SS ''Selah Chamberlain'' was a wooden-hulled

Great Lakes freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that operate on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Since the late 19th century, lakers have carried bulk cargoes of ma ...

that 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 1886, off the coast of Sheboygan,

Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Sheboygan County is a county (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is named after the Sheboygan River. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 118,034. Its county seat is Sheboygan, Wisconsin, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

after being rammed by the steamer ''John Pridgeon Jr.'' with the loss of five lives. On January 7, 2019, the wreck of ''Selah Chamberlain'' was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, and was given the reference number ''100003288''. She was the first shipwreck listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

Selah Chamberlain

Selah Chamberlain (May 4, 1812 – December 27, 1890) was a railroad developer involved in the iron industry and banking. He was born in

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about no ...

, on May 4, 1812, to Selah and Abigail (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Burnett) Chamberlain. At the age of 21, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he obtained business training as an apprentice working in a grocery store. In 1835, Chamberlain formed his own company, and was contracted to build an extension to the Erie & Pennsylvania Canal. His company was later contracted to help build the

Wabash & Erie Canal The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was t ...

. In the 1840s, he supervised improvements to the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. In 1844, Chamberlain married Arabella Cochran, and had two children named James and William. In 1847 he went back to

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

to build pieces of a new railroad. Chamberlain was largely responsible for the construction of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, and the Lake Champlain Railroad. In 1849, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and founded the Chamberlain, Gorham, & Perkins bank, which would merge into the Merchants National Bank in 1880. Also in 1849, he was contracted to build the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad. In 1850, he was one of the co-founders of the

Cleveland Iron Mining Company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the large ...

. Chamberlain died on December 27, 1890, and was buried in the

Lake View Cemetery Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...

History

Construction

''Selah Chamberlain'' (Official number 115147) was built in 1873 by Quayle & Martin shipyard of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Her wooden hull was long, her beam was wide and her hull had a depth of . She originally had a

gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weigh ...

of 894.69 tons. She was powered by a two-cylinder high pressure engine, the cylinders of which each had a 30 inch (76 cm) bore; the engine was fueled by two tubular firebox boilers. Both the engine and the boilers were built by the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, Ohio. She also had three masts and at the start of her career, a single deck. In her early career she was also classified as a steam barge. She was generally used to carry cargo such as

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

between

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

, and

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. She often regularly towed a schooner barge. She was originally built for Alva Bradley of Cleveland, Ohio.

Service history

On May 11, 1873 while ''Selah Chamberlain'' was on her maiden voyage bound from Cleveland, Ohio for

Escanaba, Michigan Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...

, where she would load a cargo of

, she ran aground on Bois Blanc Island while trying to negotiate the

Straits of Mackinac The Straits of Mackinac ( ; french: Détroit de Mackinac) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is wide with a maximum depth of , and connects ...

. Fortunately, ''Selah Chamberlain'' received no major damage and was able to resume her journey the next day. In 1874 she had a second deck added, increasing her cargo carrying capacity, and increasing her gross tonnage to 1207.01 tons and her net tonnage to 963.98 tons. In May, 1881 ''Selah Chamberlain'' received repairs at the Globe Dry Docks at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1883 she was transferred to the

Bradley Transportation Company The Bradley Transportation Company, was an American shipping company that was a subsidiary of the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company and handled its shipment of limestone to its parent company U.S. Steel. It boasted a large fleet of self- ...

. On November 15, 1883 ''Selah Chamberlain'' lost her

main mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...

, and got her

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—''standing rigging'', including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are ...

entangled in her propeller 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 ...

. In 1884 she was chartered to carry wheat from Duluth, Minnesota to Buffalo, New York for three runs. In October, 1884 while towing the schooner barge ''John Martin'', ''Selah Chamberlain'' encountered a gale and was driven against the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

coal docks in

Port Arthur, Ontario Port Arthur was a city in Northern Ontario, Canada, located on Lake Superior. In January 1970, it amalgamated with Fort William and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay. Port Arthur had been the district seat of ...

, causing approximately $1,500 worth of damage to them. The Duluth News Tribune published the following article about the event:

Early Sunday morning the (steam) barge ''Chamberlain'' towing the schooner ''John Martin'', arrived light to take out wheat. The wind was strong from the northeast, and as usual under such circumstances, a powerful current was running out of the canal. The barge entered all right, but the current caught the schooner and through her upon the bulkhead of the South pier. To prevent serious damage to the vessel, the tow line was cast off, and she swung around the pier and down towards to the beach on the South side. Both anchors were dropped, but the distance was so short and her momentum so great that they dragged and she went high on the beach, after breaking down some of the trestle work leading to the lighthouse at the end of the pier. The tugs in the harbor were powerless to render any assistance until the sea went down. Yesterday the tugs ''Mollie Spencer'', ''Nellie Cotton'', and ''Brower'', and the barges ''Chamberlain'' and ''E.B. Hale were'' busy in an effort to dredge and pull her off. It was not until the middle of the afternoon that they succeeded, and the ''Martin'' reached her dock. She is not damaged. In making for the Northern Pacific dock when she entered the harbor Sunday morning, the barge ''Chamberlain'' ran clear through the middle of the wagon bridge between that dock and the Northwest Coal docks. The bridge was impassible yesterday, but the barge was not injured.

In 1885 ''Selah Chamberlain'' received new upper decks and was re-caulked. She spent the entire year hauling iron ore and grain with the schooner barge ''John Martin'' and several other schooner barges.

Final voyage

On October 13, 1886, ''Selah Chamberlain'' and her schooner barge, ''Fayette Brown'' were bound from

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, to

, to load up a cargo of iron ore which they would then transport to Cleveland, Ohio. As they were sailing north, they encountered a dense fog. At approximately 8:30 p.m., and about off shore, ''Selah Chamberlain'' crew heard another vessel's whistle directly ahead. Captain A. Greenly immediately signaled her whistle once, and then steered her to port. However, the collision was unavoidable and ''Selah Chamberlain'' was struck in her port bow by the slightly larger, and newer After the collision, the crew of ''Selah Chamberlain'' cut ''Fayette Brown'' loose, so if ''Selah Chamberlain'' sank, she would not sink ''Fayette Brown'' as well. ''Selah Chamberlain'' sank approximately 15 minutes after the collision. Over the next few years, a number of unsuccessful operations to raise ''Selah Chamberlain'' were carried out.

''Selah Chamberlain'' today

The remains of ''Selah Chamberlain'' lie northeast of Sheboygan Point in of water within the boundaries of the

Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary is one of 15 United States National Marine Sanctuaries administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce; NOA ...

. Her wreck is broken into three pieces. Much of her lower hull remains on the site, and her fantail stern is split, exposing her two boilers and her engine. Her wooden floors are reinforced with steel I-beams. Her tandem engine, and its decorated cast iron frame rise from the bottom of the lake.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selah Chamberlain, SS Maritime incidents in 1881 Maritime incidents in November 1883 Maritime incidents in October 1884 Maritime incidents in October 1886 Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan Steamships of the United States Great Lakes freighters Merchant ships of the United States 1873 ships Shipwrecks of the Wisconsin coast Ships built in Cleveland Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Wreck diving sites in the United States