Loss of the Iron Chief
By James Donahue
A ship’s graveyard lies just off the northeast tip of Lower Michigan’s little peninsula, within sight of the old lighthouse at Lake Huron’s Pointe aux Barques. When the weather is good, sport divers like to visit some of the better-known wrecks, all bunched within a few miles of one another. But they are deep dives, many of them up to one hundred fifty feet down, and only the most experienced divers dare visit them.
Among these wrecks is the Iron Chief, a two hundred twelve-foot wooden-hulled steamer that met its fate on October 3, 1904. Built as a schooner twenty-three years earlier in Detroit, the Iron Chief later was converted to be a steam barge. She never lost the grace she had as a sailing ship, and she carried her four masts until the day she sank.
Her final trip into Lake Huron began like all the others. The Iron Chief, Capt. U. S. Cody, was towing the barge Iron Cliff north from Port Huron to Duluth, both vessels laden with coal, when they ran into rough weather. It wasn’t a serious gale and Cody wasn’t concerned. He knew the Iron Chief was an old boat, but she had weathered this kind of sea before. What Cody didn’t count on, however, was an accident. The ship’s stern pipe, sometimes called a stuffing box, located where the propeller shaft passes through the hull, failed and the vessel developed a serious leak. Chief engineer Charles Steadman and one of his helpers made an effort to stop the leak from inside the hull but it was not successful. They soon were driven from the area and then from the engine room as the water gained. It wasn’t long before the fires in the boiler were extinguished and the Iron Chief was adrift without power.
The barge Iron Cliff cut her towline and set sail for Alpena. Because of the high seas, the sailing vessel did not turn around and pull alongside the sinking steamer to remove the crew. The steamer Andrew Carnegie came upon the ill-fated boat about 11:00 PM. Capt. John McArthur of Port Huron, master of the Carnegie, put a towline to the steamer and began pulling it toward Harbor Beach. Progress was slow because the half-sunken Iron Chief was still taking on water and the seas were high. By 7:00 AM the next day, as the boats were passing Point aux Barques, the Iron Chief began to sink. McArthur saw that the steamer was lost. He cut the towline and pulled his boat alongside the Iron Chief in time to take off the crew of thirteen sailors before the vessel disappeared under the waves.
Divers say the Iron Chief broke up when it hit bottom stern first. The superstructure broke off and floated away, and the boat’s sides buckled and exploded outward. Her decks were torn apart and the timbers were thrown in all directions. The cargo of coal is still in place, with ribs of the old boat sticking up through it. The boiler rests alone on the bottom. The Iron Chief’s anchor is on display at the Grice Museum at Harbor Beach.
By James Donahue
A ship’s graveyard lies just off the northeast tip of Lower Michigan’s little peninsula, within sight of the old lighthouse at Lake Huron’s Pointe aux Barques. When the weather is good, sport divers like to visit some of the better-known wrecks, all bunched within a few miles of one another. But they are deep dives, many of them up to one hundred fifty feet down, and only the most experienced divers dare visit them.
Among these wrecks is the Iron Chief, a two hundred twelve-foot wooden-hulled steamer that met its fate on October 3, 1904. Built as a schooner twenty-three years earlier in Detroit, the Iron Chief later was converted to be a steam barge. She never lost the grace she had as a sailing ship, and she carried her four masts until the day she sank.
Her final trip into Lake Huron began like all the others. The Iron Chief, Capt. U. S. Cody, was towing the barge Iron Cliff north from Port Huron to Duluth, both vessels laden with coal, when they ran into rough weather. It wasn’t a serious gale and Cody wasn’t concerned. He knew the Iron Chief was an old boat, but she had weathered this kind of sea before. What Cody didn’t count on, however, was an accident. The ship’s stern pipe, sometimes called a stuffing box, located where the propeller shaft passes through the hull, failed and the vessel developed a serious leak. Chief engineer Charles Steadman and one of his helpers made an effort to stop the leak from inside the hull but it was not successful. They soon were driven from the area and then from the engine room as the water gained. It wasn’t long before the fires in the boiler were extinguished and the Iron Chief was adrift without power.
The barge Iron Cliff cut her towline and set sail for Alpena. Because of the high seas, the sailing vessel did not turn around and pull alongside the sinking steamer to remove the crew. The steamer Andrew Carnegie came upon the ill-fated boat about 11:00 PM. Capt. John McArthur of Port Huron, master of the Carnegie, put a towline to the steamer and began pulling it toward Harbor Beach. Progress was slow because the half-sunken Iron Chief was still taking on water and the seas were high. By 7:00 AM the next day, as the boats were passing Point aux Barques, the Iron Chief began to sink. McArthur saw that the steamer was lost. He cut the towline and pulled his boat alongside the Iron Chief in time to take off the crew of thirteen sailors before the vessel disappeared under the waves.
Divers say the Iron Chief broke up when it hit bottom stern first. The superstructure broke off and floated away, and the boat’s sides buckled and exploded outward. Her decks were torn apart and the timbers were thrown in all directions. The cargo of coal is still in place, with ribs of the old boat sticking up through it. The boiler rests alone on the bottom. The Iron Chief’s anchor is on display at the Grice Museum at Harbor Beach.