Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 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/ ========================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Mohawk Deer (final) OTHER NAME(s): L. C. Waldo (1896-1915); Riverton (1915-1944) OFFICIAL NO: 141481 (US) - 137898 (C) DATE OF LOSS: 5 November 1967 REASON: Storm LOCATION: Gulf of Genoa, off Portafino, Italy RIG TYPE: Propeller, bulk freight HULL TYPE: Steel BUILDER: F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, MI - 1896 OWNER(S): Beaconsfield Steamships, Ltd MASTER: - TONNAGE: 4,423 gt DIMENSIONS: 451 x 46.5 x 23.66 CASUALTIES: 0 SURVIVORS: 0 Named for Lewis C. Waldo, then manager of the North- western & Roby Transportation companies. Launched at Bay City on March 7, 1896, after ice was cut out from the river. Just two months later the WALDO ran into and sunk the propeller CHOCTOW which was raised and repaired. May 1901 - Collision with steamer CITY OF BANGOR, minor damage. Sept. 5, 1908 - Collided with stern of steamer PENDENNIS WHITE in west Neebish channel, St. Marys River, during a dense fog. Minor damage to WHITE, no damage to WALDO. During the Great Storm of 1913 the L. C. WALDO was pounded with relentless fury by the gale winds and sledge- hammer waves that ripped away her pilot-house and deck- house, extinguishing her powerplant and leaving her at the mercy of the storm. Lifted by the savage seas she was flung solidly upon Gull Rock, Lake Superior. The crew of 26 , including two women, took shelter in the windlass room for the next four days when rescued in heroic style by the life- saving crews of the Eagle Harbor and Portage who had to chop their way through a solid wall of ice covering the hatchway to get to the WALDO's crew. The owners abandoned her to the underwriters as a total constructive loss. On May 4, the L. C. Waldo, or what was left of her, was towed through the breakwater at Portage lake by the wrecking tug FAVORITE. Hull buckled, with cabins battered and twisted, it was doubtful that she would ever sail the lakes again. She did, however, sail again after being purchased by the Mathews Steamship Company, Ltd., of Toronto and taken to Lorain, Ohio, where she was rebuilt at the yards of the American Shipbuilding Company and came out with the new name RIVERTON. Mathews Steamship Co., failed financially in 1932 and the RIVERTON was then purchased by Colonial Steamships Ltd. On November 14, 1943 the RIVERTON, loaded with grain, ran hard aground on Lottie Wolf Shoal, Georgian Bay, where she was again declared a constructive total loss and abandoned only to be rescued the following year and towed to Collingwood for repairs. She was purchased later that year by Mohawk Navigation Co., Ltd., of Montreal, and her name changed to MOHAWK DEER. Four years later she was transferred to Beaconsfield Steamships Ltd., another Montreal firm where she remained until 1967 when sold to Steel Factors Ltd., yet another Montreal firm. Sold for scrapping she was being towed to La Spezia, Spain, when a savage storm set in and her cables snapped and she stranded on the rocks off Portafina, Italy, going to pieces and sinking the next day. ======================================================================== Sources: The Ludington Record - 5 & 12 March 1896 Mansfield "History of the Great Lakes, Vol. II" - 1899 United States Circuit Court of Appeals Reports - 1900 Annual Report of the Steamboat Inspection Service - 1909 The Republican-News, St. Ignace, MI - 9 May 1914 Green's Marine Directory - 1916, 1920 Hamilton Spectator - 6 November 1967 Bourrie "Many a Midnight Ship" - pp. 38-39 O'Brien "Guardians of the Eighth Sea" - pp. 47-48