City of Bangor
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The City of Bangor was a steamer on the Great Lakes during the early 20th century. Originally designed to carry ore, in 1925 she was converted into an automobile carrier. It was with this type of cargo that she met her icy demise, on November 30, 1926.
With a relatively light load of 248 new Chryslers, compared with the heavier load of ore, she was riding high through rough winds and seas approaching Keweenaw Point, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on Lake Superior. A furious storm was raking across the lake, and another vessel, the Thomas Maytham, had already wrecked at Point Isabelle, and was seeking shelter on the south side of the Point when the City of Bangor passed by. If her captain, William J. Mackin, thought that she would fare better, he was sadly mistaken as great seas washed over her deck, proving her small engines useless against the storm. Several of the automobiles were carried away by the sweeping waves.
Finally, she grounded near the shore, right off the tip of Keweenaw Point. The men aboard spent a bitterly cold night in the galley and the deckhouse, and in the morning, after the winds had subsided, they began to pick away at the ice-encrusted lines that secured the lifeboats. By afternoon all the men had made it ashore. In the isolated wilderness with poor clothing and no shelter, they began to march toward the nearest village, Copper Harbor, about 10 miles away.
But somewhere during those 10 miles, likely in the first few, the men became lost in the unfamiliar territory and hunkered down for the night in the snow around a dismal fire. Realizing their only landmark was the boat off shore, the next morning they waded back through the waist-deep snow to the wreck, not knowing what to do next. This effort took until late afternoon.
Luck was on their side, for barely had they returned to the wrecksite when a motor-powered United States Coast Guard rescue lifeboat came zipping around the point, at full speed and at full capacity; it was already carrying the shipwrecked crew from the Thomas Maytham back to the station at Eagle Harbor, about 25 miles to the west. The tireless captain, Anthony Glaza, assured the City of Bangor crew he would return as soon as possible, and he would look for a bright fire to signal their location in the darkness. Encouraged, the crew set about making a fire bigger and hotter than before.
True to his word, Glaza returned with the Coast Guard rescue boat, explaining that he had let the Thomas Maytham crew off at Copper Harbor to expedite his return to the frostbitten stranded sailors. Likewise, they too were safely deposited at Copper Harbor, where warm coffee and meals were waiting. Once at the mercy of Harbor innkeepers, many of the crew collapsed on the plank floors, weary with exhaustion, dripping with melting ice. Quickly, the Thomas Maytham crew boarded Glaza's boat and were taken to Eagle Harbor, but not before Glaza again promised to return for the City of Bangor men. This return journey took him two days, and though it found the men well rested and eager to depart, as soon as Glaza's boat docked in Copper Harbor, another furious storm blew through and froze the rescue vessel in! His boat would remain locked in ice throughout the winter, but the City of Bangor crew, as well as all the Coast Guard rescuers, were taken soon enough by sleigh from Copper Harbor.
The crew was saved, but what of the cargo? Over 200 1927 Chrysler automobiles were still on board the ship, encased in ice, or deep within the holds. It took until February to chop all the ice free and open up the backroads. Finally, driven single file across the ice and over the hills, the long line of vehicles paraded to their destination, Calumet, and were later sold on the market. However, over the course of the next months, several Keweenaw residents lay claim to automobiles that washed up on shore, and, amazingly, ran and drove beautifully. One still exists today at the Eagle Harbor Light.
