The SS ''Asia'' was a Canadian passenger steamship and package freighter of the Northwestern Transportation Company. She was long and had a beam of . Launched at

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontario ...

, Ontario in 1873, she was built as a ''canaller'', a vessel designed for use in the Welland Canal and other enclosed watercourses of the day. She was converted by her owners for services in the open Great Lakes. Heavily laden and top-heavy with freight, she sank near Lonely Island in Georgian Bay on 14 September 1882 with a loss of 123 lives. The doomed vessel had been fitted with flimsy lifeboats, which repeatedly overturned in the heavy waters. A lifeboat that had originally saved 18 officers and passengers from the foundering ''Asia'' then capsized over and over in storm conditions, leading to the deaths of most of the castaways. By the time the one remaining lifeboat made land near

Parry Sound Parry Sound is a sound or bay of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada. It is highly irregularly shaped with many deep bays and islands. Killbear Provincial Park is located on the large peninsula that separates the sound from Georgian B ...

, only two passengers remained alive.

In history

The survivors were two teenage-aged young adults, Christina Ann Morrison and Duncan Tinkis. The loss of life made this disaster, in terms of loss of life from the sinking of a single vessel, the eighth-worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asia, SS 1873 ships Ships built in Ontario Great Lakes ships Maritime incidents in September 1882 Shipwrecks of Lake Huron Steamships of Canada