SS Sagamore (1892)

SS Sagmore underway in 1892 shortly after its launch.
History
United States
Name:	SS Sagamore
Owner:	Huron Barge Company (Pickands, Mathers, & Co., Mgrs.)
Port of registry:	Marquette, Michigan
Builder:	American Steel Barge Company
Completed:	1892
Fate:	Sank near Iroquois Point, Whitefish Bay 29 July 1901 in a collision with the Northern Queen
Notes:	Official No. 57932
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steamer, whaleback, barge
Tonnage:	1601 Gross Register Tonnage 1557 Net Register Tonnage
Length:	308 ft (94 m)
Beam:	38 ft (12 m)
Depth:	24 ft (7.3 m)
Notes:	Sank with the loss of 3 crewmembers

1601 Gross Register Tonnage

The SS Sagamore is reported to be the best example of a whaleback barge among Great Lakes shipwrecks. Only 48 whalebacks ever existed on the Great Lakes. She sank in 1901 in the shipping lane near the Soo Locks when she was rammed by the steel steamer Northern Queen in one of Whitefish Bay's notorious fogs. Her Captain and two crewmembers went down with her. Artifacts from her wreck were illegally removed in the 1980s. Her artifacts are now the property of the State of Michigan and are on display as a loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The wreck of the Sagamore is protected as part of an underwater museum in the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.

The SS Sagamore's keel was laid 15 December 1891 by the American Steel Barge Company and she was launched 23 July 1892 in Superior, Wisconsin. She was built as 1,601 gross ton whaleback steamer barge, 308 feet (94 m) in length, 38 feet (12 m) in beam, and 24 feet (7.3 m) in draft. She was enrolled in Marquette, Michigan. She was sold to the Huron Barge Company and managed by Pickands, Mathers, and Company of Ashtabula, Ohio. She was usually towed by her consort whaleback steamer, the Pathfinder. The Sagamore once unloaded a record 3,200 tons of iron ore in 8 hours at Ashtabula in 1893.

On 29 July 1901, the Sagamore was anchored just off Iroquois Point with her consort, the Pathfinder, waiting for one of Whitefish Bay's legendary, thick fogs to clear. Both vessels were loaded with iron downbound from Duluth, Minnesota for Lake Erie. The steel steamer Northern Queen came suddenly through the fog on a collision course for the Pathfinder. The helmsman of the Northern Queen changed course to avoid the Pathfinder and headed directly for the Sagamore. The helmsman did not see the Sagamore due to the heavy fog. When the Northern Queen hit the Sagamore on the starboard side near the after turret, the Sagamore filled with water rapidly and sank. Five of the Sagamore's crew jumped to safety onto the deck of the Northern Queen, but three were lost. The Sagamore's Captain E. Joiner, the cook, and a sailor died in the collision.