44°21′36″N 82°34′12″W / 44.360050°N 82.570133°W
.jpg) SS Clifton, without self-unloading gear Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox ship image with unknown parameter "1 = 100px
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Clifton |
| Namesake | Samuel Mather |
| Owner | Progress Steamship company, Cleveland, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. |
| Port of registry | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Builder | American Steel Barge Company |
| Laid down | West Superior, Wisconsin |
| Launched | 1892 |
| Completed | 1892 |
| Fate | Sank near Thunder Bay Island September 21–22, 1924, after encountering a large wave in gale |
| Notes | Prior owner Pickands, Mather & Company Refit 1923–1924 to include installation of topside self-unloading gear |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Whaleback freighter |
| Tonnage | Gross Register Tonnage Net Register Tonnage |
| Length | 308 ft (94 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Depth | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion | Steam, propeller |
| Capacity | 3500 Tons |
| Crew | 26 |
| Notes | Sank with loss of captain and 25 crew |
SS Clifton, originally Samuel Mather, was a whaleback lake freighter built in 1892 for service on the Great Lakes. She was 308 foot (94 m) long, 30 foot (9.1 m) beam, and 24 foot (7.3 m) depth, and had a 3,500 ton capacity. The self-propelled barge was built by the American Steel Barge Company in West Superior, Wisconsin. Her builders used a design well-suited to carry iron ore, her intended trade. The new vessel was christened Samuel Mather, after a cofounder of Pickands Mather and Company, which at the time was the second largest fleet on the Great Lakes.
After 31 years of service as an ore boat, the vessel was superannuated out of iron ore and was refitted as a carrier of stone aggregate. Her 1923–1924 refitting included the installation of topside self-unloading gear. The Smith-patented tunnel scrapers were intended to enable the ship to unload more quickly and to partially offload at ports that could not previously be serviced by ship.[1] En route between Sturgeon Bay and Detroit on the night of September 21–22, 1924, while loaded with crushed stone, she encountered a storm and sank off Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay with the loss of Captain Emmett Gallagher and the crew.[A]
According to one historian, Clifton became a "ghost ship of the Great Lakes",[2] as there were no survivors and the events immediately leading up to the disaster were not known. The vessel's wreck was discovered on the bed of Lake Huron by technical divers in September 2016, with the discovery confirmed by further dives and research in 2017. When the lost vessel was rediscovered, it was found that a poetic folk ballad, written before 1932 by an Irish-American neighbor of the lost captain, contained a relatively accurate description of the ship's foundering.[4]
- ^ Brehm 2004, pp. 167–174.
- ^ a b Boyer 1968, pp. 40–58.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Ashcroftwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Walton & Grimm 2002, pp. 180–181.
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