By Suzette Lopez
On February 14, 1923, the carferry ANN ARBOR NO. 4 struck the south breakwater of the Frankfort harbor just past the lighthouse during a horrific ice storm and sank. While the coast guard was rushing to the rescue from shore, the carferry shifted while foundering and rolled towards the breakwater allowing the entire crew of 32 to safely escape down a ladder to the pier.
ANN ARBOR NO. 4 had cleared Frankfort on the night of February 13th bound for Kewaunee. When about mid lake she ran into a terrific gale and the temperature dropped to 20 below zero. The ship was being battered by ice floes and mountainous waves throwing huge ice chunks on the deck. Everything was covered with ice.
Below in the car deck, some of the rail cars had broken loose. The crew tried to secure the cars, which were now careening along the rails, with crow bars and big wooden blocks. Fear was the cars would hole the side of the steel ship.
ANN ARBOR NO. 4 was heading back to Frankfort by this time. The wind was now blowing an 80 mph gale. There was no option of leaving the ship as the small boats were frozen in place and the captain knew no one would survive 15 minutes in that sea so they headed for shore. The wireless operator was frozen in his quarters sending out an S.O.S. At five o’clock in the morning the distress calls were heard and it was thought she was near the shore. The operator chopped his way from his room to relay the news to the crew. The gale had driven NO. 4 over 18 miles in less than half an hour.
A few moments later NO. 4 stuck the breakwater pier. She slowly leaned towards the pier to allow her human cargo to escape. The exhausted crew was safe. Covered with ice, NO. 4 laid at the harbor entrance until spring. She was then raised and towed to Manitowoc for repairs.
ANN ARBOR NO. 4 was built at Cleveland in 1906 by the American Ship Building Company for the Ann Arbor Railroad and Steamship Line. She was the smallest of the Ann Arbor fleet measuring 250 feet in length, 53 feet in beam and 16.6 feet in depth. She became known as a hoodoo ship as she survived several wrecks including twice on the rocks near Kewaunee harbor, capsized at the Manistique pier, and once on a shoal near Manitowoc. She never lost a crew member during these mishaps.
On February 29, 1924, ANN ARBOR NO. 4 and ANN ARBOR NO. 5 were opening navigation between Green Bay, Wis., to Menominee. This was a distance of some 27 miles through solid blue ice which measured 25 inches thick as seen in the photo.
In 1937 she was sold to the Michigan State Highway Commission, renamed CITY OF CHEBOYGAN and converted to a passenger and automobile ferry for service across the Straits of Mackinac between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. She was rebuilt in 1949 to a double ended ferry and retired after the new Mackinac Bridge was opened in November 1957. She was sold to the Washington Island Storage Corporation in 1958 and converted into a potato processing plant serving at Washington Island, Wis., and later at Benton Harbor, Mich. She was renamed EDWARD H. ANDERSON in 1960 and sold for scrap in 1973 to Italian shipbreakers.
Photo at top of page:
ANN ARBOR NO. 4 on the breakwater pier at Frankfort, note the ladder, February 1923.
Other photos:
PHOTO CREDIT: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
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Suzette Lopez is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
