SS Mataafa

A U.S. Lifesaving Service crew rowing out to rescue survivors of the SS Mataafa wreck (in the background) on November 29, 1905
Career
Name: SS Mataafa
Out of service: 1965
Fate: Wrecked, raised and repaired; later scrapped
General characteristics

The SS Mataafa was an iron ore boat and later an automobile carrier on the American Great Lakes, famously wrecked in 1905 just outside the Duluth, MN harbor. She was built the SS Pennsylvania in 1899,[1] and was renamed the Mataafa when she was purchased in the same year by Minnesota Steamship Company. After her sinking, she was raised and repaired, and served for another sixty years before being scrapped.

Design

Built in 1899 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company,[2] she was 430 feet long by 50 feet wide.[3] She massed 4,840 tons, and her engines were capable of producing 1,800 hp.[4] Like most steel ships on the Lakes, her hull was made of large metal plates riveted to an iron frame.

Early career

The company that built her leased her out as the Pennsylvania for a few months, but quickly sold her to the Minnesota Steamship Company. Her first season with the MSC was not without difficulties; she struck a rock in the straits of Mackinac and arrived in Chicago with a leak, and then ran aground above the Soo Locks on her way back up.[5]

In 1901, she became a part of the original Pittsburgh Steamship Division of U.S. Steel when the division was formed.[6] Due to fog, she was grounded again, this time on Knife Island Reef, Lake Superior on June 2 of that year.

Shipwreck

At five o'clock in the afternoon, November 27, 1905, she was on her way out of Duluth, loaded with iron ore and towing the barge James Nasmyth. She was hit by a storm, and though she struggled on for a short time, by the time she had reached Two Harbors at 4 p.m. the next day, it was clear to her master, Captain R. F. Humble[7] that she could not make the run. He gave the order to turn about, and she turned her prow toward Duluth.

As she approached the port, it became clear that it was useless to try to bring both steamer and tug through the narrow Duluth Ship Canal into the harbor, so the captain gave the order to cut loose the Nasmyth. Then the Mataafa attempted to make it into safe harbor alone.

She made it about half-way between the twin concrete piers when a backwater surged out. Heavy water struck her stern, driving her prow down to the muddy bottom, and then slammed her stern against the north pier. Her rudder torn off, the lake pulled her prow out toward the open lake, then smashed her stern against the south pier. She grounded in the shallow water outside the north pier,[8] where she was broken in two by the storm, her stern settling slowly into the water.[9]

When the ship broke up, twelve men were in the aft portion. Three men struggled out to the fore. The remaining nine died of exposure during the night. One of the bodies in the after half had to be chopped out of solid ice.[10] The fifteen men in the fore half fared better; although rescue attempts were futile during the stormy night, the next day a small boat made it out, and all fifteen were taken off in two boatloads.[11]

Lost

Survivors

Later career

The Mataafa was refloated and repaired. She continued to be accident-prone; in 1908, she was in a collision that sank the SS Sacramento, and in 1914 she struck another pier.[12] She did play the heroic part on a few occasions, however; on July 17, 1912, she rescued 19 men from the sinking wooden steamer New York in Lake St. Clair, and on the same day six years later she rescued the entire crew of the barge Commodore off South East Shoal, Lake Erie.[13]

She was rebuilt due to wear in 1926, and in 1946 she was converted to an automobile carrier, after which she served the Nicholson Transit Company. She served until 1964, when she was sold to Marine Salvage to be scrapped. She was dismantled in Hamburg, Germany in 1965.[14]

Legacy

Because the shipwreck occurred just outside Duluth, hundreds if not thousands of people were witnesses to the event. This made the wreck of the Mataafa famous enough for the November 1905 storm to be known as the "Mataafa Storm."[15][16] The Duluth Cigar Company quickly capitalized on the wreck with the "Mataafa" Cigar, which bore a picture of the wrecked freighter.[17]

References

  1. ↑ The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 - 1999, by Dave Swayze, 2001
  2. ↑ The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 - 1999, by Dave Swayze, 2001
  3. ↑ Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA
  4. ↑ Chapters & Stories, Superior's Shipwrecks, Jim Cordes Publishing, 2009
  5. ↑ Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA
  6. ↑ Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA
  7. ↑ GenDisasters: Duluth, MN Steamer MATAAFA Disaster, Nov 1905, by Stu Beitler
  8. ↑ The Infamous Freighter Mataafa, The Mind of James Donahue, by James Donahue
  9. ↑ Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: DOOMED ON SUPERIOR, November 1905, pg.274
  10. ↑ Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: DOOMED ON LAKE SUPERIOR, Chapter 8, pg.274
  11. ↑ GenDisasters: Duluth, MN Steamer MATAAFA Disaster, Nov 1905, by Stu Beitler
  12. ↑ The Infamous Freighter Mataafa, The Mind of James Donahue, by James Donahue
  13. ↑ Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA
  14. ↑ Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA
  15. ↑ The Infamous Freighter Mataafa, The Mind of James Donahue, by James Donahue
  16. ↑ The "Great Storms" of 195 and 1913, Great Lakes Steamship Society, The 1905 "Mataafa Storm"
  17. ↑ Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: DOOMED ON LAKE SUPERIOR, Chapter 8, pg.279

External links