On this day August 19, 1873, the wooden propeller ASIA was launched at the shipyard of Melancthon Simpson. Her cost was reported to be $35,000 and was capable of carrying 16,000 bushels of grain. She measured 126 feet in length, 23 feet in beam and a draft of 11 feet. She made her first voyage on September 8th to Windsor.
On October 6th, nearly a month later, sailing with wheat from Chicago to Montreal, she struck the rock bottom heading in to the harbor at Port Colborne causing her to leak so badly that she sank in the harbor. About a week later she was raised and the hole repaired enough to get her to St. Catharine’s for repairs.
In July of 1875 a round trip ticket on the ASIA from Windsor to Duluth cost $35. If you would have been sailing on her in early September that year, you may have witnessed her colliding with the schooner LEVI RAWSON opposite Fort Gratiot. That resulted in the RAWSON having a hole the “size of a barn door.”
The ASIA with the ONTARIO
The ASIA had many other adventures during the next few years but ended her career on a voyage that left Collingwood on Wednesday, September 13, 1882. About 11 o’clock Thursday morning a severe storm stuck. The boat went into the trough and rolled heavily for about twenty minutes before she foundered about 35 miles northwest of Parry Sound. She was full with passengers, all staterooms full and people on every couch. Only two survivors and it is estimated over 100 were lost.
The following survivor account is a partial of what was printed in the Amherstburg Echo on September 22, 1882.
“… D. A. Tinkis reports that he boarded the ASIA near Owen Sound with J. H. Tinkis and H. B. Gallagher of Manitowaning. “The steamer was crowded, all the state rooms full and many passengers lying on sofas and the cabin floor. About 11 Thursday morning a storm struck the vessel. My uncle, J. H. Tinkis, jumped up and said the boat was doomed. The dishes and chairs were flying in every direction. We left the cabin and found difficulty in getting on deck, the boat rolled so heavily. I got a life preserver and put it on. The boat fell into the trough of the sea and would not obey her helm. She rolled heavily for about 20 minutes when she was struck by a heavy sea and foundered, and went down with the engines working at 11:30. The ASIA was making for French River and had men, horses, lumbermen and supplies for shanties. I saw three boats loaded. I was in the first. About eight were with me. At first, more got in till the boat was overloaded and turned over twice, people clinging to my life preserver, which got displaced and I threw it off. I then left the boat and swam to the captain’s boat, which was near by, and asked John McDougall, the purser, to help me in. He said it was but little use but gave me a hand. When I got in, there were 18 in the boat. By that time there was a larger number in and clinging to the boat I had left. I know nothing of the third boat. Our boat rolled over and I missed McDougall. The people were hanging to spars and other parts of the wreckage. Our boat was full of water and the sea continued breaking over us. One of the first to die on the boat was the cabin boy. He was dying and being supported by one of the men when a wave washed him overboard. The next to go was a boat hand who jumped out. I could see him paddling around in the water for nearly a hundred yards. Our numbers were now reduced to seven, five of whom died before reaching the beach. Capt. Savage, who was the last, died in my arms about midnight Thursday. John Little of Sault Ste. Marie, Mate McDonald and two others, names unknown, also died. The boat finally stranded near Point au Barre about daylight Friday morning with Miss Morrison and myself the only surviving ones. I put the boat off with an oar but did not bale it out. Miss Morrison and I went down the beach in the boat to a derrick about two miles distant and laid on the beach all night. About 8 o’clock Saturday an Indian came along and I engaged him to bring us to Parry Sound. He would not bring the bodies.”
The ASIA was considered fairly staunch and seaworthy. She has been very unfortunate lately. Last season she was sunk by a collision on the Sault River and early this season she was ashore for about a month at South East Bend on the St. Clair River and had to be dredged off. The ASIA adds one more to a long list of propellers which have during the past few years foundered with more or less loss of life. She belonged to the Beatty line, but was chartered by the Great Western Transportation Company to take the place of the MANITOULIN, which met with a fatal disaster last spring. The Great Northern Transportation Company are the successors to the Georgian Bay Transit Company, who owned the MANITOULIN. She registered 350 tons, was built on the Welland Canal by M. Simpson in July, 1873, rated A2 in the Inland Lloyds Vessel Register of 1882, and was valued at $23,000.”
Suzette Lopez
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
