The SS ''Western Reserve'' was a propeller

lake 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 was constructed in 1890 by the

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

for Peter G. Minch, a ship's captain and operator who was pioneering the industrialization of

bulk carrier 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, eco ...

freight service on the

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 lak ...

. She had a length of 301 feet, a beam of 41 feet and drew 21 feet of water. She and a ship of similar dimensions and building history, the '' SS W.H. Gilcher'', were two of the first lake freighters to be constructed out of steel plate. Her steel construction made it possible for the vessel to carry heavier loads of freight than her wooden rival steamships. Western Reserve - Muskallonge State Park

Western Reserve - Muskallonge State Park

The ''Western Reserve'' foundered on August 30, 1892, in

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 ...

. She had been traveling upbound in ballast to Two Harbors, a port serving the Minnesota iron ranges, for a load of iron ore. Of the 32 officers, men, and passengers aboard, 31 were lost and there was but one survivor, wheelsman Harry Stewart. Stewart made land on a desolate stretch of shoreline between Grand Marais and Deer Park on the Upper Peninsula of far northern Michigan, and lived. The list of those lost included the ship's owner, Peter Minch. Upon being debriefed, Stewart's description of the metal fatigue and structural failure of the 1.5-year-old lake vessel created almost conclusive evidence that the shipbuilders had improperly used brittle steel contaminated with sulfur and

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

. Coverage by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' of the disaster was headlined: "The Steamer Broke in Two." Eight weeks after the ''Western Reserve'' disaster, the ''W.H. Gilcher'' - which had been built at the same time with similar mill runs of steel plate - disappeared on northern Lake Michigan. The disasters, loss of life of seamen and a well-known shipowner, and ensuing scandal led to permanent changes in the types of steel approved for use in U.S. and Canadian shipbuilding. Despite several searches, the wreck of the ''Western Reserve'' has never been located.

RMS ''Titanic''

Similar changes were not made to British law, which continued to allow the use of brittle steel in shipbuilding after 1892. Examples of British shipbuilding art included the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...

's transatlantic

liner A low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) is a type of galactic nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission. The spectra typically include line emission from weakly ionized or neutral atoms, such as O, O+, N+, and S+. ...

, built in

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by shipbuilder

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...

. ''Titanic'' entered service in April 1912 and sank that month on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. After the sunken liner was discovered and samples were taken of her rivets and hull plates, forensic engineers reported that the non-ductility of the iron and steel used to build her could have played a significant role in speeding up its structural failure after ''Titanic'' hit the iceberg. Meanwhile, in the United States and Canada in the first half of the twentieth century, lake freighters built with the improved standards for steel were bumping through Great Lakes

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and suffering damage, but not sinking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Western Reserve, SS 1890 ships Maritime incidents in 1892 Shipwrecks of Lake Superior Ships built in Cleveland Great Lakes freighters Missing ships

RMS ''Titanic''

See also

References