Vicinity of Address Restricted, Isle Royale National Park, Michigan. County/parish: Keweenaw.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places June 14, 1984. NRIS 84001716.
1 contributing site.Also known as:
SS Chester A. Congdon (originally named Salt Lake City) was a steel-hulled American lake freighter in service between 1907 and 1918. She was built in 1907 by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company of South Chicago, Illinois, for the Holmes Steamship Company, and was intended to be used in the grain trade on the Great Lakes. She entered service on September 19, 1907, when she made her maiden voyage. In 1911, Salt Lake City was sold to the Acme Transit Company. A year later, she was transferred to the Continental Steamship Company, and was renamed Chester A. Congdon, after lawyer and entrepreneur Chester Adgate Congdon. She was involved in several accidents throughout her career.
At 2:28 a.m. (EST) on November 6, 1918, Chester A. Congdon left Fort William, Ontario, under the command of Captain Charles J. Autterson, loaded with 380,000 bushels of wheat bound for Port McNicoll, Ontario. At 4:00 a.m., shortly after leaving the shelter of Thunder Bay, Chester A. Congdon encountered a heavy storm. Captain Autterson decided to return, and anchored in Thunder Bay until 10:15 a.m. when Chester A. Congdon headed back to open water. Shortly after she passed Thunder Cape, a thick fog descended on Lake Superior. She ran aground on the southern end of Canoe Rocks, on the northeast point of Isle Royale at 13:08 p.m. The first mate travelled to Fort William to deliver the news of the grounding. On November 8, a storm halted salvage operations, and broke Chester A. Congdon in two. She was the largest financial loss on the Great Lakes up to that point.
The wreck of Chester A. Congdon is the largest shipwreck of Isle Royale. It rests mostly intact in two pieces, with the bow on the south side of the reef now known as Congdon Shoal in 60–120 feet (18.3–36.6 m) of water, and the stern on the north side in 20–210 feet (6.1–64.0 m) of water. The wreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 14, 1984, and has become a popular site for recreational divers.
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