SS ''Monarch'' was a passenger-package freighter built in 1890 that operated on the
Great Lakes. She was sunk off the shore of
Isle Royale in
Lake Superior in 1906 and the remains of her wreck and cargo are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
History
''Monarch'' (Official Number 96843) was a wooden
passenger
A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...
-
cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...
built in 1890 in
Sarnia,
Ontario,
Canada, by John Dyble
for the Northwest Transportation Company.
She was
launched on June 27, 1890, the last ship built in Sarnia until
World War II.
The ship was long, in beam, and in depth.
She had a 900-
hp (671-
kW)
triple-expansion steam engine with two
Scotch boiler
A "Scotch" marine boiler (or simply Scotch boiler) is a design of steam boiler best known for its use on ships.
The general layout is that of a squat horizontal cylinder. One or more large cylindrical furnaces are in the lower part of the boiler ...
s, allowing her to attain 14 mph.
The ship's hull was heavily reinforced with iron, and she was fitted with 65 cabins.
''Monarch'' was used to transport both passengers and packages on the
Great Lakes throughout her career,
primarily running between Sarnia,
Thunder Bay,
Ontario, and
Duluth,
Minnesota.
In 1899, Northwest Transportation merged with another company to form the Northern Navigation Company, Ltd.
Final voyage
On December 6, 1906, the ''Monarch'' finished loading a cargo of
wheat,
oats,
salmon, and general merchandise and departed Thunder Bay for Sarnia in a blinding snowstorm.
For some reason, the ship headed off her planned course, and that night she ran at full speed into the palisade area on the north side of Blake Point on
Isle Royale.
The ship's engineer kept the engine engaged to maintain the ship's position on the shore, and John D. McCallum, brother of
first mate Burt McCallum, carried a line to shore through the rough seas.
The crew and passengers used the line to escape the wreck, and only one person perished.
The survivors camped on Isle Royale for four days, salvaging food from the wreck and keeping signal fires alight, before they were rescued on December 10, 1906.
During the night of 11â12 December 1906, the wreck broke into two pieces, leaving only the bow section visible.
operations on ''Monarch'' were carried out over the next two years,
and the engine and associated machinery was salvaged in 1908.
The wreck today
The wooden wreck has disintegrated, although a number of pieces of wreckage can be seen.
Large pieces of wooden wreckage are scattered on the bottom of Lake Superior at depths of ,
and there is a trove of ''Monarch''âēs cargo still lying on the bottom near the wreck.
Approximately 85
dives were made on the wreck in 2009 out of 1,062 dives made to wrecks in the
Isle Royale National Park
Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale â known as Minong to the native Ojibwe â along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. ...
.
References
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monarch
Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Great Lakes freighters
Maritime incidents in 1906
Shipwrecks of Lake Superior
1890 ships
Ships built in Ontario
National Register of Historic Places in Isle Royale National Park
Wreck diving sites