''City of Bangor'' was a freighter that had a 30-year career on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. Originally designed to carry ore, the ship was converted into an automobile carrier in 1925. She was trapped in ice on

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

November 30, 1926, and after multiple salvage attempts, ''Bangor'' was declared a total loss.

Shipwreck

''City of Bangor'' was captained by William J. Mackin. On the night of November 30, 1926, ''Bangor'' was carrying 248 new Chrysler automobiles from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Michigan to

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, when a severe storm drove her onto the rocks of the Keweenaw Peninsula, on Michigan's

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

. Eighteen cars that were spiked to the deck of the ship slipped overboard and were lost. During the same storm, ''Thomas Maytham'', which was carrying 20,000 tons of grain from Duluth to

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, went aground on the other side of the peninsula.

Rescue

The next morning, after the winds had subsided, ''Bangor''s crew managed to free the lifeboats, and by afternoon all the men had made it ashore. They began to walk to the nearest village, Copper Harbor, which was about 15 miles away, but became lost in the unfamiliar territory. They spent the night with a fire but no shelter, inadequate clothing, and no food. The next day, a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

rescue lifeboat, out of Eagle Harbor Life Saving Station, came around the point while carrying ''Thomas Maytham''s crew, and discovered ''Bangor''s crew. The Coast Guard captain dropped off the men from ''Thomas Maytham'' at Copper Harbor and returned for the men from ''City of Bangor''. The men were exhausted and suffering from

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

; several were hospitalized with

frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the ha ...

. The majority of the Chryslers were in the

hold Hold may refer to: Physical spaces * Hold (ship), interior cargo space * Baggage hold, cargo space on an airplane * Stronghold, a castle or other fortified place Arts, entertainment, and media * Hold (musical term), a pause, also called a Ferm ...

, separated from the flooded

engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. To increase a vessel's safety and chances of surviving damage, the machinery necessary for the ship's operation may be segregated into var ...

by a strong partition. A visual inspection of the hold showed that the cars were in good condition. When the water around the wrecked ship had frozen solid, an ice ramp was constructed, and the cars were driven off the ship.Billock (2014), p. 90 The area around the Keweenaw Peninsula was heavily forested and buried in about of snow, so the cars were driven along the icy banks of the lake to Copper Harbor. When the roads opened in the spring, the cars were driven to Calumet, Michigan, loaded onto trains, and taken to Detroit for repair and re-sale. ''City of Bangor'' herself was a total loss, but 202 of the vehicles were salvaged from the wreck and sold. It was partially cut up for scrap metal during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The ''City of Bangor'' wreck site is now part of the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, established in 1991, along with the nearby wrecks of ''Altadoc'' and ''Scotia'', and she can be visited by

scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

divers. The only remaining part of the Eagle Harbor Life Saving Station, the boathouse, is now a museum containing shipwreck memorabilia including one of the 1927 Chryslers from ''City of Bangor''.Billock (2014), p. 80

References

Sources

External links

Maritime History of the Great Lakes: Shipwrecks: City of Bangor
{{Recreational dive sites, wresit Shipwrecks of Lake Superior Maritime incidents in 1926 1896 ships Ships built in Bay City, Michigan Wreck diving sites