Raising The St. Catherines
By James Donahue
When you think of the primitive equipment they worked with in their day, divers and salvagers did amazing things before the turn of the century. Few salvage operations, however, were as spectacular as the raising of the propeller City of St. Catherines, a Canadian vessel sunk in a collision off White Rick, Michigan, on July 12, 1880.
The St. Catherines, under the command of a Captain McMaugh, was making a fast trip from Montreal to Chicago with passengers and freight when it collided with the George H. Morse, a down bound steam barge, at 2:30 AM.
Each crew blamed the other boat. Captain Hart, master of the Morse, said the night was clear and the boats were both well lighted and clearly visible as they approached one another. But he said the wheelman on the City of St. Catherines made an unexpected turn to port and ran the vessel across the Morse’s bow. The first officer of the St. Catherines, however, said the wheelman on the Morse unexpectedly turned that vessel hard to starboard as the two boats were about to pass, and drove it into the side of the St. Catherines.
Whoever was to be blamed, the Morse struck the St. Catherines on the port side near the forward gangway, driving its bow deep into the liner’s wooden hull. The crash stove in the St. Catherine’s side “as if it had been an egg shell,” said Hart. Most of the people on the St. Catherines jumped aboard the Morse during the few moments the two vessels remained locked together. Others launched lifeboats, and some jumped overboard.
The propeller David W. Rust saved the day when it came on the scene with the schooners D. K. Clint and L. C. Butts in tow. The vessels stopped to pull people from the water. Hart said he feared the Morse was also sinking so he transferred passengers and crew members from the St. Catherines to the Rust. The Rust took the Morse in tow to Port Huron.
The City of St. Catherines sank in ninety feet of water. Her cabins and wheelhouse floated off and drifted ashore near White Rock.
The cargo, which included hundreds of cases of choice wines and liquors, prompted several salvage efforts. Divers worked most of the summer of 1882 trying to raise the wreck. The job involved getting heavy cable or chains under the hull and then attaching them to giant ballast tanks.
Weeks passed and there was much speculation that the project would fail. Then in September, just before bad weather set in, the salvagers pumped air into the ballast tanks and raised the hull a few feet from the bottom. Tugs then pulled the wreck, still submerged and buoyed up by those tanks, north into Harbor Beach harbor. There, under protection of the mile-long break walls, the steamer was finally raised. The hull was temporarily patched and water was pumped out of the wreck.
After this, the St. Catherines was towed to Detroit where it went into dry dock. It was rebuilt and refitted there for commercial lake trade as the propeller Otego, which made its first trip in May, 1883, to Bay City as a lumber barge. The Otego burned to a total loss while moored at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1895.
By James Donahue
When you think of the primitive equipment they worked with in their day, divers and salvagers did amazing things before the turn of the century. Few salvage operations, however, were as spectacular as the raising of the propeller City of St. Catherines, a Canadian vessel sunk in a collision off White Rick, Michigan, on July 12, 1880.
The St. Catherines, under the command of a Captain McMaugh, was making a fast trip from Montreal to Chicago with passengers and freight when it collided with the George H. Morse, a down bound steam barge, at 2:30 AM.
Each crew blamed the other boat. Captain Hart, master of the Morse, said the night was clear and the boats were both well lighted and clearly visible as they approached one another. But he said the wheelman on the City of St. Catherines made an unexpected turn to port and ran the vessel across the Morse’s bow. The first officer of the St. Catherines, however, said the wheelman on the Morse unexpectedly turned that vessel hard to starboard as the two boats were about to pass, and drove it into the side of the St. Catherines.
Whoever was to be blamed, the Morse struck the St. Catherines on the port side near the forward gangway, driving its bow deep into the liner’s wooden hull. The crash stove in the St. Catherine’s side “as if it had been an egg shell,” said Hart. Most of the people on the St. Catherines jumped aboard the Morse during the few moments the two vessels remained locked together. Others launched lifeboats, and some jumped overboard.
The propeller David W. Rust saved the day when it came on the scene with the schooners D. K. Clint and L. C. Butts in tow. The vessels stopped to pull people from the water. Hart said he feared the Morse was also sinking so he transferred passengers and crew members from the St. Catherines to the Rust. The Rust took the Morse in tow to Port Huron.
The City of St. Catherines sank in ninety feet of water. Her cabins and wheelhouse floated off and drifted ashore near White Rock.
The cargo, which included hundreds of cases of choice wines and liquors, prompted several salvage efforts. Divers worked most of the summer of 1882 trying to raise the wreck. The job involved getting heavy cable or chains under the hull and then attaching them to giant ballast tanks.
Weeks passed and there was much speculation that the project would fail. Then in September, just before bad weather set in, the salvagers pumped air into the ballast tanks and raised the hull a few feet from the bottom. Tugs then pulled the wreck, still submerged and buoyed up by those tanks, north into Harbor Beach harbor. There, under protection of the mile-long break walls, the steamer was finally raised. The hull was temporarily patched and water was pumped out of the wreck.
After this, the St. Catherines was towed to Detroit where it went into dry dock. It was rebuilt and refitted there for commercial lake trade as the propeller Otego, which made its first trip in May, 1883, to Bay City as a lumber barge. The Otego burned to a total loss while moored at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1895.