The last night of November, 1922 was a bad night to be out on the water. Winds reached speeds of 60 mph and a heavy snow was falling. The Canadian steamer Maplehurst was out in the middle of the lake, southeast of Isle Royal, struggling to reach the Canadian lake head with his cargo of coal. Captain Menard decided to give up on that plan and came about to seek the shelter of the Keweenaw. He aimed for Copper Harbor, but then decided that the entrance was too shallow and dangerous to attempt with the heavy seas he was in. He continued on to the southwest along the peninsula. He was a few miles from the north entrance to the Ship Canal by midnight. By then, the pummeling of the waves had taken a toll and the ship was showing signs of breaking up. Distress flares were lit. The Portage Lake Coast Guard crew had already been observing the Maplehurst’s slow progress toward safety. With the flares confirming the ship’s distress, a motor lifeboat was launched to assist. After a wild 45-minute trip, it reached the Maplehurst. Captain Menard released his crew to leave if they wished, but he was staying onboard. Seas were too rough to lower lines or boarding ladders, so Bosun Tucker called for the Maplehurst crew to jump for the lifeboat. In a feat of small boat seamanship, Tucker ran the lifeboat alongside of the stricken steamer ten times. Ten men jumped, but one missed the lifeboat and drowned. The rest of the crew declined to leave their ship. Finally, a monster wave washed over the ship, knocking out her power plant. The Maplehurst went dark. Unable to find the ship in the darkness and snow to make another pass, Bosun Tucker reluctantly aimed the overloaded lifeboat back to the station. Without power for steerage, the Maplehurst was blown by the storm onto the reef west of the Ship Canal. There, she was beaten to pieces, sinking in 35 feet of water, taking her Captain and the remaining nine crew members with her. ship-wrecks.net/shipwreck/keweenaw/maplehurst.html
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:37:21 +0000
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