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24 THE MARINE REVIEW March, 1914 : Capt. H. D. McLeod, Steamer Matoa The Matoa passed up Port Huron at 12:30 Sunday morning, Nov. 9, and on leaving the river the wind was moderate from the west. We _ steered north one- quarter west. Passed Harbor Beach 5:30: A. M. The wind at that time was north northwest, blowing fresh. I estimate we got about as far as Sturgeon Point and were well out in the lake. At 6:20 of the 9th, when probably about off Sturgeon Point, encoun- tered very heavy seas, which stove in the port side of the forward end of the after cabin, flooding the mess room, kitchen and let- ting a quantity of water into the engine room, and also carrying away three hatch strong-backs. It was snowing hard and contin- ued to snow without interruption until after she struck. At this point it became necessary to turn around and run before the wind. A half a barrel of oil was dis- tributed over each the port and starboard bows with pails. She came around in about 4 minutes and did not make any water while she was doing it. I estimate that the thermometer was about 15 or, 20 degrees above zero and freez- ing hard and making ice all over. We steered south by east, engine turning up 26 turns per minute. While on this course, and about 10 P. M. she cracked a spar deck plate just forward of the boiler house on the starboard side, the crack extending the full width of the plate. At midnight the aiter cabin was broken in by overtak- ing seas, the force of the water making a bulge of about 3 ft. in the bulkhead separating the en- gine room from the dining room at about the level of the dining room floor, and leaving this bulk- head only as a_ protection be- tween the engine room and the sea. At 12:30 she stranded and ran about 1,000 ft. before she stopped. She was heading south by west one-half west. of water under her stern and 14 ft. under her bow, and about one mile off the beach. At this time the after cabin boiler house, life boats, funnels, etc., were a mass of ice. She swung two points to the west after she struck. When she did strike, all the crew which were aft got forward and with the aid of oil heaters all hands Had about. 18 ft... kept fairly comfortable until day- light. Soon after daylight the sea moderated sufficiently to permit some of the crew to go aft and get a small coal stove which they set up in the windlass room and during the balance of the time we were on the boat this gave us sufficient heat to keep quite com- fortable. On Tuesday morning, the 11th, at 9 o'clock, the life say- ing crew from Pointe Aux Bar- - ques came alongside with their surf boat and offered to take us off, but I thought we would be more comfortable and just as safe as on shore, and therefore kept all hands aboard: the. ship. = he sea had now gone down sufficient- ly to permit reaching the galley, where it was. possible to do enough cooking to keep everybody supplied with food. The wreck- It is my opinion that the con- dition of the after cabin was such that had we been in deeper water my boat would not have stayed afloat much more than halt. an hour later than she struck as her engine room would certainly have filled up. from water. coming through the after partition. Capt. F. W. Light, Steamer Manola We passed up at Port Huron at 7 o'clock Sunday morning, Nov. 9, bound for Escanaba with a load of coal. We were drawing about 1/ ft. § in. at both ends. North- west storm warnings were up when we went up and the wind was blowing hard from the north- west at the time. I figured that if it got so bad that it was in- advisable to try to stay out in it, we could readily get into shelter at Sand Beach. We made good weather past Sanilac and. we passed the Regina at Sanilac, she being a little to the westward of us. After getting by Sanilac the wind died out for about five min- utes and then blew a gale from the north northeast, making a tremendous sea. Right after pass- ing Sanilac it began to rain and i feured that as long.as the northwest storm warnings were up the wind would go around again to the northwest, which would make it easy to get into Sand Beach. The wind held, however, from the north northeast and the rain continued, so it became a question whether we could pick up the Sand Beach light. We picked up the light about noon and in running under the break- water rolled so hard that both bilges touched slightly, but not enough to start any leaks. The government tug assisted us in tying up to the breakwater, which we did with a great deal of dif- ficulty, as the seas were washing over it. We had three lines out forward on her starboard side, a 10-inch and a wire line abreast and five lines aft. We lay about 5 ft. off the breakwater. After getting tied up we got to work, getting her big anchor free and tackle ready to drop. it over. While doing this and at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, our aft lines parted and shortly after the breast lines let go, then our tim- berhead forward alongside the windlass broke. This necessitated letting go of the mushroom an- chor. We were then about 50 ft. off the breakwater. We were still working to get our big anchor ready to drop, and it was ready when the last line we had on the breakwater parted. After getting it into the water with all the chain out we had, and about half the chain on the mushroom an- chor, she drifted about 800 ft. be- fore the engineer got his engine warmed up sufficiently to turn her over fast enough to hold her. Then we hove up. both anchors and ran up close to the breakwater and dropped them again. We suc- ceeded in holding her by working our engine from half to full speed. We continued this way until Mon- day noon. Heavy seas were com- ing over the breakwater. Where we lay there was very little sea, but a heavy current and very high wind. At 11 o'clock Monday night I thought it safe to proceed and in attempting to heave up our an- chors I found that the two chains were wrapped around one another and. it- took until 2 o'clock. Taes- day afternoon to get them free. While lying alongside the break- water we had_ several windows broken and some glass and frame starboard side of the skylight over the engine room. Several sections of the breakwater were forced out of alignment and_ several others had the tops taken off of them by the force of the storm.