SS M.M. Drake (1882)
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SS M.M. Drake underway
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | M.M. Drake |
| Owner: | John Green, Buffalo, New York |
| Port of registry: | Buffalo, New York |
| Builder: | Union Dry Dock Company |
| Completed: | 1882 |
| Identification: | Official No. 91485 |
| Fate: | Foundered off Vermilion Point in Lake Superior with her tow, schooner Michigan on 2 October 1901 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Steamer, propeller, barge |
| Tonnage: | 762 Net Register Tonnage |
| Length: | 201 ft (61 m) |
| Beam: | 34.42 ft (10.49 m) |
| Depth: | 14.5 ft (4.4 m) |
The SS M.M. Drake was a wooden steam barge that towed consorts loaded with coal and iron ore on the Great Lakes. She came to the rescue of the crews of at least 4 foundering vessels in her 9 year career only to meet the same fate in her final rescue attempt. Drake sank in 1882 off Vermilion Point after a rescue attempt of her consort Michigan. Her rudder, anchor, and windlass were illegally removed from her wreck site in the 1980s. They are now the property of the State of Michigan. The rudder is on display as a loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and the anchor and windlass are on loan for display to Whitefish Township Community Center. The wreck of Drake is protected as part of an underwater museum in the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.
Drake was constructed in 1882 in Buffalo, New York as a wooden steam barge and named for the line superintendent of her building company, Mr. Marcus Motier Drake. The Drake started her career in September 1882 by towing the barge F.W. Gifford. In 1883 she was chartered for Lake Erie to Duluth, Minnesota for coal and from Marquette, Michigan to Lake Erie for iron ore. In 1885 she was re-admeasured and had upper decks added at the Union Dry Dock Company in Buffalo, New York. James Corrigan of Wickliffe, Ohio became her third and final owner in 1889.
During her nine-year career, she came to the rescue of distressed vessels and she had several mishaps of her own, including stranding on a reef in 1882, running ashore in 1888 near Cheboygan, Michigan, and striking a bar and sinking at the dock in Duluth, Minnesota in 1889. In 1883, Drake rescued the crew of her consort, the 347-ton schooner Dot (the former Mary Merrit), when Dot began leaking and sank off Grand Marais, Michigan. In 1889, Drake picked up 3 passengers and the 15-man crew from the wooden steam barge Smith Moore that had been sideswiped by James Pickands in heavy fog. Drake towed Moore for 6 hours when Moore finally sank only 300 feet from the bar at the mouth of the Munising, Michigan harbor. In 1900, Drake rescued the 8-man crew from the leaking schooner-barge R. Hallaran that foundered off Keweenaw Point near Stannard Rock Light. Drake saved at least 4 crews from foundering vessels during her career but her final rescue of her own consort's crew caused a fatal blow to her structure that resulted in her suffering the same fate.
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