MARINE SOCIETY. Incorporated in the State of Michigan October 21, November / December, 2007 NEWS - ANNOUNCEMENTS

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1 \ \ LAKE MARINE SOCIETY \\ ~ \~LORE Incorporated in the State of Michigan October 21, 1963 Vol. XXVIII, No.6 David Michelson (Editor) D. W. Seaton Dr. New Baltimore, MI November / December, 2007 Membership (annual) - $14.00 (U.S. & Can. funds) Send to: L.H.L. Port Huron Museum, th St., Port Huron, MI Phone (810) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DIRECTORS President - Fred Miller V. President - Paul Schmitt Secretary - Dick Wicklund Treasurer - Theresa Miller John Coulter Frank Frisk Gareth McNabb David Michelson Andrew Severson Gene Buel (Hon. Advisory Director) SOCIETY NEWS - ANNOUNCEMENTS News - Recent events. Our third dinner meeting was held September 15th at the Museum. The evening's was Keith Steftke with a program entitled" Great Ships from the Great Lakes Engineering Works - The Last Major Shipbuilder on The Detroit River", Our thanks to Keith for an excellent program and the Museum Guild for a delicious meal. The annual fall Transportation Memorabilia Flea Market was held at the Port Huron Seaway Terminal on Saturday, October 20th in conjunction with the Port Huron Museum and Acheson Ventures. Our thanks to them for helping make this a successful event for dealers and buyers. Our final dinner meeting for 2007 was Saturday, October 27th at 6pm at the Great Lakes Maritime Center, Ric Mixter who presented "The Carl D. Bradley & The Largest Lakers Lost on the Lakes". Our thanks to Ric for his captivating program and a successful evening Dinner Meetinl!s - announcements of the 2008 dinner schedule will be in future issues of the LIGHTSHIP. Stay tuned. Lake Huron Lore Fall 2007 Maritime Sveaker Series The following guest speakers are scheduled to present maritime entertainment evenings at the Great Lakes Maritime Center (Vantage Point), 51 Water St., Port Huron: Saturday, November 10th, at 7:00pm, Jim and Pat Stayer will present "The Dunderberg Story, A High Seas Murder?" Saturday, December 8th at 7:00pm, Bob Campbell will present "A Great Lakes Album: Ships and Seasons of the Lakes!" Admission is free and open to the public. Further details can be obtained by visiting the Lake Huron Lore website, Events, or by calling Acheson Ventures at (810) New Members - James Bartke, Chicago, IL; Robert A. Hertel, Livonia MI; Roger Hewlett & Jonene Eliasson, St. Clair, MI; Mary Knutson, Lyle, MN; William Ruthard, Marysville, MI; Daniel Sass, Marysville, MI; Greg Schieman, Marine City, MI; Stan & Nancy Schriner, St. Clair, MI;

2 *** NAME THIS SHIP *** *See Answer on Page 10* Caught Through the Camera Lens of Russell E. Sawyer -- Russell captured this fine view of the tanker IMPERIAL CORNWALL from the Blue Water Bridge on August 28, 1952 on her downbound passage to the Imperial Oil refinery in Sarnia to load another cargo destined for an upper Great Lakes port..-2-

3 NAUTICAL NEWS From The Files By Cy Hudson 15 Years Ago November 7 The Liberian flag DOCEGULF which had loaded a cargo of grain at the Samia elevator slip, while pulling out into the St. Clair River lost steering in the current, and punched a large hole in the seawall behind the Port Huron municipal offices. Little damage was caused to the ship, however the seawall sustained a crack which extended 29 feet below the surface of the river and estimated to cost some $200,000 in damages. The seawall had been struck 6 times by 6 different vessels since November 19 The railroad car ferry INCAN SUPERIOR built in 1974 by Burrard Dry Docks, North Vancouver, BC for service between Thunder Bay, ON and Superior, WI transporting rail cars loaded with lumber, newsprint and wood pulp finally ended the service. She had operated 19 seasons between the 2 ports and had completed 2,386 trips. Her owner, Incan Superior Ld., which is a wholly-owned Canadian Pacific unit decided to transfer the vessel to the Canadian west coast, passed down bound at the Soo Locks on November 25. The INCAN SUPERIOR will be moving railroad cars and trailers between Vancouver, BC and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island which is 100 miles north of Victoria. In 1993 she was renamed PRINCESS SUPERIOR. December 3 Socanav Inc., sold off another of its tankers just prior to the end of 1992 LE CEDRE (a) W. HAROLD REA, (b) EASTERN SHELL (2), (c) LE CEDRE. She cleared Sorel, QC. under her new name (d) COLON TRADER under Panamanian registry. Her official name of her new owner is Marine Sales & Service Ltd., Tortola, B.W.I., however the ship is managed from a Panamanian address. The motor tanker was a product of Collingwood Shipyards, Hull 176, 1962,4,000 grt. December 15 Cleveland's C&P Lakefront Ore Dock Huletts unloaded a laker for the final time when the LEMOYNE arrived with ore from Labrador. These were the last operational Huletts on the Lakes. December 24 The WeIland Ship Canal closed for the 1992 Navigation Season with transits down approximately 10% from the last season, which were 400 ships. The final transits for 1992 were as follows: December 15 The CHIPPEWA, last up bound salty, also on the same day the IMPERIAL ST. CLAIR the last up bound requiring a pilot. December 21 The CHIPPEWA was the last down bound salt water vessel. December 24 The C.C.G. GRIFFON was the last up bound transit, the CANADIAN PROSPECTOR was the last down bound vessel, clearing Port Weller at approximately 3pm. 20 Years Ago November 11 The SEALAND KODIAK, the last of the trio containerships built by Bay Shipbuilding at Sturgeon Bay for Sea-Land Service Inc. was down bound past Detroit on her delivery voyage to the Pacific North West. She was launched on December 20, November 24 The former 1951 built Mackinac Straits ferry VACATIONLAND which had been docked in Vancouver, British Columbia since 1979 was sold to be scrapped in the Far East, and then moved to Seattle. After the Mackinac Bridge opened in 1957 she was declared redundant and moved to Detroit, later sold in 1960 and renamed JACK DALTON to carry truck trailers between Detroit and Cleveland. In 1961 sold Canadian and renamed PERE NOUVEL for service on the St. Lawrence River, in 1967 sold to the British Columbia Ferry System, to be renamed SUNSHINE COAST QUEEN. Declared surplus again, and sold to be scrapped. On December 3, 1987 while on the delivery tow by a Japanese tug from Seattle to the Far East scrap yard, when 100 miles offthe State of Washington she foundered in the rough seas. -3-

4 Bluewater Passages By Dick Wicklund ETRURIA & BRANSFORD: FATEFUL FUTURES! Once the use of steel was perfected in the construction of Great Lakes ships, and the technology of steam engines developed, a shipbuilding boom occurred from the late 1890's to about Shipbuilders were very competitive and innovative in ship designs, but soon they would offer standard sized hulls to attract vessel operators at lower costs. Hundreds of new steel steamers were built in this time in standard designs and sizes designated by overall lengths of 434 to 440 foot, 524 foot, 550 to 557 foot, and ultimately to the 600'footers first introduced in On Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay, the West Bay City Shipbuilding Company often built twin vessels instead of one to make the cost of construction more attractive to shippers. Competition was fears between shipyards. The H. A. Hawgood Company had two standard sized twin vessels built at 434 feet long, the ETRURIA and the BRANSFORD. On the Saginaw River at the West Bay City shipyard, hull number 604 was launched on February 8, 1902, as the ETRURIA. Less then two months after, hull number 605 was launched on April 2, 1902, as the BRANSFORD. Each vessel had the standard dimensions of 434 x 50 x 28 feet. Painted in Hawgood colors, and fitted out side by side who would have known the fateful futures of each? Beginning in 1902 each would sail into a troubled future. One would sail a little over three years, and the other would survive for over 70 years. The BRANSFORD, only seven months after its launch, collided with the tug Record sending it to the bottom on November 7, 1902, with the loss of one life. The accident occurred in the Keweenaw Peninsula's waterway while avoiding the stormy waters of Lake Superior. When one thinks of new ships sinking on the Great Lakes, the CYPRUS or the JAMES CARRUTHERS would quickly come to mind. However who would remember the fate, or the name, ETRURIA? The BRANSFORD's twin in the Hawgood fleet would only sail until June 18, Up bound from Toledo, Ohio with a load of coal for Superior, Wisconsin, her fate was sealed. In dense fog on Lake Huron the ETRURIA was struck amid-ship by the steamer AMASA STONE. In minutes she sank, but with enough time for the crew to escape to the ore carrier MARITANA. The ETRURIA after only three years and four months of sailing would now rest in deep waters ten miles off the stately Presque Isle Lighthouse was not a good year for the BRANSFORD either. In late November a severe storm raked western Lake Superior - the same storm that wrecked the MATAAFA, LAFAYETTE, and others. The BRANSFORD was driven onto a reef off Isle Royale on November 28, Badly damaged and feared lost, the crew was able to get her off, and take an arduous journey to the safety of the Duluth - Superior harbor, and repairs. Ironically only four years after this on November 15, 1909, another storm drove the BRANSFORD on the rocks again off Isle Royale, close to the same place as in This time more serious damage called for the wrecking tug FAVORITE However it was not smooth sailing for the Hawgood fleet. Financial problems would overtake the company. Maybe adding to the problems were new unpaid for ships, and accidents. Over the next years the fleet would liquidate, and sell its vessels. Steel companies had developed their own fleets with bigger ships, so a major cargo, iron ore, was no longer available for an independent fleet like Hawgood; especially one in debt. Finally in 1916 six of their last boats were sold to the Pittsburgh Steamship Company ofu S. Steel. They had a need for newer, more reliable 400 foot ore carriers, and the BRANSFORD was one of these.. -4-

5 All six former Hawgood boats would be renamed, and take the red hull and silver stack of the Pittsburgh fleet. Not all unloading ports could take the newer 600 footers at the time, but these 400 footers could. The BRANSFORD would be renamed JOHN H. McLEAN. However, one would wonder if its one time twin fleet mate, ETRURIA would have been part of this, if she had survived? As the JOHN H. McLEAN its sailing days must have seemed routine compared to her first fourteen years as the BRANSFORD. Except for normal improvements, the next 27 years as the McLEAN were mostly uneventful, until the end of 1943 when a major change would take place. Late in 1943 the JOHN H. McLEAN was transferred to U S. Steel's American Steel & Wire Company from the Pittsburgh fleet. It would be converted to a crane ship with two large cranes on its cargo deck. The McLEAN would get its third name, the CLIFFORD F. HOOD. Its sailing days would now extend for another 27 seasons beginning in The HOOD would now carry a wide variety of cargos, and serve in many more places around the Great Lakes. Corporate reorganizations would bring the HOOD back to the Pittsburgh fleet, and later the Great Lakes Fleet ofu S. Steel. Her twin, ETRURIA would now be a forgotten shipwreck in Lake Huron, as would the HOOD's Hawgood years as the BRANSFORD. Surprisingly, the HOOD would last sail in 1970, over 68 years since its launch in The downsizing ofu S. Steel's Great Lakes Fleet in the 1970's meant she would not sail again. The fleet's 600 footers were laying-up never to run, so a 400 footer had no chance of that again. However, there among the 600 footers, the dwarfed HOOD awaited its fate into the early 1970's. On May 30, 1974 the HOOD left its lay-up port of Duluth, Minnesota for a long scrap tow to Spain. When she was towed down Lake Huron the HOOD passed by the site of the sunken ETRURIA off Presque Isle Lighthouse, where it sank almost exactly 69 years earlier. That site is not far from Saginaw Bay, and the now gone shipyard at Bay City, Michigan, where 72 years earlier the ETRURIA and BRANSFORD began their fateful futures! (Editor's note: CLIFFORD F. HOOD has a special connection to this area. All of the steel beams that were used for the original bridge construction for Interstate 94 between Port Huron and Mt. Clemens were delivered by her to the Seaway Terminal in Port Huron in the early 1960's. Many of those highway bridges remain in use today.) -5-

6 ETRURIA on the St. Mary's River early in her career. A. E. Young Photo I Author's Collection Crane ship CLIFFORD F. HOOD downbound on St. Clair River loaded with steel products Author' Collection -6-

7 Passa2e of the Steamer Lakeland By: Steve Elve A light breeze made a whistling sound as it passed through the steamer's guide wires. The ship's bow cut through the gentle swells of the St. Mary's River as it moved along the upbound track. It was August of 1913 and the steamer was the 280 foot combination passenger and package freighter LAKELAND. She had been built at the Globe Iron Works in Cleveland, Ohio for the Mutual Steamship Company in The steel bulk freighter was then named CAMBRIA. The ship was sold in 1901 to the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. The ship's final name change, the LAKELAND, occurred in 1910 when she was bought by the Port Huron and Duluth Steamship Campany. At this time the ship was converted from a bulk freighter to a passenger and package carner. '!II And so on the fine summer's day on the St. Mary's River, ten members of the Wunderlich family were enjoying a scenic passage along the upper Michigan region. Several days before, they had booked passage from Port Huron and were bound for Lake Superior and the lake head at the busy port city of Duluth. As they proceeded up the St. Mary's River the family members were befriended by the ship's captain, Alex McCowan. He invited the family up to the wheelhouse and here posed with the captain and other ships officers for some photos. Through the coming days they photographed their adventure on board and ashore. The LAKELAND made a stop in Houghton and Hancock and took on a load of copper ingots. The Wunderlich Family had some time to explore the city and copper mines. Back aboard the ship, the passengers watched the shoreline of the city disappear as the steamer left the Portage Ship Canal and entered the vast expanse of Lake Superior. -7-

8 The LAKELAND upbound in the St. Mary's River in A. E. Young Photo I Dick Wicklund Collection Upon arriving outside Duluth they spotted the aerial-lift bridge and the City of Duluth perched on the hillside overlooking the harbor and Lake Superior. During the following days the Wunderlich Family had an enjoyable stay in Duluth and on their return trip back to their home in Toledo. As for the LAKELAND, it remained under the Port Huron and Duluth Steamship Company until 1917 when the Northwestern Steamship Company of Port Huron bought her. Four years later in 1921, the LAKELAND was sold again to the Tri-State Steamship Company of Port Huron. The steamer kept busy for the new company, hauling freight and at times being chartered out to other companies. -8-

9 ladies of the Wunderlich Family pose in front of the LAKELAND's wheelhouse. The steamer's demise came on a cold wintry day on December 4t\ The LAKELAND had picked up a load of Rickenbacker automobiles in Detroit and was bound for the Lake Michigan port of Chicago. Captain McNeely of the steamer had spent the night of the 3rd anchored in the Sturgeon Bay Canal. The morning of the 4th, he pulled anchor and headed his charge back out into the lake. An hour out, the package freighter was found to be taking on water. Captain McNeely ordered the ship around and headed back toward the canal. The water gained so quickly on the pumps that the fires in her boilers were extinguished and the LAKELAND lay dead in the water. As the ship started to settle by the stern, the abandon ship signal was given and the entire crew escaped into the lifeboats. Shortly after, the carferry ANN ARBOR NO. 6 arrived on the scene from Frankfort and they witnessed the LAKELAND plunge to the bottom in over 200 feet of water. The ANN ARBOR NO. 6 picked-up the survivors and brought them into Sturgeon Bay. In October of 1925 an investigation was held in Cleveland into the sinking, with the shipping company winning a settlement. The Steamer rested quietly until 1979, when divers Kent Bellrichard and Robert Aznoe of Wisconsin dove on the wreck. Here they salvaged a brand new 1924 Rollins automobile with 22 mile on the odometer from the ship's cargo hold. Today divers visit the wreck as the ship's hull quietly rests on the lake floor. Only memories of the LAKELAND are revived by historians now who tell her story and let us relive the days when ships such as her crowded the lakes. LAKELAND upbound passing Marine City Pesha Photo I Dick Wicklund Collection -9-

10 Sea Stories - Recollections of life on the Great lakes By Capt. Dick Metz In 1964, I was a deck hand aboard the S/S THOMAS WILSON. Early one morning we were called out by the deckwatch to hit the deck because an emergency had happened. We all got up and dressed and out on deck we went. I noticed the ship was dead in the water and the out of command lights were on. What is wrong we all wondered? It was not long and we found out. The mate came down rrom the wheelhouse yelling everybody back aft. The night was clear and calm just off Devils Island light in Lake Superior. We got back aft and the chief engineer told us the steering gear had failed and we could not steer the ship. We were ordered to the boat deck to use the emergency steering wheel. The chief had put the gear in and with a walkie-talkie said for us to try to move the big brass wheel. Two men on each side of the wheel trying to make it move but it was rrozen in place because it hadn't been used for years. Another up bound steamer had slowed down and was ready to take us in tow. However, the chief said to the old man he had another idea and he would like to try it. The Captain said OK. The Wilson was equipped with six steam-mooring winches. The two back aft were to be used to steer the ship by running the wire cables rrom each winch around the stem of the ship and to attach one wire to the rudder rrom the port side and the other wire around the starboard side of the ship back to the rudder. The chief put a small punt (small boat) into the water and we hauled the wires around back to the fantail. We lowered the eye of the port wire down to the men in the punt; they attached the eye of the wire to the rudder by using a clevis. When that wire was secured to the rudder, we handed him the starboard wire and the same procedure was performed. Job finished, the chief reported to the captain that we were ready to get underway. The old steam engine belched out a plum of black smoke and we started ahead very slow The idea was to have the captain up on the bridge giving compass heading for Duluth. The mate sat between the two winches and operated the steam valves from each winch. The captain would say over the walkie-talkie come to port so many degrees, then starboard so many degrees. The plan was not working out very good. The ship was going up the lake like a wounded duck side to side. I sat with the walkie-talkie giving the mate courses to steer and I came up with an idea. I said to the mate I would take over and he could rest a bit. My first idea was to keep the ship going rrom side by keeping both steam valves cracked open just a touch. When the captain yells a new heading, I would close one valve to cut the steam off on one winch and keep the other valve cracked open. By doing this, she started to steer on the heading given. It was a clear night with all the stars shinning. I notice one star in line with the course every time the forward mast was in line with that star. I'll steer on that star I thought to myself. I sat between the two winches steering with the mast on one star and then another star to keep the ship on course. The mate said he would put me on over time in stayed on the winches, he said I was doing pretty good. Most of all the tired captain could relax. Early the next morning, two Great Lakes tugs came out to tow us in to the shipyard. I was tried by then and the mate gave me the day off with pay. I started to wonder how long has it been since a ship steered by the stars on the lakes. I was a hero to my shipmates for a day. Answer to Name This Shiv (PI!. 2) RALPH MISENER (self-unloader/ bulk freighter) (Off. # CAN ) Built in 1967 at Montreal, Quebec by Canadian Vickers Ltd. as #293 for Scott Misener Steamships Limited of Port Colbome, Ont. Hull: Steel, Length: 730 ft. Width: 75 ft. Depth: 38 ft. Gross Tonnage: 19,160 tons. Net tonnage: 14,156 tons. Built as a combination self-unloader / bulk carrier and equipped with a unique "Conflow" bucket unloading machine that travelled along the deck. Unloading machine severely damaged in a storm on Lake Michigan off Indiana Harbor, July 12, 1976 and was removed by Davie Shipbuilding at.lauzon, Quebec during winter Sold to Upper Lakes Shipping (ULS Corp.) in 1994 and renamed GORDON C. LEITCH (2). Currently in service. Photo by editor while downbound in St. Clair River in

11 BLUEWATER AREA SHIPWRECKS --~---~~-~~-~~~~--~-----~ HOWARD M. HANNA JR. The first HOWARD M. HANNA JR. was one of the casualties of the Great Stonn of The ship stranded near Port Austin, MI on November 11 while en route from Lorain to Fort William with 9,120 tons of coal. The vessel passed upbound at Port Huron on 0512 hours November 9 and soon ran into the powerful St01111.The wind and waves washed the vessel into the trough, smashed the windows and drove it ashore. The hull cracked at the 7th hatch and the stack toppled in the violent weather. Fortunately all 25 sailors on board were rescued and they had much better luck than those aboard other freighters on Lake Huron at that time. Reid's Wrecking Company salvaged the now six year old HOWARD M. HANNA JR. in It was rebuilt at Collingwood and Midland and is shown at the latter location in a photo com1esy of Vem Sweeting. The 500 foot (overall) long by 54 foot wide steamer joined the Great Lakes Transit Company as GLENSHEE in It moved to Canada Steamship Lines as MARQUETTE in 1926 and then became their GODERICH in As such it often brought iron ore, in the early years, from Escanaba, MI to Point Edward, ON for transshipment to Hamilton. GODERICH tied up at Quebec City late in 1962 pending a sale for scrapping overseas. However, it was resold and joined Algoma Central asagawa in 1963 and sailed to the end of the 1967 season before being retired at Goderich. The ship was renamed LIONEL PARSONS in 1968 and served as a grain storage barge until It was then sold to Westem Metals, arrived at Thunder Bay under tow on June 3, 1983, and was broken up for scrap. -11-

12 By D.R. (Doug) Schilz *GUNAY-A* Built in 1981 by Sunderland Shipbuilders Ltd., (Pallion), Sunderland, England as Hull #18 Length - 617' 4" Breadth - 76' Depth - 47' 7" GRT - 18,039 M. Bulk Carrier Main Engine - 12,000 bhp Sulzer Sunderland Shipbuilders designed and produced a ship in the early 1980's that was referred to as Bulk Carrier 31,000 dwt. Though not built in major quantities this ship type did manage to find its way to the Great Lakes passing through the Port Huron/Sarnia area on a regular basis. One such ship was the Gunay-A. Originally built as the Nosira Sharon, she was one of three sister ships and fleet mates that plied the lakes in the early 80's. Owned by Nosira Shipping Ltd and registered in England she made her first inland voyage in She returned every year up until At some point she was also re-flagged to Bermuda. She was sold and renamed in 1989 to the well known ocean shipping company J. Lauritzen AlS. As well, all of the Nosira Sharon's fleet mates were sold to Lauritzen too. Her new name became Berta Dan and her registry became Denmark under the international registry referred to as DIS. In 1991 the owning company was listed as Euro Marine Ltd. Lauritzen tried to break into the Great Lakes trading but with the strength of other companies that already plied the lakes they eventually abandoned this. As it was, the Berta Dan only made three appearances on the lakes. Her first voyage under this name was in 1989 and the last in However she remained in the Lauritzen fleet until 1993, until sold to the Turkish operator Densan Shipping Co. Inc. Her new name became Gunay-A, the registry became Turkey and her first visit to the lakes happened in This first voyage took her to Detroit and then past the Port Huron/Sarnia area on route to Chicago. With that trip the Gunay-A would spend the next 13 years making regular voyages to the lakes. She would make approximately 31 trips on to the lakes. Her only year that she didn't show on the lakes was in Gunay-A made her final lake appearance in June 2006 where she went to Oshawa and then on past this area for Bums Harbor. In October 2006 she was sold to Veteran Shipping Co. SA, renamed Sea Veteran and registered in Panama. Her voyage took her to Hamilton with fertilizer from Egypt and then on to Thunder Bay to load wheat. She was already 25 years old when she took on her fourth name and definitely showing signs of her age on her last inland voyage. She has not returned to the lakes this year and time will tell if she ever does return