Lake Freighter - Ship Losses and Accidents

Ship Losses and Accidents

See also category: Shipwrecks in the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes have a long history of shipwreck, groundings, storms and collisions. From the 1679 sinking of Le Griffon with its cargo of furs to the 1975 loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, thousands of ships and thousands of lives have been lost, and many involved vessels in the cargo trade. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum uses the approximate figures of 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost. David D. Swayze has compiled a list which details over 4,750 well-documented shipwrecks, mostly of commercial vessels and a list of known names of over 5,000 victims of those sinkings. Maritime historian Mark Thompson reports that based on nautical records, nearly 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes occurred between 1878 and 1994, with about a quarter of those being listed as total losses with a total of 1,166 lives lost.

The most recent losses of modern lakers were (with their causes):

• SS Henry Steinbrenner, May 11, 1953, Lake Superior, 14 of 31 crew died, (flooded after cargo hatch covers lost during storm)
• SS Carl D. Bradley, November 18, 1958, Lake Michigan, 33 of 35 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm)
• SS Cedarville, May 7, 1965, Straits of Mackinac, 10 of 35 crew died, (collision with the saltie Topdalsfjord)
• SS Daniel J. Morrell, November 29, 1966, Lake Huron, 28 of 29 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm)
• SS Edmund Fitzgerald, November 10, 1975, Lake Superior, 29 of 29 crew died, (unknown cause during storm)

The salties Prins Willem V and Monrovia also sank in the Great Lakes during the 1950s; both in collisions with other ships. The saltie Nordmeer grounded on Thunder Bay Island Shoal in November 1966 but before it could be refloated was further damaged in the same storm that sank the Morrell and it was declared a total loss.

Ships on the Lakes have been involved in many lesser incidents. Lakers have been subject to frequent groundings in port and canals due to varying lake levels and silting, collisions with objects (such as the 1993 collision of the Indiana Harbor with the Lansing Shoals Light Station), icing in during winter trips and shipboard fires (including the unusual case in 2001 where a drawbridge ran into the Canadian grain carrier Windoc causing a fire). To prevent collisions and groundings, the Great Lakes are well-served with lighthouses and lights, and floating navigation aids. The U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard maintain stations around the Great Lakes including icebreakers and rescue helicopters. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies maintain the harbors and seaways to limit groundings by dredging and seawalling.

November was the traditional last month of shipping before the winter layup (and lake freeze-up). This month sees much of the worst weather of the navigation season and has seen a disproportionate number of accidents. Dana Bowen mentions that over half of all strandings and one-third of all vessels lost to foundering between 1900-1950 were lost during November.