Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Authored and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the author prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== NAME: City of Bangor OTHER NAME(s): - REASON: aground in storm DATE: November 30, 1926 LOCATION: Lake Superior, Keweenaw Point TYPE: propeller, freighter HULL TYPE: steel BUILDER: F.W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, MI., - 1896 OWNER: Nicholson Transit Co., Detroit, MI MASTER: TONNAGE: 3994 gross LENGTH: 445.42 ft BEAM: 44.66 ft DEPTH: 23 ft REBUILD: 1904 - Rebuilt & lengthened 1925 - tonnage change CASUALTIES: 0 SURVIVORS: 29 November 30, 1926 found the City of Bangor struggling upbound through a Lake Superior blizzard, attempting to reach the protected waters behind Keweenaw Point. She was loaded light with 248 Chrysler automobiles destined for Duluth. The Chryslers may have even- tually made it but the City of Bangor didn't. As she was riding higher than normal the mountainous waves battered at her sides until she finally slid into one of the deep troughs and couldn't escape. As she rolled heavily, side to side, being pushed sidways towards the rocky shore of Keweenaw Point, the auto- mobiles on the upper deck slid to and fro on the icey surface and some disappeared into the lake. A tasty appetizer for the Nov- ember witch. Now aground on the rocky point and still mercilessly pounded by the storm the crew of twenty-nine men abandoned ship and nar- rowly escaped death from exposure and hun- ger in the ten degree below zero blizzard conditions. They were rescued by members of the Eagle Harbor coast guard station who were surprised to find them huddled together on the beach as they were returning to their station with the twenty-one survivors of the steamer Thomas Maytham which had stranded earlier on the Isabell Point Reef, but that's another story. Accounts say that 230 Chyslers were later dug out of the snow which had drifted over the wreckage. The City of Bangor's hull was sold to T.L. Durocher of Detroit, Mich., but was given up as being a constructive total loss. For years she sat, almost forgotten, and it wasn't until 1942 that her hull was cut up on site for scrap. ======================================================================== Sources: Dana Thomas Bowen, "Shipwrecks of the Lakes" Ludington Daily News, December 3, 1926 Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH