FROM GREAT LAKES SHIPPING TO WATERGATE, THE WORLD SERIES AND SEINFELD: THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEINBRENNER, GREAT LAKES SHIP OWNER.
By James Heinz
(Steinbrenner Story – Chapter One)
In an ominous foreshadowing of what was to come, at the christening of the freighter ROGER BLOUGH on June 5, 1971, the champagne bottle refused to break. Maritime superstition counts that as a bad omen. Nineteen days later the prophecy was fulfilled. On June 24, 1971, a week away from her scheduled launching, the BLOUGH caught fire at the American Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Lorain, Ohio.
WMHS files show that the cause of the fire was never determined. Workers had reported that the ship had suffered some fuel leaks, and it was speculated that diesel fuel had dripped onto a high intensity light bulb from a faulty gasket in an engine room fuel line. Workers reported that the fire was fed by wooden scaffolding, mahogany paneling, carpets, and furniture. The smoke was so dense inside the ship that flashlights were useless.
Many workers evacuated the ship but some then went back in an effort to rescue four workers who had been working on an air tank below the engine room. Those four workers died and 18 others were injured in the blaze. The fire started at 9:30 am and by 3:30 pm it reached one of the ship’s four 10,000 gallon fuel tanks, which exploded, sending a geyser of black smoke into the sky and stunning firefighters
WMHS file show that the summer heat combined with the heat from the blaze to fell many of the firefighters, who had to be taken to the hospital. In an eerie foreshadowing of her ultimate fate, the ship’s steel construction made fighting the fire almost impossible. The steel hull could not be opened to ventilate or quench the fire, and steel absorbed, radiated, and conducted the heat to other parts of the ship. The fire was ultimately extinguished by filling the affected area with foam. The hull had to be left to cool.
In those 19 hours of crisis, with smoke and flame shooting out of the ship, 22 men dead or injured, a steady stream of firefighters being carried to the hospital, and with all of Lorain standing outside the perimeter fence watching the great ship burn, what calm, reassuring authority figure did an anguished community have to turn to in its hour of crisis?
George Steinbrenner.
Yes, THAT George Steinbrenner, THE George Steinbrenner, the one and only George Steinbrenner, the man for whom the words “colorful” and “controversial” were coined, the man who, for most people, is best remembered as the man New York Yankees baseball fans and players loved to hate and who was mercilessly lampooned as the boss of George Costanza in episodes of the classic sitcom “Seinfeld”.
It is less well known that Steinbrenner made the money he used to buy the Yankees in the Great Lakes shipping industry. And according to WMHS files, George Steinbrenner was at the Lorain yard that terrible day in 1971, answering the same questions over and over again from reporters and anxious family members. Steinbrenner, who once described his Seinfeld portrayal as “unflattering but essentially accurate”, apparently behaved in a different manner that day than he usually did.
This is his story and that of two families: The Minch family and the Steinbrenner family, two families that had a profound effect on Great Lakes maritime history, a history both innovative and tragic.
The Lorain fire would not be the first maritime tragedy to strike the Steinbrenner family. Most Great Lakes ship stories end with a ship being wrecked. This story begins with a ship being wrecked.
NEXT: THE WRECK OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Photo at the top of the page: George Steinbrenner in 1980. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
GEORGE STEINBRENNER, GREAT LAKES SHIP OWNER – Chapter One
THE WRECK OF THE WESTERN RESERVE – Chapter Two
NUTTY PHIL AND THE WRECK OF THE ONOKO – Chapter Three
SOPHIA MINCH AND THE WRECK OF THE SOPHIA MINCH – Chapter Four
HENRY STEINBRENNER I, GORDON LIGHTFOOT, AND THE WRECK OF THE HENRY STEINBRENNER I – Chapter Five
THE WRECK OF THE ANNA C. MINCH – Chapter Six
HENRY STEINBRENNER II AND THE SHIPWRECK THAT BECAME A SHIP AGAIN – Chapter Seven
AN OLDIE BUT A GOLDIE: HENRY STEINBRENNER II AND THE J. B. FORD – Chapter Eight
HENRY III AND GEORGE STEINBRENNER III: LIKE FATHER LIKE SON – Chapter Nine
KINSMAN TRANSIT IS IN TROUBLE – Chapter Ten
GEORGE III SAVES KINSMAN TRANSIT – Chapter Eleven
GEORGE III SAVES AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING – Chapter Twelve
