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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Ludington Daily News 
Tuesday, November 26, 1940
pp 1 & 3

                 HALF OF STEAMER MINCH
                   IS GONE, DIVERS FIND
                   
               Work on Freighter is Halted
                  After Search for Stern
                         Fails
                         
           PENTWATER, Nov. 26. - The mystery of what
        caused the sinking off Pentwater Armistice
        night of the two freighters ANNA C. MINCH
        and WILLIAM B. DAVOCK was an even deeper
        mystery today, in view of divers' reports
        that the stern of the ship is missing.
           The hull, believed intact, was discovered
        Nov. 14 by Clyde Cross, Pentwater Fisherman,
        but divers reported Monday, after detailed
        inspection, that the stern and about 120
        feet of the after portion of the hull are
        missing.
           Diving crews were at work all day Monday,
        working until dark, trying to determine if
        the missing portion is in the vicinity of
        the remainder of the hull. They found no
        trace of it.
                      
                      Divers Leave
           After making their report Monday, further
        diving work was abruptly halted today. Divers
        Tom Mahan and his son, Leo, returned to Muskegon
        today as did the tug TeeZeeLee, also of Muskegon.
           They said, as far as they knew, no further
        efforts would be made at present to locate the
        missing portion of the MINCH.
           Marine experts believe the MINCH and DAVOCK
        collided in the Armistice gale at some unknown
        point probably not far from Pentwater. The im-
        pact, they believe, must have been terrific,
        tearing a gash in the forward section of the
        MINCH and, perhaps on a second, third or fourth
        impact, breaking the MINCH in two.
           It is believed the after section of the
        MINCH will be found near the hull of the DAVOCK,
        when and if the DAVOCK is located.
        
                        Continue Search
           Efforts to find the DAVOCK's hull continued
        Monday, when Holmstrom brothers fishtug SEA WOLF
        of Ludington again patrolled the region where
        the DAVOCK is believed to have sunk.
           An airplane patrol of the area Sunday, it was
        learned, yielded no further trace of the DAVOCK.
           Officials began to fear that efforts to locate
        either the missing portion of the MINCH or the
        DAVOCK might not be fruitful until next spring,
        when water clears. Water is so murky at present,
        they said, that there is little possibility of
        seeing beneath the surface, even on a relatively
        calm day.
           Diving crew said the tangled condition of that
        part of the MINCH which has been located is "one
        of the strangest we have ever seen."
           "It indicates that the ship certainly took a
        terrific beating, both by collision and at the
        hands of high seas," one of them reported.
           Any bodies still aboard the MINCH, it was felt,
        will be found in the missing after section. None
        was found in the forward section.
        
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