Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= NOTICE TO USERS - These files are protected by the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Information contained herein is provided for research purposes and may be freely linked to. Copying for redistribution or presentation by any person, persons or organization is not allowed without the written permission of the author/submitter. Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Admiral OTHER NAME(s): built as W. H. Meyer OFFICIAL NO: 222239 DATE OF LOSS: 2 December 1942 CAUSE OF LOSS: Storm LOCATION: Lake Erie, off Avon Point, OH RIG TYPE: Tug, towboat HULL TYPE: Steel BUILDER: Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. - 1922 OWNER(S): Cleveland Tankers, Inc. MASTER: Capt. John O. Swanson, River Rouge, MI TONNAGE: 130 gt DIMENSIONS: 93.25 x 22 x 11.58 CASUALTIES: 14 (all) A light southeasterly wind was blowing on December 1st, 1942, as the tug ADMIRAL left Toledo with the Allied Oil Company barge, CLEVECO, in tow and began the 96 mile trip to Cleveland. The CLEVECO carried nearly one million gallons of #6 fuel oil. It was near 3 p.m. when the pair left Toldeo harbor. The weather was calm and there had been no storm warnings hoisted to indicate any change. During the night a gale of hurricane proportions howled across the lake and, at 4 a.m., the CLEVECO'S captain placed a ship to shore call to the superintendent of Cleveland Tankers, Inc. reporting that the ADMIRAL had sunk and that he could not see any of her crew in the water. At that time the CLEVECO was still anchored to the sunken tug and reported their position as being about two miles off Avon Point. The ADMIRAL had been purchased at Manitowoc in April, 1942, for the purpose of towing the CLEVECO. Modifications were made to allow for a bigger crew. This led to her superstructure being lifted, her center of gravity raised and roughly ten tons of weight added to her hull. On March 29, 1943, seven suits seeking $100,000 each were filed in federal court at Cleveland. The petitions asserted that the ADMIRAL was unseaworthy at the time of the disaster. Twenty-one more suits would follow. Cleveland Tankers, Inc., sought in a petition to limit their liabilities to $250, the amount obtained from the salvage of two lifeboats and two oars washed ashore following the disaster. On June 28, 1944, a federal court judge ruled in favor of the victim's families in what was by then a $2,200,000 damage suit stating that he had come "to the inescapable conclusion that the petitioners were guilty of negligence and failing to use due care to supply a seaworthy vessel." Cleveland Tankers petition to limit liability was denied. Of course they appealed the decision. On June 28, 1948, the court determined that the tug ADMIRAL was unseaworthy; and that "the owner had knowledge of that fact, and was negligent in not furnishing a sea- worthy ship; and that the loss of the tug and the barge was caused by the unseaworthiness of the tug." Victims: John O. Thompson, captain, River Rouge, MI William R. Cowatt, first mate, Cleveland Harold Hanninen, second mate, Cleveland William D. Rocks, chief engineer, Cleveland Francis Shannon, 1st asst. engineer, Ashtabula Bert Haahr, 2nd asst. engineer, Detroit John Tierney, wheelsman, Cleveland John O'Connor, wheelsman, Cleveland John Cahill, wheelsman, Cleveland Neil Chambers, fireman, Cleveland George Chambers, fireman, Cleveland Alexander Baldwin, fireman, Port Huron, MI Jerry Girard, utility man, Chicago, IL Robert J. Dundon, steward, Cleveland ======================================================================== Sources: Shipwreck files USGenNet Great Lakes Maritime History http://us-data.org/mi/glm/shipwrecks/cleveco-1942.txt Buffalo Courier, 30 March 1943 Buffalo Courier-Express, 29 June 1944 The Cleveco, No. 10040, 154 F.2d 605 (1946) Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2 April 1946 169 F.2d 622 (1948) Cleveland Tankers, Inc., v. Tierney et al., and four other cases. The CLEVECO. THE ADMIRAL. Nos. 10589-10592, No. 10580 Circuit Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit Toledo Blade, 4 May 1952