- James C. Carruthers -
Official Number: 131090 (Can.)
LENGTH: 529 ft.
BEAM: 58ft.
DEPTH: 27 ft.
TONNAGE: 7,862 GT, 5,606 NT
BUILDER: Collingwood Shipbuilding Co., Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
OWNER: St. Lawrence & Chicago Steam Navigation Co., Ltd, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When launched at Collingwood on May 22, 1913, the Owen Sound Sun declared her to be the "Mightiest Steamer of its kind." Even though the builders had sacrificed cargo space in favor of safety features the Carruthers could still carry 375,000 bushels of wheat, or 600,000 bushels of oats, and about 11,000 tons of coal. It would take 375 train cars, extending a distance of three miles to carry the cargo to fill her hold. Her modern equipment (for the time) included such things as electric telephones and a wireless transmitter. In July, 1913, the Carruthers departed Fort William carrying the largest grain cargo ever shipped (at that time) in a Canadian bottom. The cargo consisted of 305,000 bushels of wheat and 75,000 bushels of flax. She was the largest vessel lost to the 1913 storm.
Carruthers was constructed with a complete double bottom, five feet deep, and side tanks of the same width for water ballast, the capacity of the tanks, including the peak tanks, engine-room tanks, and deep tanks forward, being approximately 6,600 tons, or 1,600,000 gallons of water, which could be pumped out in three hours. She was equipped with a steam steering gear, in addition to an emergency steering gear, the latter a safety device. The propelling machinery consisted of triple expansion engines supplied with steam by three marine Scotch boilers, designed to the give vessel a speed of eleven miles an hour loaded and thirteen miles an hour light. (source: The Toronto Star, 12 November 1913
On Thursday, 6 November, 1913 the J. H. Sheadle, Wexford and James C. Carruthers departed Fort William downbound with grain. The Wexford was reported downbound at Sault Ste. Marie at 11 p.m. Saturday. The Carruthers passed down the following morning at 8 a.m. followed by the J. H. Sheadle at 8:30. Carruthers and Sheadle would both stop to take on fuel at the Pickands, Mather & Co. docks at Alpena before continuing on. Carruthers had just finished coaling and was last seen by those on the J. H. Sheadle as the Carruthers entered Lake Huron.
As Capt. Wm. H. Williams took the Carruthers out into Lake Huron not he, nor anybody else, could have predicted how savage and destructive this history making storm would become. The James C. Carruthers would not survive to port.
For decades it was believed that Carruthers had attempted to reach shelter in Georgian Bay. Witnesses ashore had reported seeing distress rockets off Iverhuron. Wreckage and bodies came ashore at Kincardine and Point Clark. That theory was laid to rest on 26 May, 2025 when shipwreck hunter, David Trotter, joined by the Underwater Research Associates located the hull of the Carruthers lying turtle under 190 feet of Lake Huron about 20 miles off Harbor Beach, MI. This was the last missing vessel of the massive 1913 storm.
Crew list found in
The Globe and Mail
Thursday, 13 November, 1913
The Duluth Herald, 2 December 1913, also gives the name of Joseph Sampson, a nephew of Mrs. John McInnis of Duluth
Bodies Shipped
The (St. Catharines, Ont.) Standard
Monday, 17 November, 1913
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