Throwback Thursday is sponsored by Dresden Meat Packers:
This week’s Throwback Thursday is from the Sombra Museum:
“This ship is the Fontana, who was the catalyst for many accidents on the waters.
On August 3, 1900, the wooden schooner Fontana was headed from Presque Isle, Michigan to Cleveland, Ohio with 2,593 tons of iron ore onboard. She was being towed by the steamer Kaliyuga. As the ships sailed down Lake Huron around midnight, they noticed 3 other ships ahead with their lights on. The first boat was the steamer Appomatox, who was towing the schooner Santiago, which was filled with coal. The third ship was the steamer Inter Ocean. All three of them were heading upbound from the American side of the river.
As the boats met near the Bluewater Bridge, the Kaliyuga signaled that she was going to pass, and the Appomatox signaled back in acknowledgment. The men on the Fontana were on deck to see the lights of Port Huron, which was Captain George McCoy’s hometown. Despite the signals that all was clear, the Santiago swung towards the Kaliyuga and crashed into Fontana, colliding into her bow. She started to sink immediately, taking the life of one man who was asleep below deck. The other men managed to escape onto the lifeboat and make it to safety. You’d think this would be the end of the tragedies of the Fontana, but unfortunately it was just the beginning.
The stern of the Fontana was still sticking out above the water, causing a major hazard to other boats trying to navigate through the area. Buoys and lights were placed on the wreck to warn people. Two days after the wreck, the schooner Kingfisher, who was being towed by the steamer Samuel Marshall, collided with the wreck of the Fontana and took away her foretop and mainmast. A month later, while they were trying to figure out how to clean up the wreck, the schooner John Martin, who was being towed by the steamer Maurice B. Grover, was trying to navigate its way past the wreck when it collided into the steam barge Yuma. The Martin sank to the bottom of the river, taking 4 crew members down with her. Now there were 2 wrecks in the already crowded waters. The final mishap was when the schooner A.J. McBrier hit the Fontana in the early morning, knocking a sailor into the waters and drowning him.”
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