SS Choctaw

SS "Choctaw" was an steel-hulled American freighter in service between 1892 and 1915, on the Great Lakes of North America. She was a so-called monitor vessel, containing elements of traditional lake freighters and the whaleback ships designed by Alexander McDougall. "Choctaw" was built in 1892 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and was originally owned by the Lake Superior Iron Company. She was sold to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company in 1894 and spent the rest of her working life with it.
In foggy conditions on July 11, 1915, "Choctaw" was upbound for Marquette, Michigan, on Lake Huron with a cargo of coal from Cleveland. East of Presque Isle Light the freighter was rammed by the downbound Canadian canaller "Wahcondah". Although "Choctaw" sank in only 17 minutes, her crew of 22 escaped, and was picked up by "Wahcondah".
For a long time, shipwreck hunters searched for the wreck of "Choctaw" due to her unique design. The wreck was located by a team from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary on May 23, 2017, almost 102 years after she sank. She was discovered resting in about of water, lying on her starboard side with the bow partially buried in the lake bottom. The wreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2018.
History.
Design and construction.
Named after the Choctaw Indian tribe from the southern United States, "Choctaw" was built in 1892, on the banks of the Cuyahoga River by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company for the Lake Superior Iron Company of Ishpeming, Michigan. Her hull was in length with a beam, and had a hold and water bottom. She had a gross register tonnage of 1573.61 tons and a net register tonnage of 1256.28 tons. The vessel had a cutaway stern and seven cargo hatches, and there were no interior bulkheads between the forward collision bulkhead and the engine bulkhead in her stern. "Choctaw" could carry of cargo; when she was fully loaded, she had a draught. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine, steam for which was provided by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers. "Choctaw" was one of only three semi-whaleback ships ever built; there was an identical sister ship named "Andaste" and a "near-sister" ship named "Yuma".
Designed by Swedish naval architect Arendt Angstrom, "Choctaw" and "Andaste" had an unusual design. They were steel freighters similar to the iconic whaleback design invented by Captain Alexander McDougall, but unlike whalebacks, they had straight sides and a conventional bow. This combination meant from the waterline upward, their sides sloped inward in a "tumble-home" configuration. Ships with this hybrid design were known as "monitors", "semi-whalebacks" or "straight-backs", and like the true whalebacks, they were vulnerable to getting a wet deck in stormy conditions.
Service history.
"Choctaw" was launched May 25, 1892, as hull number 17 and entered service on June 24, 1892, with the official number 126874. On April 19, 1893, "Choctaw" was travelling on Lake St. Clair when the cylinder head exploded, killing two crew members and injuring another. On May 20, 1896, "Choctaw" collided with the larger steel freighter "L.C. Waldo", which tore a hole in "Choctaw" starboard side; she sank onto a shoal at the Soo Locks. On June 1, 1896, temporary repairs were made to "Choctaw" in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, before she sailed to Cleveland, Ohio.
At around midnight on May 26, 1900, "Choctaw" ran aground near Pointe aux Pins on Lake Erie. On April 26, 1902, "Choctaw" struck a rock or hit the bottom after being lifted by heavy seas near Marquette, Michigan, and partially sank after reaching the shelter of Marquette Harbour.
"Choctaw" was in Marquette Harbour on November 9, 1913, during that year's Great Lakes Storm when her Captain Charles Fox saw the steel freighter "Henry B. Smith" leave the shelter of the harbour. This would be the last time "Henry B. Smith" was seen afloat; she was one of the twelve ships that were lost during the storm.
Final voyage and collision.
On July 11, 1915, the weather conditions on Lake Huron were very foggy. "Choctaw", under the command of Captain Charles A. Fox, was upbound from Cleveland, Ohio, with a cargo of coal and was bound for Marquette, Michigan. At around 5:30 a.m. "Wahcondah", which was downbound with a cargo of wheat from Fort William, Ontario to Montreal, sighted "Choctaw". The captain of "Wahcondah" ordered the engines of his ship to be reversed but this did not stop "Wahcondah" from slicing into the port side of "Choctaw" between her first and second cargo hatches. After the collision, the captain of "Wahcondah" lost sight of "Choctaw". The crew of "Wahcondah" relocated "Choctaw" after sighting her tall funnel through the heavy fog. Eventually, Captain Fox ordered "Choctaw" lifeboats to be lowered but the vessel sank so quickly some of her crew could not make it to her lifeboats in time and had to jump overboard. The crew of "Choctaw" reached "Wahcondah" in their own lifeboats. Although "Choctaw" sank in only 17 minutes, her entire crew of 22 escaped. "Wahcondah" took the crew of "Choctaw" to Sarnia, Ontario. The approximate location of "Choctaw" sinking was given as east of Presque Isle Light. According to Fox:
We did not see the "Wahcondah" until she was within of us. She caught us on the port side and struck beams or else she would have cut us in two. We put off in the lifeboats as quickly as possible after we knew the ship could not float. The "Choctaw" listed to port and began to go down at the head. Then she righted and began to list to the starboard. As she shifted to starboard her stern rose out of the water and she rolled over, going down bottom side up. We were in the yawl boats about away when she rolled. It sounded as if a million dishes and hundreds of sticks were being broken as the ship rolled over.
The day after she sank, Captain Nelson Brown of the steamer "James H. Reed" spotted "Choctaw" upper cabins floating off Presque Isle, Michigan, and was able to read the ship's name as he approached them. Nine days after "Choctaw" sank, of her cabin and several timbers were discovered north of Middle Island.
Wreck.
Searches.
"Choctaw" was a highly sought-after shipwreck due to her unique design. Several unsuccessful attempts to locate the ship were made; several of them resulted in the discovery of one or more other wrecks. Shipwreck hunter Stan Stock conducted an independent search for "Choctaw" in 2003; he located the wreck of the schooner "Kyle Spangler" but failed to find "Choctaw". Shipwreck hunters from Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary collaborated with Stock in 2008 to map the wreck of "Kyle Spangler". In August 2008, they partnered with the University of Rhode Island but rather than finding "Choctaw", they located the wreck of the passenger steamer "Messenger".
In 2011, a group consisting of expert shipwreck hunters and high school students tried to locate "Choctaw". Their search effort was charted in a documentary named "Project Shiphunt". Although they failed to locate "Choctaw", they found the wrecks of the steel hulled freighter "Etruria", which sank on the lake after a collision with the steamer "Amasa Stone", and the schooner "M.F. Merrick", which sank in 1889 after a collision with the steamer "Rufus P. Ranney".
Discovery.
Between April and July 2017, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research to test new equipment including unmanned aircraft systems and autonomous underwater vehicles that were designed to search for missing shipwrecks. On May 23, 2017, researchers from Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary discovered two shipwrecks in the deep waters of Lake Huron, off the coast of Presque Isle, Michigan. The researchers carried out several investigations between June and August; these investigations confirmed the identities of the early wooden hulled freighter "Ohio" and "Choctaw". Both wrecks are in a place known as "Shipwreck Alley", which is a area of the Lake Huron shoreline that holds an estimated 200 shipwrecks. The US Federal Government named the area the nation's first National Freshwater Marine Sanctuary in 2000.
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary did not announce their discovery until September 1, 2017, and avocational shipwreck hunters continued to search for "Choctaw". On August 13, 2017, independent researcher Dan Fountain found "Choctaw" using a modified fishfinder. On August 20, he returned to the site with veteran shipwreck hunters Ken Merryman and Jerry Eliason to survey the wreck with Eliason's homemade hi-definition drop video system, positively identifying the wreck as "Choctaw."
"Choctaw" today.
The remains of "Choctaw" rest in about of cold, fresh water. When the vessel sank, the captain reported she "settled by the head soon after the collision, but shortly before she disappeared she rolled to starboard and capsized, going down bottom side up". The wreck rests on her starboard side, nearly upside down, with the exposed section of her hull rising at an angle from the lake bottom. The upper level of her stern cabins broke away when she sank, leaving only the weather deck level cabins intact. The wreckage of her pilothouse lies beside her hull. The entire bow, including the section between the first and the second hatch where the collision occurred, is completely buried and only the last three of her seven cargo hatches remain exposed. There is a sizeable debris field surrounding her wreck, with most of the visible artefacts located near her stern.
The wreck of "Choctaw" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2018, for its state-level significance in engineering and maritime history.