SS Western Reserve

The SS Western Reserve was a propeller lake freighter that was constructed in 1890 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company for Peter G. Minch, a ship's captain and operator who was pioneering the industrialization of bulk carrier freight service on the Great Lakes. She had a length of 301 feet, a beam of 41 feet and drew 21 feet of water. She and a ship of similar dimensions and building history, the SS W.H. Gilcher, were two of the first lake freighters to be constructed out of steel plate. Her steel construction made it possible for the vessel to carry heavier loads of freight than her wooden rival steamships.

The Western Reserve foundered on August 30, 1892, in Lake Superior. She had been traveling upbound in ballast to Two Harbors, a port serving the Minnesota iron ranges, for a load of iron ore. Of the 27 officers, men, and passengers aboard, 31 were lost and there was but one survivor, wheelsman Harry Stewart. Stewart made land on a desolate stretch of shoreline between Grand Marais and Deer Park on the Upper Peninsula of far northern Michigan, and lived. The list of those lost included the ship's owner, Peter Minch. Upon being debriefed, Stewart's description of the metal fatigue and structural failure of the 1.5-year-old lake vessel created almost conclusive evidence that the shipbuilders had improperly used brittle steel contaminated with sulfur and phosphorus. Coverage by The New York Times of the disaster was headlined: "The Steamer Broke in Two." Eight weeks after the Western Reserve disaster, the W.H. Gilcher - which had been built at the same time with similar mill runs of steel plate - disappeared on northern Lake Michigan. The disasters, loss of life of seamen and a well-known shipowner, and ensuing scandal led to permanent changes in the types of steel approved for use in U.S. and Canadian shipbuilding.

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