On a sunny morning in May 2013, three shipwreck hunters, Jerry Eliason, Kraig Smith, and Ken
Merryman set out in their 22-foot C-Dory to find a shipwreck that hadn’t been seen in
almost a century.
Even after multiple searches, the wreck remained elusive, one of the greatest mysteries of
Lake Superior. But the team hoped this time would be different. They were headed to an
area designated by Jerry Eliason’s wife Karen, a software engineer who helped narrow
their search to a quarter-mile area roughly 30 miles north of Marquette, Michigan.
As they arrived at the search location, they deployed their side-scan sonar system, developed
by Jerry’s son Jarod and they soon detected a large anomaly. But they weren’t going
to let themselves get excited. The anomaly could have been anything.
They sent down a drop camera to take a look. Their first pass picked up nothing. But on
their second pass, they found the telltale signs of a large shipwreck; the lakebed was
covered with iron ore.
Finally, their camera found what they were looking for. The foremast of a large freighter
appeared in the darkness. Then they saw a pilot house but they couldn’t be sure if
this was the wreck they were looking for until the next day when their camera passed over
the ship’s stern and finally found her nameplate: It was the Henry B Smith, lost with all hands
in the Great Storm of 1913 almost exactly 100 years before. Her wreck, beautifully preserved
by the icy waters, could finally shed light on one of the Lake Superiors’ greatest mysteries.
By November 1913, the Henry B. Smith was coming to the end of a disappointing season. The
weather had been especially difficult that year, leading to a series of delays and costly
late arrivals. The ship was owned by the Acme Transit Company based out of Lorain, Ohio.
The Company’s management had grown frustrated with the frequent delays and blamed Captain
James Owen for the disappointing season.
The 54-year-old captain had over 36 years of experience on the Lakes. He was well-loved
by his crew but he had a reputation for avoiding difficult weather. While avoiding taking chances
with his ships and the lives of his crews would be commended now, in those days this
caution was frowned upon. A vessel that stays in port doesn’t make money and maximum profit
was the number one priority even over safety.
Captain Owen commanded the Henry B Smith since her launch in May 1906. Designated hull No.
343, the 6,631-ton steel-hulled bulk freighter was constructed by the American Ship Building
Company in Lorain, Ohio. She was one of the largest freighters on the lakes at the time,
measuring 545 feet or 166 meters long with a beam of 55 feet or 17 meters. She was powered
by 2 Scotch marine boilers that fed a single triple-expansion steam engine driving a single
propeller. She was named after a prominent lumberman and managing owner of the Ludington
Woodenware Company in Michigan.
For this final run, the ship’s owners were said to have issued a stern ultimatum to Captain
Owen; either deliver the Smith and her cargo on time or this season would be his last with
the company. This unreasonable ultimatum would have deadly consequences.
From the moment the Henry B Smith arrived in Marquette, Michigan on Thursday, November
6th, 1913 to take on her iron ore cargo, it was clear that this was not going to be the
smooth late-season run that Captain Owen was depending on.
The ordinarily easy-going captain could barely contain his frustration. He intended to quickly
load 10,000 tons of iron ore and immediately begin their final run to Cleveland, capping
off the season with one last on-time run, giving the ship owners nothing to complain
about. But the weather had other plans. Before they could even begin loading, howling wind
and blowing snow overtook the docks at Marquette.
In the freezing conditions, the iron ore froze in the chutes. The only way to dislodge it
was for dock workers to physically climb down the chutes and break the ore loose with sledgehammers.
It was incredibly dangerous and dockworkers typically avoided working in such brutal conditions.
But the captain was adamant that work continued. He needed the Smith ready to sail the moment
the weather broke.
The loading began Friday at a painfully slow rate. When work ended early Saturday morning,
the freighter was still not fully loaded. The dockworkers ordinarily would not have
returned until Monday but Owen demanded they return to work on Sunday, November 9th, and
finish loading the Smith. They reluctantly agreed and Owen asked the dock superintendent
to wire the company to let them know that they were coming.
As loading was completed that afternoon, Captain Owen’s spirits seemed to have lifted. The
storm had lulled and it looked like he would get a window of calm long enough to make the
run. He knew it would be rough, but after 7 years with the HB Smith, Captain Owen had
faith that his ship, loaded with 10,000 tons of ore to steady her, could handle the conditions.
He even felt that having the wind at their back could help them reach the Soo in good
time, making up some of the time that was lost while loading. Chatting with the dockworkers,
he was noted to make a few jokes about the ship cheating disaster.
But few shared his confidence. At 4 pm on Sunday, November 9th, 1913, with northwest
seas crashing over the breakwater at Marquette, the Henry B. Smith nosed out of the harbor
into Lake Superior. One can’t help but wonder how long it took Captain Owen to realize that
the storm that caused their delay was only just getting started.
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 has many nicknames but it’s most commonly called the White
Hurricane. While not technically a hurricane, the blizzard brought hurricane-force winds
that battered four of the five Great Lakes for days. The first storm system began forming
over the Western side of Lake Superior on Thursday, November 6th, and made its way east
toward Lake Michigan.
Weather forecasting at the time was in its infancy and there were few tools available
to predict the direction or severity of a storm. By mid-day on November 8th, the first
storm system had passed over Lake Superior and was moving east through northern Lake
Huron. To many experienced sailors on the lakes, this seemed to be the worst of it.
A brutal but somewhat typical 3-day blow. As the first storm moved east, Captain Owen
would have recognized this pattern.
But this storm system was different. As the first storm moved east over the region, another
storm forming in the south was rapidly moving north, where it slammed into the first storm
system late November 9th.
Over the next 24 hours, winds in the region exceeded hurricane force for extended periods
of time. Wave heights were estimated at the time to have exceeded 35 feet or 11 meters
and modern simulations showed that waves could have been as high as 38 feet or almost 12
meters. Some waves reached even higher. The pilothouse of the L. C. Waldo was completely
smashed by a single wave on Lake Superior that was estimated to be as high as 50 feet
or 15 meters.
Captain Owen’s confidence was not shared by others and many felt that his decision
to leave port that evening was rash and dangerous. Several observers on nearby vessels witnessed
the Smith’s deckhands still battening the ship’s 32 hatch covers as they sailed for
the open lake. It was incredibly irresponsible to sail into rough weather without making
the ship watertight. Captain Charles Fox of another nearby freighter, the SS Choctaw judged
the conditions far too dangerous. He paused the unloading of his ship and waited out the
storm, not leaving until the morning of November 11th.
Captain Fox watched as the Henry B Smith left port and wondered aloud how long before the
freighter would realize their error and return. Through the heavy snow, Captain Fox and others
could sea waves crash over the Smith’s bow. As expected, the vessel soon made a hard turn
to port. She was thrown into a deep trough but managed to fight her way out before disappearing
in the white-out conditions. It’s believed that Captain Owen quickly realized that the
storm was more than his vessel could handle and he made a last-minute effort to sail for
the safety of Keweenaw Point. This dramatic attempt to save the ill-fated freighter was
the last time any living person would lay eyes on the Henry B. Smith for nearly 100
years.
As the storm began to clear news of the devastation spread through the region. Numerous vessels
were unaccounted for. While Captain Owen’s message was received that the Henry B Smith
left port, there was no sign of her at the Soo Locks.
But for a time there was hope that she was one of the nearly dozen vessels that were
blown on shore by the storm, stranded on some remote corner of the Lake. Information was
scarce. At the offices of the Port Huron Times-Herald newspaper, a father of one of the Smith’s
crew members visited, desperate for news that his son might still be alive. When they told
him they knew nothing, he responded tearfully, “I just plain can’t tell his mother he’s
gone. It would kill her.”
A few days after the storm, the body of Second Cook H.R. Haskin was found floating fifty
miles west of Whitefish Point. In the spring of 1914, the skeleton of Third Engineer John
Gallagher was found on Ile Parisienne. They were the only bodies ever found out of the
25-member crew.
Few other traces of the Smith were found. In June 1914, a message in a bottle was picked
up. It claimed that the ship broke in two 12 miles east of Marquette. But the message
was dismissed as a fake because it was dated November 12th. The Smith most likely sank
on the evening of the 9th or the very early hours of the 10th at the latest.
The bottle message only added to the mystery of the Smith. Over the years, nearly all of
the major vessels lost in the storm of 1913 were discovered, some only days after the
storm, shedding light on what might have happened in their final moments. But from the moment
the Smith faded out of view, she passed into the unknown until her wreck was finally discovered
100 years later, lying only 30 miles from her point of departure, broken in two, at
the bottom of Lake Superior. What exactly caused her to sink remains unknown. It could
be that her crew didn’t finish securing her hatches before water began breaking over
her deck and pouring into the ship. Or maybe she suffered a hull fracture that caused her
to break in two in the heavy seas? No one knows for sure.
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 claimed 19 ships and stranded over a dozen others. Over 270
lives were lost. It remains the deadliest storm in the history of the lakes.
When reading about maritime disasters, you frequently come across captains who were faced
with impossible life-or-death decisions that you, in the comfort of your home safe on land,
could never imagine. But in the case of the Henry B Smith, the correct decision was obvious,
even to fellow captains in Marquette at the time. Captain Fox of the Choctaw, though hesitant
to speak ill of another captain, was shocked to see the Henry B Smith leave port that stormy
afternoon. It was clear to him, and several others who were there that day, that even
a modern vessel like the Smith probably wouldn’t make it in those conditions.
Captain Owen was a respected captain known for his cautiousness. What he did that day
was out of character but he was under enormous pressure. Staying in port probably meant saying
goodbye to the career he had dedicated his life to. Ultimately the final decision was
his, but the alternative probably felt unimaginable. He knew that he was taking a significant risk.
But no one thinks it will happen to them. Captains believe in their ships even when
they’ve been set up to fail.
Thank you so much for watching. I’m curious what you think of Captain Owen’s decision.
Do you think it’s fair to blame him for the situation or should blame fall on the
company? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this video help out the channel
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All right crew, that’s all I’ve got. Until the next one, be nice to people.