On this day October 23, 1929, the steel steamer CHICAGO of the Great Lakes Transit Corp. fleet stranded in a raging gale on Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior about eighty miles northwest of Whitefish Point. Sailing from Duluth to Buffalo with a cargo of flour, she crashed full on the reefs of the Island, her bow clear out of the water and every seam in her hull ripped open. Luckily all on board were rescued.
Photo at top of page CHICAGO in Milwaukee sailing for the Great Lakes Transit Corp.
The Wisconsin News of October 28th printed the following describing the peril of the crew.
“Characters in an adventure as thrilling as any in story books, the thirty-two – captain and crew of the packet freighter CHICAGO – prepared to leave for their homes with a tale of shipwreck, a life like Robinson Crusoe and a last-minute rescue from a barren Lake Superior Island. None of them had been harmed by the experience end of a bitter fight against last week’s great storm. Only Capt. P. C. Farrell of Buffalo was affected as he looked back on the experience. Because he was at the helm when the freighter hit a reef, he felt the full responsibility of the wreck, his second in two years.
“If blame,” he insisted, “is coming to anybody, it must come to me.”
“The CHICAGO’S adventure started the moment she poked her nose out of the Duluth harbor entrance, bound for Houghton and the Soo. Only a few miles out, she was caught up in the storm. With spray and snow lashing across the decks, she tried to make the Houghton harbor, but failed. …
“For twenty-four hours, then, the CHICAGO scurried across the lake, headed for the Canadian shore’s shelter. At 10 a. m. Wednesday, in a blinding storm, she struck with a crash the reefs off Michipicoten Island, a few miles off the Ontario shore.
“While waves pounded her decks and swept away the pilot’s cabin, the boat slipped gradually down until she was barely above water. The crew had remained aboard, but as a list developed and the chance the craft would turn over entirely, they launched two lifeboats in the 30-foot waves and somehow – they can’t tell how – made shore.
“In recurring lulls, they travelled back and forth carrying provisions and a tarpaulin not quite big enough to cover them all. As the blizzard abated, one man went out to explore the rocky island. From a promontory he saw the Canadian steamer GODERICH. Like fictional castaways on desert isles, he used his shirt to signal her. The GODERICH came close, but the pounding surf made rescue impossible….
“A council was held and the five youngest men in the party were delegated to make the trip to the settlement. They had gone but a few miles when the coast guard cutter 119 came in sight; they hailed it and were picked up as the wind abated. Only a few hours later all thirty-two men were aboard the 119 and its companion cutter, the SEMINOLE.
“Just a minute after midnight Saturday, the cutters steamed into the Soo harbor, ending the cruise of the CHICAGO.”
Pilot house of the CHICAGO
On December 19th, while salvagers were attempting to save the CHICAGO, she slid off the reef into deep water.
CHICAGO sailing for the Automobile Transportation & Storage Co.
In June 2023 on the Josh Gates’ television program Expedition Unknown her wreck was discovered while they were searching for the INKERMAN and CERISOLES.
CHICAGO a colorized photo dated 1920
The CHICAGO was built in 1901 at Buffalo by the Buffalo Ship Building Co. for the Western Transit Co. She measured 324.2 feet in length, 44 feet in beam and 14 feet in depth.
Suzette Lopez
PHOTO CREDIT: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
