Joseph S. Fay Shipwreck Site | |
Location | Off of Forty Mile Point Light in Lake Huron [1] |
---|---|
Nearest city | Rogers City, Michigan |
Coordinates | 45°29′19″N83°54′36″W / 45.48861°N 83.91000°W Coordinates: 45°29′19″N83°54′36″W / 45.48861°N 83.91000°W |
NRHP reference No. | 100001838 [2] |
Added to NRHP | February 8, 2018 |
The Joseph S. Fay was a wooden steamer built in 1871 [3] Quayle and Martin at Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of launch, the Fay was the largest ship ever built in Cleveland. [4]
The ship was 216 feet long, with a beam of 34 feet and a gross tonnage of 1221 tons. [5] It has a single screw propeller powered by a 28.5" by 36" direct acting high-pressure steam engine manufactured by Cleveland's Cuyahoga Iron Works, and twin tubular boilers measuring 6'10" by 17'3". In 1887, the engine was upgraded to a steeple compound steam engine and single scotch boiler. The Fay had a two-level aft cabin situated above the engine room and a pilothouse atop the forecastle. She had three masts used as an auxiliary propulsion system. [4]
The schooner D. P. Rhodes was built as the Fay's consort, and the pair worked in tandem hauling iron ore. On October 17, 1905, the two ships departed from Escanaba, Michigan en route to Ashtabula, Ohio with a load of iron ore, and the Fay towing the Rhodes. On October 19, 1905, the Fay encountered a strong gale in northern Lake Huron. Hugging the shore in adverse wind conditions, the Fay came too close to the rocks at Forty Mile Point. The captain attempted to recover, pulling out into open water, but the maneuver snapped the towline, sending the Rhodes loose and taking part of the Fay's stern with it. [6]
The loose Rhodes eventually hit rocks at Cheboygan. [5] Aboard the Fay, the captain drove the ship ashore, grounding only 200 yards from the Forty Mile Point Light. [3] At impact, the wheelhouse, deck, mate's and captain's rooms were ripped from the deck and carried it to shore with the captain and 10 crewmen safe inside. The first mate and two other crewmen were left on the ship; the mate eventually tried to swim ashore but drowned. After grounding, the Fay quickly broke apart. [6]
The lower hull of the ship, still containing a load of iron ore sits in shallow water not far from shore, while a large portion of the starboard side is located on the beach near the lighthouse. [5] In the submerged portion, most of the hull remains intact, as does most of the steam propulsion machinery. The rudder, copper hull sheathing, keelsons, the portside engine mount, the propeller shaft assembly, and iron ore cargo are the most prominent items found on the lake bottom. On the shore, the section of the starboard side is 134 feet long, and features scarfed ceiling planking, paired frame sets, and hundreds of wood and iron fasteners. [4]
The SS Appomattox was a wooden-hulled, American Great Lakes freighter that ran aground on Lake Michigan, off Atwater Beach off the coast of Shorewood, Wisconsin in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States in 1905. On January 20, 2005 the remnants of the Appomattox were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Thomas Wilson was a whaleback freighter built in 1892 and used to haul bulk freight on the Great Lakes. The ship sank in Lake Superior just outside the harbor of Duluth, Minnesota, United States, on 7 June 1902, after a collision with the George Hadley. The wreck of the Thomas Wilson is one of the best remaining examples of a whaleback steamer, and it is also significant for the changes made in operating procedures at the Duluth harbor. The remains of the ship were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Hesper was a bulk-freighter steamship that was used to tow schooner-barges on the Great Lakes. She sank in Lake Superior off Silver Bay, Minnesota, in a late-spring snowstorm in 1905. The remains of the ship are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The SS Marquette was a wooden-hulled, American Great Lakes freighter built in 1881, that sank on Lake Superior, five miles east of Michigan Island, Ashland County, Wisconsin, Apostle Islands, United States on October 15, 1903. On the day of February 13, 2008 the remains of the Marquette were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The John M. Osborn was a wooden steam barge that sank in Lake Superior in 1884 with the loss of five lives. The Osborn was just 2 years old when the larger, steel-hulled Alberta, which was called a "steel monster" and "terror of the lakes", rammed her. The wreck of the Osborn was discovered 100 years after her sinking. The wreck was illegally salvaged in the 1980s. Many of Osborn's artifacts became the property of the State of Michigan after they were seized from Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The State allows the museum to display the artifacts as a loan. The wreck of the Osborn is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.
The Henry Chisholm was a wooden freighter; it was sunk off the shore of Isle Royale in Lake Superior in 1898 and the remains are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
R. J. Hackett was a steamer built in 1869. When first launched, the ship's wide cross-section and long midships hold were unconventional, but the design's advantages in moving cargo through the inland lakes spawned many imitators. The Hackett is recognized as the first Great Lakes freighter, a vessel type that has dominated Great Lakes shipping for over 100 years. In 1905, the Hackett caught fire and sank on Whaleback Shoal in Green Bay, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) southeast of the Cedar River in Menominee County, Michigan. The wreck site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Norman was a bulk freighter; its wreck in Lake Huron was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Grecian was a steel bulk freighter built in 1891 by Globe Iron Works at Cleveland, Ohio. She was a sister ship to Norman, also wrecked nearby. The ship was 296 feet (90 m) long, with a beam of 40 feet (12 m) and a gross register tonnage of 2,348 tons.
SS Choctaw was a steel-hulled American freighter in service between 1892 and 1915, on the Great Lakes of North America. She was a so-called monitor vessel, containing elements of traditional lake freighters and the whaleback ships designed by Alexander McDougall. Choctaw was built in 1892 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and was originally owned by the Lake Superior Iron Company. She was sold to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company in 1894 and spent the rest of her working life with it. On her regular route between Detroit, Escanaba, Marquette, and Cleveland, Ohio, she carried iron ore downbound, and coal upbound.
The George Spencer was a wooden lake freighter that sank on along with her schooner barge Amboy on Lake Superior, near Thomasville, Cook County, Minnesota in the Mataafa Storm of 1905. On April 14, 1994, the wrecks of the Spencer and the Amboy were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The SS Lakeland was an early steel-hulled Great Lakes freighter that sank on December 3, 1924, into 205 feet (62 m) of water on Lake Michigan near Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin, United States, after she sprang a leak. On July 7, 2015, the wreck of the Lakeland was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The AmboyandGeorge SpencerShipwreck Site is an archeological shipwreck site which consists of the wrecks of the wooden bulk freighter George Spencer and the wooden schooner-barge Amboy. Both vessels were wrecked during the Mataafa Storm of 1905. In 1994 the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
SS Selah Chamberlain was a wooden hulled Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Michigan in 1886, 6 miles (10 km) off the coast of Sheboygan, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States after being rammed by the steamer John Pridgeon Jr. with the loss of five lives. On January 7, 2019, the wreck of Selah Chamberlain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was given the reference number 100003288. She was the first shipwreck listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
The SS J.M. Allmendinger was a wooden-hulled steam barge built in 1883, that ran aground during a storm on November 26, 1895, on Lake Michigan, off the coast of Mequon, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. On October 11, 2018, the remains of J.M. Allmendinger were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
SS S.R. Kirby was a composite-hulled bulk carrier that served on the Great Lakes of North America from her construction in 1890 to her sinking in 1916. On May 8, 1916, while heading across Lake Superior with a cargo of iron ore and the steel barge George E. Hartnell in tow, she ran into a storm and sank with the loss of all but two of her 22-man crew off Eagle Harbor, Michigan. For over 102 years the location of S.R. Kirby's wreck remained unknown, until June 2018, when her wreck was discovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) in 825 feet (251 m) of water, completely broken up.
SS Jarvis Lord was a wooden-hulled American Great Lakes freighter in service between 1872 and 1885. She sank without loss of life in the Manitou Passage on Lake Michigan on August 17 or 18, 1885, while loaded with iron ore.
SS Vernon was a wooden-hulled American passenger and package freighter that sank in a Lake Michigan storm on October 29, 1887, near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, with the loss of between 36 and 50 lives, making her one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever to have occurred in Wisconsin. Only one of the people on board survived.
SS John Mitchell was a steel-hulled, American lake freighter in service between 1907 and 1911. She was built in 1906 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in St. Clair, Michigan, for the Cornell Steamship Company of Chicago, Illinois, which was managed by C.W. Elphicke. She entered service in 1907, and had a sister ship named William B. Davock. Throughout her career, John Mitchell carried iron ore and coal. On October 4, 1908, she ran aground at Indiana Harbor, Indiana, while loaded with iron ore.
SS Ironsides was a wooden-hulled American package freighter in service between 1864 and 1873. She was built in 1864 in Cleveland, Ohio, by either Ira Lafrinier or Quayle & Martin. She was built for John E. Turner, also of Cleveland, and operated as part of the Cleveland & Lake Superior Line. She had an identical sister ship named Lac La Belle. Ironsides operated between Cleveland and Lake Superior for a number of years, and was sold several times. In 1869, she was sold to Nathan Englemann of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and operated between Milwaukee and Grand Haven, Michigan. In 1871, she became part of the Englemann Transportation Company.