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Marine &
Oceanographic
Technology Network
E-mail: info@motn.org |
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Quest
Marine Locates Lost Passenger Ship
October
27, 2006
The Great Lakes passenger ship S.S. North American which sank in September of 1967
while on a voyage from Erie PA. to Newport News VA has been found. A research team,
this past July aboard Quest Marine’s R/V Quest located the ship close to the edge of the
continental shelf approximately 140 miles off the New England coast in 250 feet of
water.
Considered the Queen of the Great Lakes, the SS North American was built in Ecorseth
Michigan, and launched January 16 1913. Constructed for the Chicago Duluth and
Georgian Bay Transit Company she was the first ship built anywhere exclusively for
cruising, her career on the Great Lakes spanned 51 years from 1913 to 1964. In 1967 the
ship was sold to the Seafarers International Union for further use as a training ship. The
280’, 2317 gross ton ship was being towed by the tug Michael McAllister to a shipyard
for conversion to a training ship when it sank suddenly on the night of September 13 ,
1967. Swells from approaching hurricane Doria proved too much for the aging ship and
contributed to her loss. No one was injured in the sinking and the tug reached port safely.
Quest Marine’s research team led by Captain Eric Takakjian conducted three days of
survey diving operations at the wreck site over the period 15-17 July 2006. Three dive
teams of two divers each accomplished photographic and physical measurement documentation of the wreck. The divers included Takakjian, Patrick Rooney, Steven
Gatto, Tom Packer, Heather Knowles and David Caldwell. Due to the depth all dive
teams breathed custom blended helium based gas mixtures. Decompression was
accomplished with the use of multiple oxygen-enriched gases.
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