SS Monarch

Bow section of the Monarch
History
Name: Monarch
Operator: Northern Navigation Company, Ltd
Builder: John Dyble
Launched: June 27, 1890
Out of service: 1906
Fate: sunk off the shore of Isle Royale in Lake Superior
General characteristics
Type: Passenger-package freighter
Length: 259 feet
Beam: 35 feet
Depth: 15 feet
Installed power: 900HP
Propulsion: triple expansion steam engine
Speed: 14 knots
Notes: Official Number 96843
MONARCH
Location Palisade area, north side of Blake Point, Isle Royale National Park, Michigan[1]
Coordinates 48°11′20″N 88°26′3″W / 48.18889°N 88.43417°W / 48.18889; -88.43417Coordinates: 48°11′20″N 88°26′3″W / 48.18889°N 88.43417°W / 48.18889; -88.43417
Area 45.9 acres (18.6 ha)
Built 1890
Architect John Dyble
Architectural style Passenger-package freighter
MPS Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park TR
NRHP Reference # 84001779[2]
Added to NRHP June 14, 1984

The Monarch was a passenger-package freighter built in 1890; it was sunk off the shore of Isle Royale in Lake Superior in 1906 and the remains are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.[2]

History

The Monarch (Official Number 96843) was a wooden freighter built in 1890 in Sarnia, Ontario by John Dyble[3] for the Northwest Transportation Company.[4][5] It was launched on June 27, 1890, the last ship built in Sarnia until World War II.[3] The ship was 259 feet long, 35 feet in beam and 15 feet in depth.[4] Installed in the ship was a 900HP triple expansion steam engine with two Scotch boilers, allowing it to attain 14 mph.[4] The ship's hull was heavily reinforced with iron, and she was fitted with 65 cabins.[3][4]

The Monarch was used to transport both passengers and packages on the Great Lakes between the time it was built and its wreck in 1906,[6] primarily running between Sarnia, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Duluth, Minnesota.[3] In 1899, Northwest Transportation merged with another company to form the Northern Navigation Company, Ltd.[3]

On December 6, 1906, the Monarch finished loading a cargo of wheat, oats, salmon, and general merchandise and departed Thunder Bay for Sarnia in a blinding snowstorm.[3][4] For some reason, the ship headed off its planned course, and that night it rammed at full speed into the palisade area on the north side of Blake Point on Isle Roayale.[4][5] The engineer kept the engine engaged to maintain the ship's position on the shore, and John D. McCallum, brother of first mate Burt McCallum, carried a line to shore through the rough seas.[4] The crew and passengers used the line to escape the wreck, and only one person perished.[4] The survivors camped on Isle Royale for four days, salvaging food from the wreck and keeping signal fires alight, before they were rescued on December 10.[3][4]

Salvage operations on the Monarch were carried out over the next two years.[3] During the night of 11-12 December 1906 the wreck broke into two pieces, leaving only the bow section visible.[7] The engine and associated machinery was salvaged in 1908.[3]

The wreck today

The wooden Monarch has disintegrated on the site, although a number of pieces of wreckage can be seen.[4] There is a trove of cargo still lying on the bottom of the lake near the wreck.[4] Approximately 85 dives were made to the Monarch in 2009 out of 1062 dives made to wrecks in the Isle Royale National Park.[8] Large portions of wooden wreckage are scattered on the bottom at a depth of 10 – 80 feet.[5]

References

  1. ↑ The wreck is listed as "address restricted", but Isle Royale National Park permits public dives and publishes the location of the wreck. Coordinate location is per "The Wrecks of Isle Royale". Black Dog Diving. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Daniel Lenihan; Toni Carrell; Thom Holden; C. Patrick Labadie; Larry Murphy; Ken Vrana (1987), Daniel Lenihan, ed., Submerged Cultural Resources Study: Isle Royale National Park (PDF), Southwest Cultural Resources Center, pp. 104–117, 259–275
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Monarch Shipwreck". Superior Shipwrecks. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 "Scuba Diving". Isle Royal National Park, National Park Service. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  6. ↑ Toni Carrell (September 1983), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM: Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park Thematic Group (PDF)
  7. ↑ "Monarch Breaks up and will be Abandoned". Windsor Evening Record. 12 December 1906. p. 1. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Pete Sweger (2010), "A Diver’s Experience" (PDF), The Greenstone 2010, p. 9

Further reading

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