On December 24, 1979, the weather in Milwaukee was not what people wanted, even for travel around town. The E. M. FORD arrived on December 21st and was docked at Terminal 1 in Milwaukee’s outer harbor with a cargo of about 7,000 tons of dry cement. Most of the crew was allowed to leave the ship for the holiday including her captain. Five crew members were left on board.
As stated the weather was not in a holiday mode. The FORD was pounded by gale force winds and 13 foot waves causing her mooring lines to give way. She pounded the dock walls and by late in the day, large holes were in her bow and starboard side. Water entered the cargo spaces. This formed hardened cement to a depth of about three feet. Her crew was rescued. And she sank on Christmas day.
The FORD sat there. On January 20, 1980, she was raised and moved to the inner harbor. Chipping away the hardened cement and making temporary repairs took weeks. In March she was towed to Bay Shipbuilding for repairs. She was back on the job in August.
Of course legal actions were filed by the owners and the city of Milwaukee. After 18 years in the courts, it did not end well for the city.
PRESQUE ISLE
The FORD was launched in 1898 as the PRESQUE ISLE. Built by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company at Lorain, Ohio, for the Presque Isle Transportation Co., she was mainly in the ore and coal trade. She measured 428 feet in overall length and 50 feet in beam.
In 1955, she was sold to the Huron Portland Cement Co., of Alpena, Mich. She was rebuilt at the Christy Corp. of Sturgeon Bay to haul powdered cement with an unloading system installed and renamed E. M. FORD in early 1956.
In Milwaukee under the Hoan Bridge, May 1981
She was used for storage in Milwaukee during 1984 and 1985. In May of 1986, she sailed to Sturgeon Bay and passed her five year inspection and returned to active duty.
She was laid up August 1996 and served as a cement storage vessel until sold in 2008 for scrap, ending her 110 year career on the Lakes.
Suzette Lopez
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
