By James Heinz
There are thousands of shipwrecks in the history of the Great Lakes, going back to Le GRIFFON in 1679. Almost all of them occurred before World War II. Wooden sailing ships and steamers, sailing without radio or radar, account for most of them.
The number of shipwrecks involving modern post World War II ships is much smaller. I had dived on some of them: the PRINS WILLEM V off Milwaukee, and the CEDARVILLE in the Straits of Mackinac. I have read many books and articles about shipwrecks and discussed them with my fellow divers. I thought I knew them all.
Just a couple of months ago, I found out about one that I had missed.
The ship in question was originally built as the CAUCONA hull No. 91 at the George T. Davie and Sons shipyard at Lauzon in the Province of Quebec in 1964. Wisconsin shipwrecks.org says that she was built “from halves of sister ships.” She was a steel propeller ship of 1,092 tons. Records disagree as to whether she was driven by an oil fired steam engine or a diesel engine. They also disagree as to her dimensions. GreatLakesVesselHistory.com says she was 204 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 18 feet deep but says she was “enrolled as 194 feet long, 36 feet wide, 15 feet deep.”
She could be used as either a bulk or package freighter. Her original owners were Marc Carriere Ltd., who originally intended her to be used as an ocean freighter with Canadian registration number 313980. Her home port was Charlottetown, Prince Edward Isle.
In the next ten years of her life, she had a few incidents. In 1972 she was renamed LORNA P. and by 1974 was sailing as the JENNIFER. In 1973 she was damaged alongside a pier in the Seven Islands. In February 1974 she suffered a fire from a welder’s torch at Sorel, Quebec. One source says that in May 1974 she ran aground at Bar Harbor, Maine. She had to be taken to Boston to have her holed and dented bottom repaired.
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However, another source says that in May 1974 she was on her way from St. John’s New Brunswick to New York when her cargo of sugar shifted and she had to put in to Bar Harbor, Maine. The cargo shifting would be an ominous portent. 1974 would be a very bad year for her.
By November 30, 1974, she had been owned by six different owners and at the time was owned by Matthew Shipping Company of Montreal, which had chartered her to the Algoma Steel Company of Canada. On that date she was sailing from Sault Ste. Marie to Milwaukee carrying 1,406 tons of steel plates worth $300,000. Her captain, Patrick Nugent, 44, had only joined the ship about a week earlier.
The few news reports are rather vague and contradictory. Part of the problem is that in many cases the times that events are said to have happened vary in different sources. This may be because the dividing time zone line between Eastern and Central runs down the middle of Lake Michigan. The following is the best sequence of events I can determine.
On that night she and her crew of 15 were making her way south through 12 to 14 foot waves in 40 mile an hour winds, or 8 to 12 foot waves with the occasional 15 footers, according to another source. The air temperature was 30 degrees and the water temperature in the mid-40s with winds to 50 miles an hour according to the National Weather Service. The ship was sailing southwest from Sleeping Bear Dunes Bay to Milwaukee, crossing the lake to get in the lee of the west shore of the lake to shelter from the waves.
By 11:30 p.m. the ship was south of Sheboygan when she made two 40 degree rolls. This concerned the crew because the ship was known to roll. At 11:50 p.m. the ship was struck by a really big wave and it did not recover. The crew heard a loud crashing sound and the ship took a 22 degree list to starboard. They believed that the cargo of steel rails or billets had shifted.
When the list reached 20 degrees, the JENNIFER radioed a distress call at 10:50 p.m. or 11:30 p.m., depending upon the source. The Coast Guard dispatched 44 foot motor lifeboats from Milwaukee and Sheboygan but they had to turn back because of the weather. Larger Coast Guard vessels were dispatched from Milwaukee, Sturgeon Bay, and Grand Haven, Michigan but they did not arrive until the event was over.
Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched from Traverse City Michigan and the then active Glenview Naval Air Station in suburban Chicago.
At midnight the ship could not maintain steerage because the propeller was not biting deep enough in the water. The crew then turned the ship off course to Milwaukee towards the Port Washington area.
At 3:30 a.m. the British freighter FORTUNA and the Spanish freighter VENUS arrived in response to the distress call. The VENUS shined her spotlight on the ship and attempted to tow the JENNIFER but failed when the tow cable snapped. By this time the stern was under water and the crew was gathered on the bow.
The Sikorsky HH-52 Coast Guard helicopter from Glenview arrived at 4 a.m., piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Robbin Krause. By that time about one third of the ship’s deck was submerged. The helicopter had a problem with the ship’s mast and booms getting in the way of recovering the crew. The helicopter’s three man crew said that it was the most difficult rescue they had ever attempted.
The helicopter was able to pick four men off the ship and then left the scene. The crew was upset that the chopper did not pick up the rest of the crew and transfer them to the FORTUNA. However, the helicopter was low on fuel. It flew to Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field where the four crew men were dropped off and the aircraft refueled.
At 5:40 a.m. the ship was close to sinking so ten men got into and launched a lifeboat. They were picked up by the FORTUNA. An eleventh man, who was the Great Lakes pilot, 58 year old F. Louis Muldoon, jumped into the water and clung to an inflated life raft until picked up by the FORTUNA. The ship sank at either 4:52 a.m. or 5:50 a.m., five minutes after the last man was rescued. The vessel’s owners said it was valued at one million dollars.
Due to the waves, it took another 55 minutes before the FORTUNA was able to get the men aboard. The men were taken to Port Huron, Michigan. The FORTUNA’s Great Lakes pilot was on his first trip as a pilot. When interviewed while safe on land, all of the crew members said they intended to keep on sailing. The crew was expected to testify at a Canadian government hearing in Montreal on December 4, 1974.
The icebreaker WEST WIND arrived from Milwaukee and checked to be sure the ship had completely sunk. The Coast Guard agreed with the crew that the steel cargo shifted, puncturing the hull.
At this point you are probably asking, where exactly did the ship sink? Aye, there’s the rub. Because different sources list many different locations, including “20 miles northeast of Milwaukee,” “24 miles southwest of Charlevoix, Michigan,” “20 miles north of Milwaukee,” or “31 miles from Milwaukee.” About the only thing the sources agree on is the ship sank somewhere in Lake Michigan.
Some of these estimates came from the crew who were apparently not really sure where they were when the ship sank. The JENNIFER’s Great Lakes pilot said that she sank 50 fathoms (300 feet), 50 miles at 40 degrees from Milwaukee. The helicopter pilot said she sank “38 from Milwaukee, 21 sse from Sheboygan and 21 miles nne from Port Washington.” The Coast Guard said it sank in 450 feet of water.
In a review of the data, noted Great Lakes shipwreck expert Brendon Baillod believes that the Coast Guard is correct and that the ship sank in what is known as the Milwaukee Basin which is 450 feet deep, somewhere in a 5 mile by 5 mile, or 25 square mile area. Given the size and depth of the search area, Brendon believes that the JENNIFER will never be found.
The bathymetry chart of Lake Michigan made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the location of the Milwaukee Basin.
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Photo at top of page
Sikorsky HH-52 helicopter type used in Jennifer rescue. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
More Photos
Sources:
JENNIFER vessel file
Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
Brendon Baillod’s YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGmrcIYL5uA&t=186s
Wisconsin Shipwrecks
www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Bathymetric Chart
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/greatlakes/lakemich_cdrom/html/images.htm
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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.
