AMERICA

About this property

America was a packet boat transporting passengers, mail, and packages between settlements along the North Shore of Lake Superior, an inland sea in central North America. Built in 1898, America sank in Washington Harbor off the shore of Isle Royale in 1928, where the hull still remains. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. America (Official No. 107367) was a steel-hulled ship, built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company in Wyandotte at what is today the Wyandotte shores golf course and launched on April 2, 1898. The ship was 184 feet long, 31 feet wide, and 11 feet in depth. She had a gross tonnage of 486 tons and a net of 283 tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine and two Scotch boilers, manufactured by the Dry Dock Engine Works, delivering 700HP. Less than a month after her launch, America began a daily run, transporting passengers and packages on Lake Michigan between Chicago and Michigan City, Indiana. The ship remained on this run until 1901; in 1902 she was purchased by the Booth Steamship Company and transferred to service in Lake Superior. There, the ship served as a communications link for the western portion of Lake Superior, running three voyages per week among Duluth, Minnesota, Isle Royale, and Thunder Bay, Ontario and numerous small communities in between. The ship carried supplies in and fish catch out, as well as moving mail and passengers. America had a number of accidents; the first one barely two weeks after she arrived in Duluth, when the ship ran into an ice floe and stove in her bow. In 1904, she ran too close to the steamer Edwin F. Holmes, destroying five staterooms, and in 1909 she ran aground. In 1909, the Booth Steamship Company failed and a new company, the Booth Fisheries Company, took over operation of the failed company's assets, including America. In 1911, America was lengthened to 183 feet, increasing the gross and net tonnages to 937 tons and 593 tons respectively. The beam and depth remained the same. The rework added 12 more staterooms, bringing the total to 51, of which 43 were reserved for passengers. In 1914, management of the ship was taken over by the United States & Dominion Transportation Company, a subsidiary of Booth. Also in 1914, America again ran aground, taking considerable damage. On 7 June 1924, she struck a reef, capsized, and sank off Isle Royale, Michigan; all 47 people aboard survived, and she was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. In 1926, she collided with another steamer, and in 1927 rammed the dock and grounded while coming into port.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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