The PS ''Alpena'' was a

sidewheel steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses we ...

built by Thomas Arnold of Gallagher & Company at Marine City, Michigan in 1866. She was operated by the Goodrich Line after being purchased from Gardner, Ward & Gallagher in April 1868. The ''Alpena'' sank in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

in the "Big Blow" storm on October 15, 1880, with the loss of all on board.

Construction

Built in 1866, by the Thomas Arnold of Gallagher & Company of

Marine City, Michigan Marine City is a city in St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the west bank of the St. Clair River, it is one of the cities in the River District north of Detroit and south of Lake Huron. In the late 19th century, it was a m ...

, the ''Alpena'' was in length, in breadth, with a depth of . It was rated at 654 tons displacement. The vessel was driven by a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

, and photographs of the vessel show its

walking beam A marine steam engine is a steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. This article deals mainly with marine steam engines of the reciprocating type, which were in use from the inception of the steamboat in the early 19th century to the ...

suspended above the

paddlewheel A paddle wheel is a form of waterwheel or impeller in which a number of paddles are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several uses, of which some are: * Very low-lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than about ...

Sinking

At least 80 people died when the ship, also carrying a large cargo of apples, capsized in the middle of the lake. The ship was on a trip from

Grand Haven, Michigan Grand Haven is a city within the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River, for which it is named. As of the 2010 census, Grand Ha ...

, to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and was spotted at 8:00 am on October 16 in heavy seas. Some time later, probably due to a shift in the cargo on deck caused by the waves, it capsized and drifted northwest. On the 17th, debris including a piano came ashore in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black River). ...

, while apples and wood debris were found at Saugatuck. A section of beach near Holland where debris was found is still called Alpena Beach.

Similarly named ships

Another ship named ''Alpena'' was a freighter built in 1874 and burned to the waterline in 1891. Another ''Alpena'' was a tugboat which sank in 1943 at Huron, Ohio. SS ''City of Alpena'' was a paddlewheel steamboat operating between Detroit and

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( ; french: Île Mackinac; oj, Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; otw, Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac an ...

by the

Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company, often abbreviated as D&C, was a shipping company on the Great Lakes. Operations The main route was between Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio. Routes also lead to Buffalo, New York with the purchase ...

from 1893 to 1921. She was long, carried 400 passengers, and was powered by steam engines. Alpena ex Leon Fraser

There is also a

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 lakes ...

ship named '' Alpena'', formerly the ''Leon Fraser'', owned by Inland Lakes Management, an affiliate of

Lafarge La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to: People * Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer * Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge * Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...

. It is used as a

bulk freighter A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econ ...

to haul

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

. Built in 1942 and equipped with a

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

engine, it was originally long, in breadth with a depth of . It has a 15,550

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

capacity. It was renamed, shortened and converted to a bulk cement carrier in 1991. The ''Alpena'' is a moderate sized ship in the Great Lakes fleet; the largest Lakers are almost twice its length and breadth and carry four times its cargo. She is able to transit the canals of the St. Lawrence Seaway due to her small size.

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