SS Pere Marquette 18

43°44′30″N 87°18′16″W / 43.7417°N 87.3044°W / 43.7417; -87.3044

Pere Marquette 18 passing under the State Street Bridge in Chicago while in tow of the tug T.T. Morford[1][2]
History
United States
Name	Pere Marquette 18
Operator	Pere Marquette Railway Company[3][4][5]
Port of registry	Grand Haven, Michigan, U.S.[6]
Builder	American Ship Building Company[3][4][5]
Yard number	412[3][4][5]
Launched	August 16, 1902[4][5]
In service	October 1, 1902[7]
Out of service	September 9, 1910[3][4][5]
Identification	US Registry #150972[3][4][5]
Fate	Flooded and sank on Lake Michigan with the loss of 29 lives[3][4][5]
Wreck discovered	July 23, 2020
General characteristics
Type	Train ferry[4][5]
Tonnage	2,909 GRT[3][4] 1,722 NRT[3][4]
Length	350 feet (110 m) LOA[7] 338 feet (103 m) LBP[3][4][5]
Beam	56 feet (17 m)[3][4][5]
Depth	19.42 feet (5.92 m)[3][4]
Installed power	6 × Scotch marine boilers[7]
Propulsion	2 × 3,000  triple expansion steam engines[5]
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)[8]

SS Pere Marquette 18 was a steel-hulled

On September 9, 1910 while bound from Ludington for Milwaukee with 62 passengers and crew and 29 rail cars filled with general merchandise and coal, Pere Marquette 18 began taking on massive amounts of water. The pumps were turned on, but all attempts to save her were futile, and she sank off the coast of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.^[9][10][11] Her fleetmate, Pere Marquette 17 was nearby and managed to save 35 of her passengers and crew. Twenty-seven people on board Pere Marquette 18 were killed, while Pere Marquette 17 lost two of her own crew during the rescue. As none of her officers survived to recount what happened, the true cause of Pere Marquette 18's flooding remains a mystery.^[12][13]

The wreck of Pere Marquette 18 was discovered in July 2020 in about 500 feet (150 m) of water about 25 miles (40 km) east of Sheboygan by a wreck hunting team from Minnesota.^[9][10]

History

Design and construction

Pere Marquette 18 (Official number 150972) was designed by Robert Logan and was built in 1902 by the

Her steel hull had an overall length of 350 feet (106.68 m) (one source states 358 feet, 109.12 m), and a keel length of 338 feet (103 m).^{[3][7][5][14]} Her beam was 56 feet (17 m) (one source states 57.6 feet, 17.6 m) wide, and her hull was 19.42 feet (5.92 m) (some sources also state 19.5 feet, 5.9 m, 19.6 feet, 6.0 m, 20 feet, 6.1 m or 21.7 feet, 6.6 m) deep.^[3][4][6] She had a gross register tonnage of 2,909 tons, and a net register tonnage of 1,722 tons (other sources also state that she had a gross register tonnage of 2,777 tons and a net register tonnage of 1,660 tons, a gross register tonnage of 2,775 tons and a net register tonnage of 1,685 tons or a gross register tonnage of 2,443 tons).^{[3][4][5][15][7]}

She was equipped with two 3,000-

The total cost of Pere Marquette 18 was $400,000.[7]

Service history

Pere Marquette 18 was built for the

A the end of her 1910 pleasure cruise season, Pere Marquette 18 was converted back to a train ferry. On September 8, 1910 after passing an official government inspection in Ludington, she rejoined the train ferry fleet.[3]^{[9][11][19][20]}

Final voyage

Pere Marquette 17

Pere Marquette 18 sinking with Pere Marquette 17 in the background

On September 8, 1910 at 11:30 P.M., Pere Marquette 18 left Ludington, Michigan under the command of Captain Peter Kilty with 62 passengers and crew (including Captain Kilty) and 29 rail cars filled with coal and miscellaneous freight on board. At around 3:00 A.M. (some sources state 4:30 A.M.) on September 9, while about halfway across Lake Michigan, the helmsman of Pere Marquette 18 began complaining that she wasn't steering properly.^{[6][20][19][14]} At about the same time, an oiler who went to oil the propeller shaft bearings reported to the bridge that there was approximately 7 feet (2.1 m) of water in her stern.^{[6][10][19][20]} The location of the initial flood was under the "flicker" (crew's quarters).

Captain Kilty ordered the pumps to be turned on, but they weren't able to keep her free of water; eventually, her stern had sunk so far that water began to seep in through the portholes.^[6][21][15] Captain Kilty eventually ordered that the course to be altered to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and that 9 (some sources state 4 or 13) rail cars be jettisoned.^[6][19][15]

At around 5:00 A.M. by orders of Captain Kilty, purser and wireless operator Stephen F. Sczepanek (or Sczepanck) sent out the CQD: "Car ferry No.18 sinking - help!, which was repeated continually for nearly an hour. The radio operator on Pere Marquette 18's sister ship, Pere Marquette 17 picked up the call, and headed to rescue her.^[22] Pere Marquette 17 eventually reached Pere Marquette 18 and pulled alongside her to try and save the people on board. However, at approximately 7:30 A.M., Pere Marquette 18 suddenly sank stern first, with her bow rising high up into the air. As she sank, the air pressure that built up in her hull caused her to explode, which likely killed several people on board.^{[6][19][15][20][23]}

27 people on Pere Marquette 18 were killed. Pere Marquette 17 also lost two of her own crew, when the lifeboat they were in smashed against her hull.^{[6][10][16][20]} In addition to Pere Marquette 17, the ferry Pere Marquette 20 and the tug A.A.C. Tessley, which was towing the life saving crew also arrived at the scene.^[20]

Possible cause of sinking

The cause of Pere Marquette 18's sinking remains unknown. At the time of her sinking, it was speculated that during her time as a pleasure boat, she was treated roughly by the charter captains. It was said that she had been damaged by several hard dockings; she is also said to have hit several

It was rumored that there were two stowaways on board, who may have contributed to the sinking by not securing their portholes. It was also suggested that during Pere Marquette 18's conversion back to a ferry, one of her seacocks was accidentally left open, causing water to flood in. A leaking propeller shaft was also suggested.^[9][11][20]

Aftermath

Pere Marquette 18's enrollment surrendered on September 15, 1910 in Grand Haven. After her sinking, she was valued at $400,000 and her cargo was valued at between $100,000 and $150,000.^{[23][6][19][14]} Captain Kilty's decision to try and save Pere Marquette 18 instead of abandoning her when he had the chance was criticized.^[10][12] An inspectors review published in the Marine Review specifically targeted Kilty in saying that:

We think that his efforts were directed more towards saving the ship, than to the saving of the lives aboard his boat.^[10]

The Pere Marquette Railway replaced Pere Marquette 18 with a new vessel which entered service in January 1911 – also called Pere Marquette 18.^[24]

In 1977, a memorial marker was erected in Ludington to commemorate the loss of Pere Marquette 18.^[25][26] The Marker reads:

At least twenty-nine persons died when this vessel sank in Lake Michigan twenty miles off the Wisconsin coast on September 9, 1910. One of the Ludington carferry fleet, the 350 foot S.S. Pere Marquette 18 was traveling from this port to Wisconsin. About midlake a crewman discovered the ship was taking on vast amounts of water. The captain set a direct course for Wisconsin and sent a distress signal by wireless. He and the crew battled for four hours to save the boat but she sank suddenly. All of the officers and many of the crew and passengers perished, among them the first wireless operator to die in active service on the Great Lakes. The S.S. Pere Marquette 17, aided by other ships who also heeded the wireless message for help, rescued more than thirty survivors but lost two of her own crew. The exact cause of this disaster remains a mystery.^[16][25]

The marker is located at 43°57′23.8″N 86°27′34.7″W / 43.956611°N 86.459639°W / 43.956611; -86.459639.^[25]

Wreck

S.S. Pere Marquette 18 Informational Designation
Location	Stearns Park Beach along North Lakeshore Drive (M-116) Ludington, Michigan
Michigan State Historic Site
Designated	December 14, 1976

Discovery

On July 23, 2020 wreck hunters Jerry Eliason of Cloquet, Minnesota and Ken Merryman of Fridley, Minnesota were searching for Pere Marquette 18 using a side-scan sonar and an archived account from the United States Life-Saving Service; they eventually located an anomaly in the middle of Lake Michigan, roughly 10 hours into their search. Eliason and Merryman were initially confused about the nature of the target, believing it to be a school of fish.^{[9][10][11][27]} The following day, Eliason and Merryman went back to the anomaly and dropped a camera attached to a 1,000 feet (300 m) cable down to it, discovering the bow of a ship rising off the lake bottom; they confirmed the wreck was Pere Marquette 18 based on a comparison of the davits of the wreck and the davits of Pere Marquette 18 in historical photographs.^{[10][11][27][28]}

Due to bad weather, it took Eliason and Merryman three weeks to return to the wreck, in order to capture footage of it.^[10][9]

The discovery of Pere Marquette 18 was made public in September 2020.^[10][11]

Today

The wreck of Pere Marquette 18 rests in about 500 feet (150 m) of water about 25 miles (40 km) off

Until her discovery, Pere Marquette 18 was the largest undiscovered shipwreck on Lake Michigan.[11]^{[27][29][A][23][16][22][30][20]}

Notes

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pere Marquette 18 (ship, 1902).

• Great Lakes Register (1916). Great Lakes Register for the Construction and Classification of Steel and Wooden Vessels. Vol. 18. Cleveland: Great Lakes Register.
  hdl:2027/mdp.39015057176235
  .
• Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping (1902). Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping.
• Wright, Richard J. (1969). Freshwater Whales: A History of the American Ship Building Company and Its Predecessors. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press.
  ISBN 9780873380539
  .
• Zimmermann, Karl (1993). Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries. Andover, NJ: Andover Junction Publications.