she took aboard 22,605 gross tons of iron ore at Superior, Wisconsin. The record stood until 1960.
The crew on the SAMUEL MATHER was safely removed from the badly exposed steamer on October 21, 1923, by the Eagle Harbor life saving crew. She had run aground on the 19th. Renamed b.) PATHFINDER in 1925, sold Canadian in 1968, renamed c.) GODERICH. Renamed d.) SOO RIVER TRADER in 1980, e.) PINEGLEN 1982. Scrapped at Port Maitland in 1984.
It was announced on October 21, 1986, that Canada Steamship Lines and Upper Lakes Group would merge CSL's Collingwood shipyard and ULS' Port Weller shipyard and create Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering (1986) Ltd.
On October 21, 1941, AMERICA (steel tug, 80 foot, 123 gross tons, built in 1897, at Buffalo, New York) was on a cable along with the tug OREGON off Belle Isle in the Detroit River trying to pull the steel bulk freighter B. F. JONES off a bar. The cable tightened, pulling AMERICA out of the water and spinning her upside down. Six of the crew of 13 lost their lives. AMERICA was later recovered. AMERICA was renamed b.) MIDWAY in 1982 and c.) WISCONSIN in 1983.
October 21, 1954 - Capt. Allen K. Hoxie, skipper of the MILWAUKEE CLIPPER, retired.
On October 21, 1886, W. L. BROWN (wooden propeller freighter, 140 foot, 336 gross tons, built in 1872, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as NEPTUNE) was carrying iron ore from Escanaba for DePere, Wisconsin. A storm struck while she was on Green Bay. She sprang a leak one mile from Peshtigo Reef and went down in 76 feet of water. No lives were lost. All of her outfit and machinery were removed the following summer. This vessel's first enrollment was issued at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 22 April 1873, as NEPTUNE, but this enrollment was surrendered at Milwaukee on 30 September 1880, endorsed "broken up." However she was re-enrolled as a new vessel at Milwaukee on 15 June 1880, having been rebuilt by A. L. Johnson at Green Bay, Wisconsin, as the W. L. BROWN.
1912: Two were lost when the wooden steamer PINE LAKE sank in the Detroit River near Belle Isle following a collision with FLEETWOOD (i). The hull was later dynamited as a hazard to navigation.
1913: C.W. ELPHICKE began leaking in a storm on Lake Erie and was beached near the Long Point lighthouse. The downbound, grain-laden wooden freighter was a total loss but the crew was saved.
1969: JOHN PURVES was towing Derrick Scow 43 bound for Rogers City when the latter was lost.

10/21 - Milwaukee, Wis. – A 1944 65-metric ton Whitcomb diesel locomotive was loaded onto the ship Floragracht Thursday at the Port Milwaukee. It is headed to a museum in the Netherlands for a display about reconstruction after World War II.
View a video at this link: www.jsonline.com/videos/news/2017/10/19/locomotive-loaded-ship-holland-museum/106813798/

WOW... THE BIG BUST! 10/21 - Cleveland, Ohio – Coast Guard crews and Canadian partners from the Integrated Cross-Border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations team, commonly referred to as the shiprider program, boarded a recreational vessel on a routine law enforcement patrol which resulted in the detection of a personal use quantity of marijuana in the U.S. waters of the Saint Lawrence River near Alexandria Bay, New York, Oct. 17.
The law enforcement team consisted of personnel from Coast Guard Station Alexandria Bay and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The recreational vessel was boarded to ensure that it was in compliance with all applicable regulations for a vessel of its size and type. During the course of the boarding, the joint law enforcement team detected the odor of marijuana onboard. The team located the marijuana, seized the contraband, and detained the vessel operator.
The operator was issued a Coast Guard Notice of Violation for illegal possession of the marijuana and also faces criminal prosecution in the state of New York. Personnel from New York State Police, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security also assisted in the operation.
“This case validates the effectiveness of the shiprider program, which is specifically designed to counteract criminal activities on the shared waterways of our two countries,” said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Gris, the enforcement division chief of Coast Guard Sector Buffalo. “The success of our partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has resulted in actionable law enforcement information for both nations, as well as the removal of illegal drugs from our communities.”
The shiprider program is an enduring success story in that it significantly reduces the abilities of individuals and transnational criminal organizations to elude law enforcement by exploiting the international border.
USCG

10/21 - Buffalo, N.Y. – A date has been set for the commissioning of a new U.S. Navy warship in Buffalo later this year. The USS Little Rock commissioning committee received word last Wednesday from the ship’s commander that the $360 million vessel known as a littoral combat ship will be commissioned Dec. 16 at Canalside on Buffalo’s Lake Erie waterfront.
It will be the first time in the Navy’s 242-year history that a new ship will be commissioned alongside its namesake.
The Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park is home to three World War II vessels, including the USS Little Rock, a light cruiser commissioned near the end of the war. The Little Rock was converted to a guided missile cruiser during the Cold War. Decommissioned in 1976, it was brought to Buffalo’s waterfront military park the following year.
Associated Press

10/21 - Northshore Mining has been making direct-reduced (DR) grade pellets for years at the plant in Silver Bay. But because the plant was not built for that type of production, it's not as efficient as it could be. But that is going to change, when Cleveland-Cliffs invests $75 million dollars into the plant in the next two years.
CEO Lourenco Goncalves explained more. "We make about 100,000 tons a year now of DR pellets. After the change, we'll be able to produce a massive amount of DR grade pellets. 2.5 million tons a year. That's enough to supply our own facility in Toledo, Ohio."
He's referring to the $700 million dollar HBI (Hot Briquetted Iron) facility that they have planned for Ohio. "We have made a great deal of progress. We have lined up numerous commitments from third-party providers, and have begun staffing with a team of some of our most talented internal employees, along with more expertise from the outside."
Work has already begun on the Northshore project, and the plan is to have it completed by mid-2019.
Also on Friday, Goncalves said that one of their customers does not need as many pellets as planned this year, so that will affect them. He said the problem of steel imports is to blame, and called out the government for the Section 232 investigation that has been started, but not finished. He did say that he sees China become less of a problem with the dumped steel, because the Chinese government is restricting steel output.
Still, he added that 2017 has been a good year, and 2018 is shaping up to be good as well.
WDIO

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/24 - Marquette, Mich. – A rapidly deepening storm system will produce very rough conditions across the Upper Peninsula by Tuesday. Waves as high as 25 feet may hit the south-central Lake Superior shoreline.
This storm will be one of the classic late October and November windmakers that brew over Lake Superior.
Northwest winds gusting to almost 70 mph will build tall waves as they move from northwest to southeast across Lake Superior. A large section of Upper Peninsula shoreline could have erosion, from the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula to Grand Marais.
The wind gust forecast for Tuesday, Oct. 24 shows the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula at Copper Harbor getting the strongest wind gusts. Much of the western and central shoreline of the U.P. could have wind gusts out of the north at over 60 mph.
This wind situation could happen on the extreme end in the next month. The conditions are in place for high-end wind events. The Great Lakes are quite warm for this time of year. The cold pocket of air building up in Canada is a late December-type cold. If a strong storm tracks across Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, and pulls a majority of the Canadian cold air down over the warm Great Lakes, we will have quite a windstorm.
Read more and view weather graphics at this link: www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2017/10/70_mph_gusts_25_foot_waves_to.html

10/24 - St. Catharines, Ont. – Algoma Central Corporation announced on Monday that the Canadian Merchant Services Guild, which represents navigation and engineering officers on the company’s domestic product tanker fleet, has launched a strike against the company. The union represents 54 employees of Algoma Tankers Limited. The union has provided assurance that the vessels affected by the strike will sail to a safe berth and be secured before the employees leave their posts.
Algonova, Algosea and Algoma Hansa, plus the chartered tanker Golden Oak, entered layup at Sarnia. Algocanada was anchored off Port Dover Monday night. Algoscotia was tied up at Montreal.
Business Wire

10/24 - Cleveland, Ohio – A Coast Guard Calumet Harbor Response Boat-medium crew rescued three people and two dogs that were unable to return to harbor due to heavy weather near Wilmette Harbor, Ill., Sunday evening.
Watchstanders from Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan received notification from Station Wilmette Harbor of a report that a de-masted, 37-foot sailboat was under power but unable to make headway and the local vessel towing company was unable to respond due to weather conditions. Sector Lake Michigan watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast and launched the Station Calumet Harbor boatcrew to respond.
The Station Calumet Harbor boat crew arrived on scene and reported the weather conditions were unsafe to conduct a tow. They transferred the three people and two dogs onto the response boat.
The sailboat was left at anchor overnight with navigation lights energized approximately one nautical mile offshore until it was safe to tow Monday morning. Weather on scene was reported as 24 to 33-mph winds and five to seven-foot seas.
USCG

On October 24, 1886, the wooden steam barge RUDOLPH burned on Lake St. Clair and was beached. She was loaded with lumber from East Saginaw, Michigan, for Cleveland, Ohio.
On October 24, 1902, W. T. CHAPPELL (2-mast wooden schooner, 72 foot, 39 gross tons, built in 1877, at Sebewaing, Michigan) was carrying stove wood from Grand Marais, Michigan, to the Soo in a severe storm on Lake Superior when she sprang a leak. She was blown over and sank four miles from the Vermillion Life Saving Station. The lifesaving crew rescued the two-man crew in the surfboat and took them to the Whitefish Point Lighthouse for the night since the storm was so severe.
THUNTANK 6 (Hull#309) was launched October 24, 1969, at Wallsend, England, by Clelands Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., for Thun Tankers Ltd., London, U.K. Renamed b.) ANTERIORITY in 1972. Purchased by Texaco Canada in 1975, renamed c.) TEXACO WARRIOR. Sold off-lakes in 1984, renamed d.) TRADER, e.) SEA CORAL in 1985, f.) TALIA II in 1985, g.) TALIA in 1985, STELLA ORION in 1995 and h.) SYRA in 2000.
The PHILIP D. BLOCK / W. W. HOLLOWAY scrap tow arrived at Recife, Brazil. October 24, 1986.
THOMAS W. LAMONT and her former fleetmate, ENDERS M. VOORHEES arrived at Alegeciras, Spain on October 24, 1987, on the way to the cutters’ torch. The LAMONT was one of the last bulkers that retained her telescoping hatch covers to the very end.
NIPIGON BAY arrived Thunder Bay, Ontario, on October 24, 1980, where repairs were made from damage caused by her grounding earlier in the month.
On October 24, 1855, ALLEGHENY (wooden propeller, 178 foot, 468 tons, built in 1849, at Cleveland, Ohio) was carrying general merchandise and passengers in a storm, when she anchored near the Milwaukee harbor entrance for shelter. She lost her stack and then was unable to get up steam and was helpless. She dragged her anchor and came in close to the beach where she was pounded to pieces. There was no loss of life. Her engine and most of her cargo were removed by the end of the month. Her engine was installed in a new vessel of the same name built to replace her.
On October 24, 1873, just a month after being launched, the scow WAUBONSIE capsized at St. Clair, Michigan, and lost her cargo of bricks. She was righted and towed to Port Huron, minus masts, rigging and bowsprit, for repairs.
On October 24, 1886, LADY DUFFERIN (3-mast wooden schooner-barge, 135 foot, 356 gross tons, built at Port Burwell, Ontario) was lost from the tow of the propeller W B HALL and went ashore near Cabot Head on Georgian Bay. No lives were lost, but the vessel was a total loss.
On October 24, 1953, the Yankcanuck Steamship Lines' MANZZUTTI (steel crane ship, 246 foot, 1,558 gross tons, built in 1903, at Buffalo, New York as J. S. KEEFE) ran aground south of the channel into the Saugeen River. The tug RUTH HINDMAN from Killarney pulled her free. No damage was reported. 1898: L.R. DOTY foundered off Kenosha in high winds and waves with the loss of 18 lives. The vessel was enroute from Chicago to Midland with a cargo of corn and towing the schooner OLIVE JEANETTE. The latter broke loose and survived.
1948: HARRY T. EWIG stranded off Point Abino, Lake Erie. The ship was lightered to fleetmate BUCKEYE and released with about $40,000 in damage.
1959: WESTRIVER, under tow of the tugs LAURENCE C. TURNER and AMERICA, headed down the Seaway for repairs after being damaged in an earlier explosion on Lake Superior.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/25 - A Great Lakes storm underwent bombogenesis early Tuesday and produced damaging winds that whipped up impressively high waves in Lake Superior, causing many vessels to seek shelter.
American Mariner was anchored in Keweenaw Bay off L’Anse. Lee A. Tregurtha remained at the loading dock in Marquette. Algolake and Herbert C. Jackson were stopped off Port Inland. Other vessels were hugging the north shore of Lake Superior and the west side of Lake Michigan. Several went to anchor in the St. Marys River (see St. Marys River report below).
The low-pressure system intensified from a weak area of low pressure over the Ohio Valley Monday morning to an intense low centered near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich, early Tuesday morning. The rate of intensification – a 27 millibar drop in the surface low in 24 hours – satisfied the criterion for atmospheric bombogenesis, or a rapidly strengthening low pressure system.
Winds near the Lake Superior shoreline gusted to over 60 mph Tuesday morning and downed trees and powerlines in over two dozen locations in Alger, Marquette and Schoolcraft counties.
Wind instruments about 115 feet above the lake surface at Stannard Rock Lighthouse, about 40 miles north-northeast of Marquette, Michigan, measured a wind gust of 77 mph Tuesday morning. Wind gusts to just over 50 mph were also clocked in parts of Duluth, Minnesota.
The National Weather Service office just outside of Marquette warned of "giant waves" Tuesday, possibly up to 25 feet offshore, leading to significant lakeshore flooding and beach erosion.

The NWS office also pointed out in a forecast discussion that lake levels were already running about 10 inches above the October long-term average, which would only worsen the flooding and erosion.
This type of event can happen any time of year, but is most common from October through March, when a powerful, intensifying jet stream disturbance forces air to rise over a strong near-surface temperature contrast.
Early November – and late October, for that matter – have a long, notorious history of intense Midwest windstorms. Known locally as the "Witches of November" and mentioned in singer Gordon Lightfoot's iconic "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" about the 1975 storm responsible for sinking the huge iron-ore ship in Lake Superior, these Great Lakes storms don't always produce much snow, but their fierce winds are a signature feature.
Another such storm in 1998 was actually stronger than the 1975 Edmund Fitzgerald storm, and produced wind gusts over 70 mph in some areas of the Great Lakes.
Weather.com

10/25 - Marquette, Mich. – The search for a man and woman who went missing on Lake Superior Tuesday afternoon has been suspended, pending future developments. Waves reaching 25 feet and winds of 40 miles per hour were too dangerous to send boats to search. A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City searched for three hours.
Authorities say waves swept the pair into Lake Superior at Black Rocks in Presque Isle around 1:30 p.m. At least one person saw them in the water. They told authorities that the woman appeared to be unconscious.
The Coast Guard is warning people to stay away from rocks and cliffs during hazardous weather conditions.
Mining Journal


10/25 - Manistee County, Mich. – The channel connecting Portage Lake and Lake Michigan will finally see some repairs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, recently awarded a contract for repairs to the Portage Lake revetment.
The King Co. of Holland, Mich., was awarded a $4.2 million contract to complete critical repairs to the north and south federal revetments.
The work consists of removal of the existing concrete cap block and a portion of the timber revetment and timber piles; placement of new cantilever steel sheet pile wall, fill, toe, and splash stone and a new 5 feet wide reinforced concrete cap. A rubble mound wave attenuator will also be constructed on the west end of the south revetment.
"Infrastructure exposed to harsh weather conditions will inevitably need repairs and upkeep," said Lt. Col. Dennis Sugrue, district engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. "These repairs are vital to maintain the structural integrity of the revetments and provide a safe environment as a harbor of refuge."
Work on the Portage Lake revetment, located east of Lake Michigan, is slated to begin April 2018, and be completed by November 2018.
UpNorth Live

On this day in 1975, a 96-foot mid-body section was added to the ARTHUR B. HOMER at Fraser Ship Yards, Superior, Wisconsin. The HOMER became the largest American-flagged freighter to be lengthened. This modification increased her length to 826 feet and her per-trip carrying capacity to 31,200 tons.
On October 25, 1872, the crew of the small tug P. P. PRATT (wooden propeller steam tug, 14 tons, built in 1866, at Buffalo, New York), went to dinner at a nearby hotel while the tug was docked in Oswego, New York. While they were gone, the tug's boiler exploded. A large piece of the boiler, weighing about five hundred pounds, landed on the corner of West First and Cayuga Street. A six-foot piece of rail impaled itself in the roof of the Oswego Palladium newspaper's offices. Amazingly, no one was hurt. The hulk was raised the following week and the engine was salvaged.
On October 25, 1888, AMETHYST (wooden propeller tug, 14 gross tons, built in 1868, at Buffalo, New York) caught fire and burned to a total loss at Duluth, Minnesota.
ALGOBAY departed on her maiden voyage October 25, 1978, from Collingwood light for Stoneport, Michigan, to load stone for Sarnia, Ontario.
STERNECLIFFE HALL entered service for the Hall Corporation of Canada on October 25, 1947.
HURON arrived at Santander, Spain, October 25, 1973, in consort with her sister WYANDOTTE, towed by the German tug DOLPHIN X. for scrapping.
October 25, 1895 - SHENANGO No. 2 (later PERE MARQUETTE 16) was launched in Toledo, Ohio. She was built by the Craig Shipbuilding Company for the United States & Ontario Steam Navigation Company and later became part of the Pere Marquette carferry fleet.
The engines of the propeller WESTMORELAND, which sank in 1854, near Skillagalee Reef in Lake Michigan, were recovered and arrived at Chicago on October 25,1874.
ARK was built on the burned out hull of the steamer E. K. COLLINS as a side-wheel passenger steamer in 1853, at Newport, Michigan, but she was later cut down to a barge. On October 25,1866, she was being towed along with three other barges down bound from Saginaw, Michigan, in a storm. Her towline parted and she disappeared with her crew of six. The other three tow-mates survived. There was much speculation about ARK's whereabouts until identifiable wreckage washed ashore 100 miles north of Goderich, Ontario.
On October 25,1833, JOHN BY (wooden stern-wheeler, 110 foot, built in 1832, at Kingston, Ontario) was on her regular route between York (now Toronto) and Kingston, Ontario when a storm drove her ashore near Port Credit, a few miles from York. Her terrible handling in open lake water set the precedent that stern-wheelers were not compatible with lake commerce.
On October 25,1887, VERNON (wooden propeller passenger/package-freight steamer, 158 foot, 560 tons, built in 1886, at Chicago, Illinois) foundered in a gale 6 miles northeast of Two Rivers Point on Lake Michigan. The death toll was estimated at 31 - 36. The sole survivor was picked up on a small raft two days later by the schooner POMEROY. He was on the raft with a dead body. Most casualties died of exposure. There were accusations at the time that the vessel was overloaded causing the cargo doors to be left open which allowed the water to pour in during the storm. This accusation was confirmed in 1969 (82 years after the incident) when divers found the wreck and indeed the cargo doors were open.
1911: The wooden schooner AZOV began leaking on Lake Huron. The ship came ashore north of Goderich and was broken up by the elements.
1980: The former SILVAPLANA, a Swiss saltwater vessel, was abandoned by the crew after going aground 125 miles SW of Pyongyang, North Korea, as d) HWA HO. The hull later broke in two and was a total loss. The vessel had traded through the Seaway beginning in 1959 and returned as b) CAPE MISENO in 1969.
1985: MAXI PORR first came inland under West German registry when new in 1965. It went aground on this date as b) LUANA while inbound at Port Sudan from Naples and heavily damaged. The vessel was refloated on November 20 but declared a total loss, sold to Pakistani shipbreakers and later arrived at Gadani Beach for scrapping.
1994: OCEAN LUCKY, an ocean going freighter registered in St. Vincent, sank following a grounding off the southern tip of Taiwan. All on board were rescued. The ship had begun Great Lakes trading in 1977 as b) FEDERAL ST. CLAIR and returned as c) TRANSOCEAN PEARL in 1981.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/26 - Detroit, Mich. – Lake Superior's average water level during the month of September was just two inches below its record high September level.
During a period when Lake Superior typically begins is seasonal decline, Lake Superior rose one inch from August to September. This rise was a result of above average net basin supply of water to the lake. Rainfall amounts over the Lake Superior basin were nearly 30 percent above average September rainfall.
The latest 6-month forecast calls for Lake Superior's levels to remain 8 to 11 inches above long-term average levels, and 5 to 7 inches below record high levels.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District

10/26 - Toledo, Ohio – Toledo officially ended the 2017 harmful algal bloom season Monday after nine consecutive days with cooler temperatures and no microcystin detected in raw lake water at the city's intake crib.
“Our partners join us in confirming that the 2017 HAB season is over and our test results have shown non-detects at the intake crib in Lake Erie for nine consecutive days,” Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson said in a statement. City chemists will continue to collect raw water samples from the intake valve, three miles north of the Lake Erie shoreline, but test them once a week, said city spokesman Janet Schroeder.
The harmful algal bloom season officially started July 13, and the city started analyzing samples from Lake Erie on a daily basis the previous week.
Tom Bridgeman, University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center algae researcher, confirmed the season was over. “Temperatures are dropping, boat monitoring is about done, and the cold weather this week will kill whatever is left,” he said. “The [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] lab just did their last trip as well.”
NASA’s satellite imagery in September showed an algae bloom as far north as Canada and just past the Lake Erie islands, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the toxin concentrations were low in most areas.
A portion of the Maumee River that flows through Toledo was placed under a recreational advisory last month by the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department because of a strong algal bloom. That advisory was lifted last week. Health officials said city tap water was safe.
The city of Toledo's water quality dashboard was in the “clear” section Monday, which means the raw lake water in the city’s intake continued to have a microcystin concentration of less than 5 parts per billion — a level which operators at the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant can easily treat.
Toledo Blade

On October 26, 1878, the new steamer CITY OF DETROIT (composite side-wheel passenger-package freight steamer, 234 foot, 1,094 gross tons, built in 1878, at Wyandotte, Michigan) arrived in Detroit from Cleveland with 276 tons of freight, mostly iron, on deck, and no freight in her hold. This experiment was tried to see if the steamer would show any signs of "crankiness,” even under a load so placed. She responded well and lived up to the expectations of her designers.
On October 26, 1882, the sunken schooner-barge NELLIE McGILVRAY was dynamited as a hazard to navigation by the Portage River Improvement Company. She sank at the entrance to the Portage Canal in the Keweenaw Peninsula on August 28, 1882, and all attempts to raise her failed.
LOUIS R. DESMARAIS was christened October 26,1977. She was reconstructed at Port Weller Drydocks and renamed b.) CSL LAURENTIEN in 2001.
HUTCHCLIFFE HALL and OREFAX were sold October 26, 1971, to the Consortium Ile d'Orleans of Montreal, made up of Richelieu Dredging Corp., McNamara Construction Ltd. and The J.P. Porter Co. Ltd.
On October 26, 1977, the MENIHEK LAKE struck a lock in the St. Lawrence Seaway sustaining damage estimated at $400,000.
On October 26, 1971, the ROGERS CITY's A-frame collapsed while unloading at Carrollton, Michigan on the Saginaw River. Her unloading boom was cut away and temporary repairs were made at Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, Michigan.
The tug ROUILLE was launched on October 26, 1929, as Hull#83 of Collingwood Shipyards Ltd.
The schooner HEMISPHERE, which was being sought by the U.S. Marshals at Detroit and the St. Lawrence River, escaped at the Gallop Rapids and has gone to sea.
On October 26, 1851, ATLAS (wooden propeller, 153 foot, 375 tons, built in 1851, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying flour from Detroit to Buffalo when she was blown to shore near the mouth of the Grand River (Lorain, Ohio) by a gale, stranded and became a total loss. No lives were lost.
On October 26, 1895, GEORGE W. DAVIS (wooden schooner, 136 foot, 299 gross tons, built in 1872, at Toledo, Ohio) was carrying coal in a storm on Lake Erie when she stranded near Port Maitland, Ontario. A few days after the stranding, she floated off on her own, drifted two miles up the beach and sank. No lives were lost.
1900: The consort barge MARTHA sank in Lake St. Clair after a head-on collision with the E.P. WILBUR. The vessel was refloated, repaired and was last known as the grain storage barge C.S. BAND of the Goderich Elevator Company before being scrapped at Toronto in 1976-1977.
1912: KEYSTORM stranded in the St. Lawrence on Scow Island Shoal near Alexandria Bay, NY due to a navigational error in fog. After about 5 hours, the ship slid off into deep water and sank. The coal-laden freighter was enroute from Charlotte, NY to Montreal.
1915: The former wooden steamer GLENGARRY was operating as a barge when it sank at Montreal on this date following a collision with the J.H. PLUMMER. It was later pumped out only to sink again at Quebec City in 1920.
1917: PORT COLBORNE, a Great Lakes canal ship serving overseas in World War 1, was wrecked near Land's End, England, while enroute, in ballast, from Rouen, France, to Barry Roads, U.K. The hull could not be salvaged and was broken apart by the elements.
1924: E.A.S. CLARKE, anchored in the Detroit River due to fog, and was hit by the B.F. JONES (i), holed and sunk. The ship was eventually refloated and, in 1970, became c) KINSMAN VOYAGER before going to Germany for brief service as a storage barge in 1975.
1926: The first NEW YORK NEWS broke loose in a storm at Shelter Bay, QC and, without radio contact, was feared lost. The vessel was later found, with all hands safe, hard aground. The ship was refloated, repaired and survived until scrapping at Port Dalhousie as c) LABRADOC in 1961.
1961: STEEL PRODUCTS, under tow for scrapping, broke loose and stranded in Lake Erie near Point Abino, ON. The ship was unsalvageable and had to be dismantled on site.
1967: The barge WILTRANCO broke loose in a storm and was blown hard aground west of Buffalo. The hull was refloated two days later only to strand once more.
1968: R. BRUCE ANGUS was hard aground in the St. Lawrence and had to be lightered to P.S. BARGE NO. 1, a former fleetmate, as a) EDWIN T. DOUGLASS, before being released October 29.
1979: URANUS, a former West German visitor to the Great Lakes, had to be beached on the River Schelde as d) MARIANNE GEN following a collision with the EMPROS. The vessel was a total loss and was cut in pieces for removal in 1983.
2008: BALSA II first came through the Seaway in 1982. It was inbound for New Georgia, Soloman Islands, to load logs when it stranded on a reef. While refloated, the ship was detained as the area of the strand had been a marine protected site.

[yachtsmanwilly]

10/27 - Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. – If Sault Ste. Marie wants nothing more to do with the M.S. Norgoma, there's someone in the Windy City who does.
Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services, says recent media coverage about the rustbucket 67-year-old package freighter prompted an Illinois businessman to express interest in buying it. Early talks started a couple of weeks ago and are ongoing.
"We're still in preliminary discussions with the gentleman from Chicago regarding the Norgoma," Vair told SooToday this week.
"We'll be continuing to have those over the coming weeks to find out what he may be able to offer, and looking into all options as it relates to the ship."
"Since the news coverage has come out on the Norgoma, we were approached by a gentleman in Chicago. He has expressed interest in the Norgoma and suggested that he would be willing to pay the costs to remove and tug the boat down to Chicago and have it restored there," Vair said, responding to a question from Ward 6 Councillor Ozzie Grandinetti at the Oct. 10 City Council meeting.
"If there's any truth to that, where there's something that may actually come from that, we have to know that, because that's going to play a big part in making my decision even easier," responded Ward 5 Councillor Frank Fata.
Councillors voted at the Oct. 10 meeting to have city staff explore options for removing the ship. They also agreed to look into improvements to the Bondar Marina, and to have two groups – the local Cultural Advisory Board and the Municipal Heritage Committee – evaluate the Norgoma's cultural and heritage significance.
Back in September, Mayor Christian Provenzano served notice that he wants the rusting vessel towed out of Roberta Bondar Marina and clear out of the Sault's downtown.
"Make sure you have an updated tetanus injection!" one TripAdvisor reviewer wrote about the ship.
Soo Today

10/27 - Chicago, Ill. – The U.S. Coast Guard has closed off access to a waterway extending from the south branch of the Chicago River known as Bubbly Creek after a reported oil discharge Thursday.
Representatives from Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Chicago and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met at the site, Thursday, in response to a report of an oil discharge from an unknown source. The area, known as Bubbly Creek, runs south from the south branch of the Chicago River to Pershing Road, east of Ashland Avenue. A concentration of oil has also been identified on the south branch of the Chicago River between Ashland Avenue and Pulaski Road.
The EPA is the on-scene coordinator for the recovery and cleanup of the discharge and has deployed containment boom at the entrance to Bubbly Creek.
The Coast Guard has established a safety zone, closing this section of the waterway to all people and vessels. Entry into, transiting, mooring or anchoring within the safety zone is prohibited unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan or a designated representative.
The safety zone will not affect the south branch of the Chicago River, Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, or the associated turning basin.
USCG

On this day in 1979, the MESABI MINER delivered her first cargo of coal to Port Washington, Wis. The 21- foot draft restriction of the harbor limited the cargo to 39,000 tons.
While in tow of the tug MERRICK on October 27, 1879, the NIAGARA (wooden schooner, 204 foot, 764 gross tons, built in 1873, at Tonawanda, New York) collided with the PORTER (wooden schooner, 205 foot, 747 gross tons, built in 1874, at Milwaukee, Wis.), which was in tow of the tug WILCOX at the mouth of the Detroit River. The PORTER sank but was salvaged and repaired. She lasted another 19 years.
PAUL THAYER was christened on October 27, 1973, at Lorain, Ohio. Renamed b.) EARL W. OGLEBAY in 1995 and MANITOWOC in 2008.
While the JAMES R. BARKER was upbound October 27, 1986, on Lake Huron above buoys 11 & 12, a high-pressure fuel line on the starboard engine failed causing an engine room fire, which was extinguished by on-board fire fighting equipment. Fortunately no one was injured.
On her maiden voyage, the HOCHELAGA departed Collingwood on October 27, 1949, for Fort William, Ontario, to load grain for Port Colborne, Ontario.
FRANCIS E. HOUSE was laid up at Duluth on October 27, 1960, and remained idle there until April, 1966, when she was sold to the Kinsman Marine Transit Co., Cleveland and renamed c.) KINSMAN INDEPENDENT. She was scrapped at Santander, Spain in 1974.
On October 27, 1973, the HENRY LA LIBERTE struck an embankment while backing from the Frontier Dock Slip at Buffalo, New York, and damaged her steering gear beyond repair. As a consequence she was laid up there.
RED WING and FRANK A. SHERMAN departed Lauzon, Quebec, on October 27, 1986, in tandem tow by the Vancouver based deep-sea tug CANADIAN VIKING bound for scrapping in Taiwan.
On October 27, 1869, ALFRED ALLEN (wooden schooner, 160 tons, built in 1853, at Pultneyville, New Jersey, as J. J. MORLEY) was bound for Toledo, Ohio, with 500 barrels of salt when she went on the Mohawk Reef near Port Colborne, Ontario, in a blizzard. She washed free and drifted to the mainland beach where she was pounded to pieces. No lives were lost.
During a snowstorm on the night of October 27, 1878, the propeller QUEBEC of the Beatty Line ran aground on Magnetic Shoals near Cockburn Island on Lake Huron. She was four miles from shore and one of her arches was broken in the accident.
October 27, 1854 - Well-known Pere Marquette carferry captain Joseph "Joe" Russell was born in Greenfield, Wisconsin.
1937: EASTON, of the Misener's Colonial Steamship Co., arrived at Meaford, ON with a cracked cylinder in the engine. The ship was there to load a cargo of baled hay for Fort William and bushels of apples. The trip was canceled and the vessel was sent for repairs.
1965: The Liberty ship PANAGATHOS traded through the Seaway in 1962 and 1963 under Greek registry and was back in 1965 under the flag of Liberia. The vessel ran aground off Ameland Island, 4 nautical miles from the Hollum Lighthouse, Holland, enroute from Amsterdam and Hamburg to the U.S. East Coast with a cargo of steel. The ship was abandoned as a total loss and the hull remained there until at least 1970.
1965: A fire broke out aboard the Egyptian freighter STAR OF SUEZ while upbound in the Seaway east of the Snell Lock. The ship was docked at Cornwall and the local fire company doused the blaze. The cargo of cotton in #3 hold was mostly offloaded. The ship lasted until scrapping at Split, Yugoslavia, in 1980.
1976: A fire in the bilge of the tug CHRIS M. at Toronto destroyed the ship's wiring. The vessel had become unpopular at the waterfront area but was rebuilt as the powered 3-masted schooner EMPIRE SANDY in 1983.
1982: The French ore carrier FRANCOIS L.D., a regular Great Lakes caller since 1962, struck the breakwall at Cape Vincent, NY while westbound in fog. There was heavy damage to the structure and the ship had a dent in the bow.