dies occurred from an almost lack of knowledge as to cause
and prevention. The various Steamboat Acts called for pumps and
the construction of most ships was such that even in iron and steel
steamers, there were wooden decks and minor bulkheads with combustible
paints and furnishing. The presence of long passageways and staircases
that acted as chimneys increased the ships vulnerability.
All this practically guaranteed that once any fire started, it would
sweep through the vessel with the explosive force of a blow torch.
fire fighters dread ship fires because of their complexity and difficult
access. Comments from land-based fire fighters include: its
like fighting a house fire by going down the chimney or smoke stack
and that steel box conducts heat like you wouldnt believe.
have been many famous fires on the lakes. One such catastrophe has
been referred to as the holocaust of September 8, 1934
when the U.S. Liner Munroe Castle burned in sight of
the New Jersey coast. One hundred and thirty-seven souls were lost.
Munroe Castle, just four years old, was considered the finest and
most luxurious vessel in the American passenger service, built to
1929 fire convention standards.
was the custom in all ships of the period, highly combustible linens
and furnishings in the cabins and public rooms outweighed the advantages
of the fire resistant partitions required by the convention. Fire
swept remorselessly through The Castle shortly after being detected
in the writing room. Some people were burned to death in their cabins,
some escaped by life boat and a few actually swam ashore
a distance of 8 miles.
1949, the era of passenger vessels on the Great Lakes was drawing
to a close. Ships built following a century-old tradition were almost
all ghosts, their names echoing from out of the mists of the past:
The Put-in-Bay, City of Detroit, The Western World.
one drama had yet to play out
an event that would finally bring sailing vessel fire safety on
board and into the modern era: the burning of the SS Noronic.
the summer of 49, the Noronic ran passengers from The Border
Cities (Windsor, Walkerville and Detroi) to Duluth, Minnesota. This
itinerary was revised in September, and her seven-day voyage began
in Windsor/Detroit, continued to Cleveland, then onto Toronto, the
Thousand Islands, and Prescott, Ontario, before returning to Detroit.
September 14, she weighed anchor from her berth in downtown Detroit
at 11 a.m., crossed Lake Erie to Cleveland to pick up more passengers,
then sailed through the Welland Canal into Lake Ontario.
this fateful voyage, 524 passengers, consisting mostly of Americans
from Cleveland, were enjoying a late-summer excursion to Canada
and the layover in Toronto. A crew of 171 looked after their safety
and catered to their every whim.
6 p.m. September 16th, the Noronic slid into her Canadian Steam-ship
Line berth in Toronto Pier 9 at the foot of Yonge Street.
With her bow facing north, and her starboard side secured along
the dock, passengers and some crew soon set out to venture amid
downtown Toronto, a city growing in sophistication in post WWII
the 171 crew, only 16 were on duty that night. Included among those
who went ashore was the Captain William Taylor, who returned at
this hour, most of the passengers had also re-boarded, along with
an unknown number of guests who accompanied passengers to the ship.
It was a cool night with the temperature around 60 degrees and a
steady wind from the southwest. Many of those who remained on the
ship would not live to see the sunrise. Instead, their peaceful
slumber would become a collective nightmare of panic and chaos
fire on the water.