SS Vienna (1873)
.jpg)
Vienna at dock.
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | Vienna |
| Owner: | Built for Cleveland Transportation Company. Owned by Orient Transportation Company at time of loss |
| Port of registry: | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Builder: | Quale & Martin of Cleveland, Ohio |
| Completed: | 1873 |
| Fate: | Sank in Whitefish Bay 17 September 1892 after she was rammed by the Nipigon |
| Notes: | United States Registry # 25875 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Propeller, wooden steamer |
| Tonnage: |
1005.79 Gross Register Tonnage 829.42 Net Register Tonnage |
| Length: | 191.33 ft (58.32 m) |
| Beam: | 33.66 ft (10.26 m) |
| Depth: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | Propeller |
| Notes: | Vienna was downbound with her schooner barge tow, the Matte C. Bell, when she sank. No lives were lost. |
1005.79 Gross Register Tonnage
The SS Vienna was built in 1873 during the era when steamers were built with sail rigging. She had a 19 year career marked with maritime incidents including sinking when she was just 3 years old. She sank for her final time in fair weather in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior after she received a mortal blow when she was inexplicably rammed by the steamer Nipigon. Although no lives were lost when the Vienna sank for the last time, more than 100 years later her wreck claimed the lives of 4 scuba divers, the most of all the wrecks in the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve that now protects her as part of an underwater museum. Her wreck was stripped of artifacts that resulted in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources seizing her artifacts in a raid on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in 1992. Her artifacts are now on display in this museum as loan from the State of Michigan.
Quayle & Martin built the wooden steamer Vienna with an octagonal pilot house and sail rigging in 1873 for the Cleveland Transportation Company during the era when insurance companies still required ships to carry sails to maintain liability coverage.
Vienna had a series of maritime incidents during her 19 year career. In August 1876, she ran ashore at Presque Isle in Lake Huron and was able to get off. Her luck did not hold in October 1876 when she sank in Lake Superior with a cargo of grain when she was just 3 years old. She was rebuilt in 1875 – 1876 as a double-decker with 3 masts and increased tonnage. In September 1883 she sustained considerable damage when the Willow Street bridge swung into her in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1887, she was assisted by the tug Leviathan when she was stranded on an uncharted 14 feet (4.3 m) deep shoal 1.5 to 2 miles (2.4 to 3.2 km) southwest of Waugoshance Light in the Straits of Mackinac with $1,800 in damages. In 1889, she was sold to Orient Transportation Company of Rockport, Ohio. In 1890, her rigging was changed to 2 masts. She sank for a second and final time in 1892.
...
Wikipedia