The Chicora underway
History
United States
NameSS Chicora
OperatorGraham & Morton Transportation Company
BuilderDetroit Drydock Company
Launched26 June 1892
CompletedJuly 1892
HomeportSt. Joseph, Michigan
FateSunk on Lake Michigan January 1895
General characteristics
TypePassenger-cargo
Tonnage1,123 GRT
Length200 ft (61 m); 217 ft (66 m) oa
Beam40 ft 0 in (12.19 m)
Depth15 ft (4.6 m)
Installed power1 × 2500 HP Triple expansion
PropulsionSingle screw
Speed15.5 kn (18 mph/29 km/h)
Crew21
Notes21 crew & 1 passenger lost[1]

SS Chicora was a passenger-and-freight steamer built in 1892 for service on the Great Lakes. Considered to be one of Lake Michigan's finest steamers, she was lost with all hands in January 1895. She is now remembered chiefly for being mentioned by Chicago writer Nelson Algren, in Algren’s prose-poem, Chicago: City on the Make: “Who now knows the sorrowful long-ago name of the proud steamer Chicora, down with all hands in the ice off South Haven?” as well as “Sunk under the ice in the waves off South Haven, sunk with all hands for good and forever, for keeps and a single day.”

Construction and design

Chicora, a wooden-hulled, screw-propelled, passenger-cargo ship, was built in 1892 by the Detroit Drydock Company of Detroit, Michigan, for the Graham & Morton Transportation Company. Designed by Frank Kirby, her cost was $150,000. Chicora was launched from the builder's Orleans Street yard at about 3 pm, 26 June 1892, and completed in July; her yard number was 111.

Chicora was approximately 200 feet (61 m) in length—217 feet (66 m) overall—with a beam of 35 feet (11 m)—40 feet (12 m) over the guards—and moulded depth of 15 feet (4.6 m). She had a tonnage of 1,123 gross tons, or 900 tons burden. Chicora was licensed to carry 1,500 passengers as a summer excursion boat, with passenger accommodations which included 56 staterooms, sleeping quarters for 200, a large smoking room and "spacious" social hall. Her passenger cabins, grand staircase and gangways were all finished in mahogany, and an electric plant provided power for the ship's 250 lights. For freight service in the winter off-season, Chicora was built "especially stout" and had six-inch (15 cm) outer planking and three waterproof compartments.

Chicora was powered by a 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW), triple-expansion steam engine with cylinders of 20, 33 and 54 inches (51, 84 and 137 cm) and 42 inches (110 cm) stroke, driving a single screw propeller, while steam was provided by two steel forced-draft Scotch boilers with a working pressure of 165 pounds. The ship had a speed of approximately 15.5 knots (17.8 mph; 28.7 km/h)—a fast speed for the time.

When newly built, Chicora was described as a "masterpiece", with "lines ... as symmetrical and beautiful as any yacht". She was considered to be the premier ship of the Graham and Morton Line, and one of the finest vessels on Lake Michigan—the "Queen Mary" of the lake.

Service history

Originally built for service between St. Joseph and Chicago, Chicora once made the 65-mile (105 km) run between Benton Harbor and Chicago in 3 hours 40 minutes, at an average speed in excess of 19 miles per hour (31 km/h). In the winter of 1893/94, Chicora was placed on the St. Joseph–Milwaukee route, and again the following winter.

Chicora sank in Lake Michigan on 21 January 1895 off Milwaukee with a cargo of flour.[2] Portions of wreckage of the missing vessel-consisting of the Port side and forward upper bulwarks five feet (1.5 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) long along with the passenger gangway were found a mile on the ice near South Haven, Michigan.[3] Pieces of wreckage are also reported to have been found. Wreckage was brought into port by a Tug in 1917.[4][5] In April 1895 it was reported wreckage was coming ashore at New Buffalo, Michigan.[6][7] On 19 April 1895 a witness claimed to have seen the Chicora stern down and bow up in the lake between South Haven and Saugatuck, Michigan, on 23 January 1895.[8] Two messages that appeared to be from the ship were also found. A bottle containing a note reading "All is lost, could see land if not snowed and blowed. Engine give out, drifting to shore in ice. Captain and clerk are swept off. We have a hard time of it. 10:15 o'clock." was found on April 14. A week later a jar was found in Illinois containing a note reading "Chicora engines broke. Drifted into trough of sea. We have lost all hope. She has gone to pieces. Good bye. McClure, Engineer."[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Not One Rescued: That the Steamer Chicora Was Wrecked Is Now a Curiosity". St. Paul Daily Globe. 25 January 1895. p. 8. ISSN 2151-5328. LCCN sn90059523. OCLC 21579130. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Chronicling America.
  2. ↑ "American Marine Engineer May, 1917". National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association of the United States. Retrieved 7 October 2020 – via Haithi Trust.
  3. ↑ "Twenty-Six Lives Are Lost: Awful Fate of Capt. Stines and His Crew—No Milwaukee Passengers or Freight on Board—The Loss Is Total". The Milwaukee Journal. 24 January 1895. p. 2. ISSN 1052-4452. LCCN sn83045292. OCLC 298956108. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Google News.
  4. ↑ "American Marine Engineer May, 1917". National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association of the United States. Retrieved 7 October 2020 – via Haithi Trust.
  5. ↑ "Is It the Chicora?: Rumor that the Supposed Lost Ship Is off Michigan City". St. Paul Daily Globe. 26 January 1895. p. 1. ISSN 2151-5328. LCCN sn90059523. OCLC 21579130. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Chronicling America.
  6. ↑ "Chicora Wreckage". St. Paul Daily Globe. 12 April 1895. p. 3. ISSN 2151-5328. LCCN sn90059523. OCLC 21579130. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Chronicling America.
  7. ↑ "The Lost Chicora: Wreckage from the Ill-Fated Vessel Comes Ashore". Warren Sheaf. 18 April 1895. p. 2. ISSN 2166-8280. LCCN sn90059228. OCLC 1696330. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Chronicling America.
  8. ↑ "Save the Sunken Chicora: Michigan Farmer Locates the Wrecked Steamer". St. Paul Daily Globe. 20 April 1895. p. 1. ISSN 2151-5328. LCCN sn90059523. OCLC 21579130. Retrieved 16 January 2016 – via Chronicling America.
  9. ↑ "The search continues: a few of the most-sought-after undiscovered Great Lakes shipwrecks". MPR News. 8 July 2018.

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