Wreck
On November 6, 1918, the Congdon departed from Thunder Bay, Ontario with 380,000 bushels of wheat aboard. Later that day, the Congdon ran aground in the fog at Canoe Rocks, near Isle Royale, which were subsequently renamed Congdon Shoal. The captain immediately dispatched a boat to nearby Passage Island to request assistance and sent a second boat back to Thunder Bay.
All crew members were rescued, and an attempt to salvage the cargo resulted in only about 20% being saved. A storm on November 8 broke the freighter in two, and it sank. Although another salvage operation was mounted later in 1918, nothing more was recovered from the wreck. The Congdon is significant in that her wreck was the first on Lake Superior to be valued at over a million dollars, and was the largest loss up to that time in both dollar value and net tonnage.
Read more about this topic: Chester A. Congdon (ship)
Famous quotes containing the word wreck:
“Perchance the time will come when we shall not be content to go back and forth upon a raft to some huge Homeric or Shakespearean Indiaman that lies upon the reef, but build a bark out of that wreck and others that are buried in the sands of this desolate island, and such new timber as may be required, in which to sail away to whole new worlds of light and life, where our friends are.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night;
To defy Power, which seems Omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope, till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change nor falter nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan! is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)