The SS ''Argus'' was a steel-hulled Great Lakes freighter, that was constructed as the SS ''Lewis Woodruff'' by the

American Ship Building Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio, in 1898. It changed its name t ...

, and was launched on 5 August 1903. Its original owner was the Gilchrist Transportation Company, based in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. In 1913, the ship was sold to the Interlake Steamship Company, and was renamed the ''Argus''. The ship was lost on

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...

on November 9, 1913 during the

Great Lakes storm of 1913 The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the Big Blow, the Freshwater Fury and the White Hurricane, was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and Southwest ...

. Under the commander of captain Paul Dutch, the ''Argus'' headed north into Lake Huron, with a load of coal. A little over 13 miles north of Point Aux Barques, the ship broke in two and sank with the loss of all 25 hands. The SS ''Hydrus'', sister ship of the ''Argus'', was also lost in the storm. Portions of the wreckage were found by a local doctor along the shoreline at

Bayfield, Ontario Bayfield is a community in the municipality of Bluewater, Huron County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a 2016 population of 1,112. Bluewater Municipality includes Bayfield, Bruce field, Dashwood, Hensall, Varna, and Zurich This municipal ...

in mid-November 1913. The remains of the ship was discovered in 1972, by diver Dick Race. The wreck lies upside down, in about 250 feet of water.

References

"Argus (Propeller), U200211, sunk, 9 Nov 1913." Maritime History of the Great Lakes.
Retrieved 04 January 2024.
"Lewis Woodruff (1903, Bulk Freighter):Great Lakes Ships.
etrieved 04 January 2024. Maritime incidents in 1913 Shipwrecks of Lake Huron Ships lost with all hands 1905 ships Ships built in Lorain, Ohio Great Lakes freighters Shipwreck discoveries by John Steele November 1913 {{Merchantship-stub