By Suzette Lopez

On September 30, 1913, the wooden steamer CITY OF LONDON was sunk in heavy fog off Pelee Island by the steel steamer JOE S. MORROW.  The LONDON of Chicago, part of the Chicago Steamship Company, was bound down on the Canadian side of Lake Erie with a cargo of grain.  The MORROW of Duluth, also loaded with grain, was bound up.

The CITY OF LONDON went down shortly after the collision and the MORROW had to be beached.   The LONDON’s crew of 17 were rescued by the steamer BRITON.

Submerged in the shipping lane, the LONDON was lying near the west side of the channel about a mile and half west of Pelee Island Middle ground light in 34 feet of water, her main deck under 9 feet of water, her forecastle deck awash and the top of the pilot house spars and stack above water.  Great caution was urged in the vicinity to passing vessels.  Her cargo of grain was salvaged and her boilers, engine, etc. were eventually removed.  Her hull was dynamited in 1914.

The CITY OF LONDON was one of four sister ships – CITY OF BERLIN, CITY OF GLASGOW and CITY OF PARIS – built by James Davidson in 1891 at West Bay City, Michigan.  She measured 297 feet in length, 41 feet in beam and 20.5 feet in depth.

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Suzette Lopez is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

Photo at top of page:  CITY OF LONDON at the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Other photos:

PHOTO CREDIT:  Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.