Miztec (schooner barge)

The schooner Miztec before she was converted to a barge
History
United States
Name:	Miztec
Owner:	Marine Transit Co. (original owner)
Operator:	O.W. Blodgett Lumber Company
Port of registry:	Port Huron, MI
Builder:	H. Ihnken & P. Lester
Completed:	1890
Identification:	Official No. US92166
Fate:	Foundered on May 13, 1921 off Vermilion Point on Lake Superior when in tow of the propeller Zillah.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Schooner later converted to barge
Tonnage:	777.10 Gross Register Tonnage 738.50 Net Register Tonnage
Length:	194 ft (59 m)
Beam:	34.5 ft (10.5 m)
Depth:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power:	Sail, later towed
Crew:	7
Notes:	All hands lost on the traditional day of bad luck, Friday the 13th

777.10 Gross Register Tonnage

The Miztec was built as a 3-masted schooner in 1890. She was later converted to a barge and served as a consort for lumber hookers on the Great Lakes. She escaped destruction in a severe 1919 storm that sank her longtime companion, the SS Myron, only to sink on the traditional day of bad luck, Friday the 13th, 1921, with the loss of all hands. She came to rest on Lake Superior’s bottom off Whitefish Point near the Myron.

The Miztec’s wreck was illegally salvaged in the 1980s. Artifacts from the Miztec became the property of the State of Michigan after they were seized in a 1992 Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) raid on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The State allows the museum to hold a triple sheave block and hook and a double sheave block and hook from the Miztec as a loan. Her wreck is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.

The 194 foot wooden Miztec was built as a 3-masted schooner in 1890 in Marine City, Michigan. She was enrolled at Port Huron, Michigan on 8 April 1890. On 3 May 1890 she ran ashore near Minorville, Wisconsin. The Miztec spent the final years of her career as an O.W. Blodgett Lumber Company barge consort towed by lumber hookers. She was stranded by her tow, the SS Myron, off Vermilion Point in a severe November gale in 1919. She narrowly escaped total destruction and suffered heavy damage but survived the storm while the Myron did not. She was rebuilt in 1919.