The SS Monarch was a combined passenger and freight vessel constructed in 1890 for service on the Great Lakes. In 1906, she sank near Isle Royale in Lake Superior, where her wreck and cargo still rest on the lakebed.
The Monarch was a wooden-hulled vessel designed to carry both passengers and cargo. Built in 1890 by John Dyble in Sarnia, Ontario, for the Northwest Transportation Company, she was launched on June 27 of that year. Notably, she was the last ship constructed in Sarnia until the onset of World War II. Measuring 259 feet in length, 35 feet in beam, and 15 feet in depth, the Monarch was powered by a 900-horsepower triple-expansion steam engine and equipped with two Scotch boilers, enabling speeds of up to 14 miles per hour. Her hull was reinforced with iron for durability, and she was outfitted with 65 passenger cabins.
Throughout her operational life, the Monarch served routes across the Great Lakes, most frequently traveling between Sarnia, Thunder Bay, and Duluth. In 1899, her owning company, Northwest Transportation, merged into the newly formed Northern Navigation Company, Ltd.
On December 6, 1906, the Monarch departed Thunder Bay bound for Sarnia, carrying a load of wheat, oats, salmon, and various goods. Despite a severe snowstorm, the ship set out across Lake Superior. That night, for reasons still unclear, she veered off course and collided at full speed with the rocky cliffs on the northern edge of Blake Point on Isle Royale.
To prevent the vessel from slipping back into deeper water, the engineer kept the engine running to hold her position against the shore. In a courageous effort, John D. McCallum, the brother of first mate Burt McCallum, managed to carry a lifeline to the shoreline through turbulent waves. Using this line, all passengers and crew were able to evacuate the wreck, with only one fatality reported.
The survivors stayed on Isle Royale for four days, using food recovered from the ship and keeping signal fires burning in hopes of rescue. They were eventually found and rescued on December 10, 1906.
Not long after, during the night of December 11–12, the Monarch broke in two, leaving only the bow above water. Over the next two years, salvage teams worked on the wreck, and by 1908, the ship’s engine and other mechanical components had been recovered.
Although the wooden structure of the Monarch has largely deteriorated over time, several remnants of the wreck are still visible. Substantial sections of the ship’s wooden remains are spread across the lakebed of Lake Superior, lying at depths ranging from about 10 to 80 feet (roughly 3 to 24 meters). Nearby, much of the vessel’s original cargo remains scattered around the site. In 2009 alone, divers visited the wreck approximately 85 times out of a total of 1,062 dives conducted in the area.
The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Comments
