by James R. Marshall

Bringing Back a Piece of the America

Dear readers, when last we left our story of the steamer America, it was 1902 and the vessel was just purchased and under service of the Booth company.

This story now will take you through her untimely demise and onto a resurrection of her memory and a piece of her history. But I get ahead of myself.

As I explained on these pages in the last issue, the America transported cargo and a wide variety of people on its two-day voyages between Duluth and Ontario with stopovers along the route. In the years before and immediately following the early 1920s, when a highway was cut between those two locations, everything traveled by water or much slower on undependable overland stretches.

The America became the cruise line for wealthy tourists headed to the resort attractions of Isle Royale and a lifeline for the fishing and other families who depended on the tidy vessel to bring supplies and deliver their catches.

For 26 years, the America performed admirably and ably in this vital service. And she would have served many more years, no doubt, save for events on June 7, 1928, near the Washington Harbor dock on Isle Royale. The loading and unloading was routine. The departure should have been routine, too. It wasn’t.

After leaving the dock at Washington Harbor, Captain Edward C. Smith gave control to First Mate John Wick then headed to his cabin. Within minutes, Wick, working with wheelsman Fred Nelson, backed her over a reef, puncturing the hull. Pumping her out was futile. The captain, who’d rushed back to the pilothouse, called for her to be beached while bells alerted the 10 or so passengers and 30 some crew.

Before she could be beached on a nearby sandbar, the stern of the 183-foot America sank in about 100 feet of water, with bow above the surface.

Although many goods were lost, the only fatality of the evening was a water spaniel tied to the stern.

No immediate salvage was undertaken on the vessel and in 1929, after almost a year and a couple of court battles, ownership went to hardhat diver Captain Flynn.

My entry into the America’s story did not occur until a few decades after her sinking. In the mid-1960s, I was owner of Chippewa Outfitters Divers Supply in Duluth. Reports from some enthusiastic diving friends caused me to become interested in the ill-fated freighter. As I have explained in other Journals, I bought the salvage rights and a 38-foot Peterson cruiser from Captain Flynn’s son, Paul J. Flynn, and in 1965, work began in earnest to refloat the America. The plan was to bring the America back to Duluth and moor it near the Arena-Auditorium (today’s Duluth Entertainment Convention Center).

In this endeavor as SS America Salvors Inc., I worked with Flynn, attorney Patrick O’Brien and master diver Charles McClernan. Carpenter James Bronikowski and diver-welder Michael Pinkstaff aided the project.

Things looked particularly good as we examined the damage and the potential. The hole in the hull was horseshoe shaped and was patched with oakum and canvas. The engine protruded about 18 inches through the steel deck, and our plan was to secure it with timber and mattresses, then to cover it and other open areas with canvas. The engine, by the way, appeared to be in excellent shape without any marine growth. My partners and I believed that we could put patches into place then stabilize the hull by pumping out water and forcing in air to raise it.

Hopes were high that fall as reflected in a September 1965 report on the project from the Duluth News Tribune: “The arrival of the steamer America to the Duluth-Superior harbor is more than 37 years overdue.

“Overdue maybe, but she’s still on her way.”

At least, we thought she’d soon be on her way. Early winter weather delayed the refloating until the next spring. Again, in April 1966, we prepared to complete the work.

Our plans came to an explosively abrupt end when some unscrupulous divers used charges to blow a hole in the America’s hull, thereby, I believe, assuring it as their diving playground.

After the time, heart and expense invested in the project, we were, to put it mildly, disappointed. With any future permits to work at the Isle Royale National Park denied us - the superintendent didn’t want to stir further trouble - we took what we had salvaged and, essentially, went home.

Until now, for me at least, this has been the end of the story - except for my continuing interest and research on the America and its wreck.

Today, I find myself working with - unlike those explosive-setting divers - a most scrupulous set of diving enthusiasts who are helping to revive at least a piece of the America.

Among the items that I salvaged while working on the America was its spiral staircase and interior railing for passengers coming up to the deck. I also have a small sink from the vessel.

In 1965, the author and others involved in SS America Salvors Inc. worked on the underwater wreckage of the freighter to refloat her and bring her back to Duluth as an attraction. James R. Marshall Collection

Recently I learned that, through an anonymous donor, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society had acquired the ornamental railing for the same staircase.

The GLSPS was formed in 1996 with the goal of helping to stabilize the many underwater wrecks in the Great Lakes. Members have done innovative work preserving many wrecks, including the America. They’ve also been ethical leaders in encouraging divers to look, enjoy and leave it for others when visiting wreck sites.

In our new office at 310 E. Superior Street, we have an expanded lobby and storefront windows.

Here we have adequate space to display, for the first time, that staircase that I salvaged 40 years ago. When we contacted the GLSPS with news of our planned display, the members enthusiastically agreed to remarry the ornamental railing with the spiral staircase as part of an America tribute.

One part of this dream has already come true.

Ken Merryman, Tom Brueshaber and Ken Knutson of GLSPS brought to our lobby the display that they created. The care and skill of these folks came through when we compared the original staircase dimensions to the one that they created simply based on photographs and the ornamental rail. Their recreated stairs were within millimeters of the original! (You can see our editor standing with one foot on the display in the opening pages of this issue.)

Soon we hope to bring the staircase and other America items into our office.

I invite you all, dear readers, to visit our offices now to see the current display and to visit later when the completed exhibit is in place.

For me, having this public display will mean that some of my salvage dream has come true. The America, long overdue, made its way home in some measure.

The second edition of Shipwrecks of Lake Superior, edited by Jim Marshall, has recently been published. And a selection of Jim Marshall’s columns of lake lore and his inland sea voyages has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link for more information.

Feedback: jrm@lakesuperior.com 

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