SS Myron

SS ''Myron'' was a wooden steamship built in 1888. She spent her 31-year career as lumber hooker, towing schooner barges on the Great Lakes. She sank in 1919, in a Lake Superior November gale. All of her 17 crew members were killed but her captain survived. He was found drifting on wreckage near Ile Parisienne. Her tow, the ''Miztec'', survived. ''Myron'' defied the adage that Lake Superior "seldom gives up her dead" when all 17 crewmembers were found frozen to death wearing their life jackets. Local residents chopped eight of ''Myron''s sailors from the ice on the shore of Whitefish Bay and buried them at the Mission Hill Cemetery in Bay Mills Township, Michigan.

''Myron''s steering wheel, steam whistle, and many other artifacts were illegally removed from her wreck site in the 1980s by members of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Her artifacts are now the property of the State of Michigan and are on display as a loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The wreck of ''Myron'' is protected as part of an underwater museum in the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.

History

The wooden steamer ''Myron'' was built as a lumber hooker in 1888 in Grand Haven, Michigan. She was originally named ''Mark Hopkins'' for the son of Captain Harris Baker, the first of a series of owners. Her name was changed to ''Myron'' in 1902.

''Myron'' suffered several major mishaps and rebuilds during her 31-year career on the Great Lakes. She was sunk by ''Vanderbilt'' on 27 September 1895, in Hay Lake, near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She was raised 19 October 1895, and rebuilt in Marine City, Michigan in 1896. She was released after she ran ashore on Long Point on Lake Erie in 1901. She was rebuilt again from 1903-1904 in Bay City, Michigan.Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Vessel Database.

''Myron'' averaged 12 trips a year at the end of her career and she sailed under the flag of O.W. Blodgett Lumber Company, considered the last of the big lumber companies on the Great Lakes. As a lumber hooker, ''Myron'' was designed to tow one or two barges and to carry her own deck load to pay her way. She towed big, old converted schooners stripped of their masts and running gear to carry large cargoes. The schooner barge ''Miztec'' was the last of ''Myron''s many consorts when she foundered.Gerred, p. 3.

Final voyage

''Myron'' departed Munising, Michigan on Lake Superior bound for Buffalo, New York shortly before dawn on 22 November 1919, towing ''Miztec''. Both vessels were piled high with lumber. A crew of 18 was aboard ''Myron'' and 7 manned ''Miztec''.Stonehouse, p. 174.

Two hours after departure from Munising, a severe November gale struck ''Myron'' and ''Miztec'' with northwest winds blowing , a rapidly dropping temperature, and heavy snow.Kohl, p. 428. When the pounding seas opened the wooden seams on the aged ''Myron'', her pumps could not keep up with below deck water.Wolf, p. 163. Ice build up on ''Myron'' changed her center of gravity and made her unstable in the heavy seas. Her engine could not keep up with the accumulation of water and ice until she was reduced to a speed of . Captain Walter Neal, of ''Myron'', decided to drop ''Miztec'' off near Vermilion Point before he attempted to fight their way to the shelter of Whitefish Bay. The battered ''Miztec'' dropped her anchors, swung her bow to the seas, and survived the storm.

When the larger, steel steamer ''Adriatic'' came upon the struggling ''Myron'', she ran alongside ''Myron'' and provided shelter from the smashing waves in the long battle to reach Whitefish Bay. The lookout at the Vermilion Life-saving Station gave the alert when he spotted the laboring ''Myron'' shadowed by ''Adriatic''. Captain McGaw and his Vermilion crew launched their motor powered surf boat in the raging surf and followed ''Myron''.

''Myron'' came to within of Whitefish Point when the rising water below deck extinguished her boiler fires. She slipped into a deadly trough and sank to the bottom of Lake Superior within 4 minutes. Although her crew launched her 2 lifeboats, they were trapped by the surrounding sea boiling with wreckage and lumber. The pilothouse of ''Myron'' blew off as she sank with Captain Neal still inside. He climbed out the window and clung to the roof.

Rescue efforts

''Adriatic'' stayed with ''Myron'' to her end and twice tried to break through the mass of debris to save the castaways but was forced to pull away to avoid foundering after touching bottom with both rescue attempts.Stonehouse, p. 176.

Captain Lawrence of the ''H.P. McIntosh'' decided to try rescuing ''Myron''s crew after he witnessed ''Adriatic''s failed attempts. He forced his steel steamer through the wreckage field to come close enough to throw lines to ''Myron''s crew but they were so numbed by the frigid temperature, they could not grasp the lines with their frozen hands. Captain Lawrence had to pull away for open water to avoid ''H.P. McIntosh''s destruction by the mountainous waves in the shallow water.

The Vermilion lifesaving crew arrived at the wreck site after a wild trip but they could not reach ''Myron''s crewmen without smashing their small boat in the mass of floating lumber. Captain McGaw calculated that the survivor's lifeboats would be swept down into Whitefish Bay so he rounded Whitefish Point and went in pitch darkness and heavy seas to Ile Parisienne but found nothing. Lighthouse keeper Robert Carlson reported that the exhausted Vermilion crew arrived at the Whitefish Point dock cut and bleeding from the beating they took by the heavy seas.

Twenty hours after ''Myron''s sinking, Captain Jordon of the steamer ''W.C. Franz'' was upbound out of the Soo Locks and on the lookout for survivors when he sighted a body moving on wreckage near Ile Parisienne. Captain Jordon launched a lifeboat and rescued a half-dead Captain Neal from the roof of ''Myron''s pilothouse. Captain Neal's clothing was frozen to his body and his hands were so swollen that 2 finger rings were not visible but he survived.Wolff, p. 164.

The rescue of Captain Neal gave hope that others from ''Myron'' survived. United States Coast Guard submarine chaser number 438 left Sault Ste. Marie with a double crew searching for survivors but was unsuccessful. Three days after the sinking, a Kingston, Ontario, newspaper cited a Lake Superior adage when it declared, "... Little hope is held out, however that ''Myron'' bodies would wash ashore, unless lashed to wreckage, as the cold lake waters prevent forming of gases, and, it is claimed bodies seldom rise to the surface. It is traditional that 'Lake Superior seldom gives up her dead.'"

All 17 crewmen of ''Myron'' drowned or froze to death in Whitefish Bay. All were recovered wearing life jackets and covered with ice. A tug owned by Frank Weston found a boat load of frozen crewmen in Whitefish Bay several days after the sinking. Some crewmen were frozen into grotesque shapes that had to be thawed out next to a roaring fire at a Sault Ste. Marie funeral home. The bodies of five of the crewman were found encased in ice near Whitefish Point in November 1919, but further search for the lost crew was hampered by a heavy snow and sleet storm. Local residents found eight bodies of ''Myron''s crew frozen in the ice near Salt Point on Whitefish Bay the next spring. Dave Parrish and Jay Johnston chopped the sailors from the ice and Simon Johnston buried them in rough boxes made at Evans mill. The sailors rest at the pine covered Mission Hill Cemetery in Bay Mills Township, Michigan overlooking Point Iroquois Light, Iroquois Point and Whitefish Bay. Their graves are enclosed by a white fence with a signboard "Sailors of the Steamer ''Myron''" attached to it.

A large stern section of ''Myron'' washed ashore on the Canada, Canadian side of Whitefish Bay. All the lumber on the two vessels was lost. ''Myron'' carried of lumber and ''Miztec'' carried of lumber. The lumber washed ashore for days west of Whitefish Point and in Whitefish Bay, enough lumber to build two small towns. The 31-year-old ''Myron'' was valued at $45,000.

Criminal charges

In press interviews, ''Myron''s Captain Neal leveled criminal charges against the captains of ''Adriatic'' and ''H.P. McIntosh'' that prompted an investigation of many months by United States marine inspectors.Stonehouse, p. 177. At a special Steamboat Inspection Service hearing, Captain Neal stated:

I was clinging to the roof of the pilothouse when the ''McIntosh'' hailed me shortly after the ''Myron'' went down from under me. The ''McIntosh'' drew alongside me, not more than away. Although it was dusk, the ship was so close that I had no difficulty in making out her name. I talked to the captain and expected that he would put out a yawl and pick me up. He did not do so, nor attempt in any way to help me. 'I will have a boat sent for you,' the captain of the ''McIntosh'' called. And he drew away. I have never seen him since, nor do I ever want to see him by the great hokey, pokey.

The Steamboat Inspection Service revoked the licenses of the masters of ''Adriatic'' and ''H.P. McIntosh'' for life. The marine community considered the verdict a gross injustice against the masters who risked their lives, their crews, and their vessels in efforts to rescue ''Myron'' in the treacherous shallows off Whitefish Point. It is probable that the verdict was reversed but there are no available records to confirm this.

Wreck history

John Steele and Tom Farnquist (Executive Director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS)) discovered ''Myron''s wreck in 1972, in of water, about from Whitefish Point, at Shumbarger, p. 7. Steel and Farnquist salvaged the anchor from ''Myron'' and donated it to the Steamship Valley Camp, Museum Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.Kohl, p. 432. The GLSHS later positively identified the wreck in 1982, when they salvaged the builder's plate and other artifacts from ''Myron'' for display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. Michigan's Antiquities Act of 1980 prohibited the removal of artifacts from shipwrecks on the Great Lakes bottomlands. The ''Evening News'' reported a Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment 1992 raid on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and its offices that found evidence of 150 artifacts illegally removed from the state-claimed bottomlands, including artifacts from ''Myron''. Following a settlement agreement with the GLSHS, an axe, double sheave block, signs, a valve, steering wheel, steam whistle, lumber hook, open-end wrenches, a soup bowl, an oiler, and a block pulley from ''Myron'' are now the property of the State of Michigan. ''Myron''s artifacts are on loan to the GLSHS for display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

''Myron''s remains are shattered by surf and ice but she is a popular site for scuba divers. Her bow (ship), bow sits upright draped with anchor chains. A large anchor windlass, windlass lies just off her bow. The boiler and engine sit off her port side, a metal capstan (nautical), capstan is on the stern, most of her midsection is disintegrated, the keel is mostly buried, and the enormous, four-bladed propeller sits upright.

''Myron''s wreck site is protected for future generations of scuba divers by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum. Divers who visit the wreck sites are expected to observe preservation laws and "take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles". Great Lakes diver Harrington cautions that "divers must be certain of their abilities and equipment" when diving the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve. ''Miztec'' sank in 1921, and came to rest near her longtime companion, ''Myron'', to be together forever.Wolf, p. 170.

See also

* Graveyard of the Great Lakes

Notes

References

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External links

Mission Hill Cemetery Sailors of the S.S. ''Myron''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myron
1888 ships
Steamships of the United States
Lumber schooners
Merchant ships of the United States
Maritime incidents in 1919
Shipwrecks of Lake Superior
Ships built in Michigan
Schooners of the United States
Steam barges
Wreck diving sites