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TELESCOPE May- June, 1968 Volume 17, Number 5 e KEJ i Great Lakes Maritime Institute Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Belle Isle, Detroit 7, Michigan MAY-JUNE Page A94 FLOUR by C. E. Stein STORY Twelve days after the ore carrier As long ago as September of 1848 DANIEL J. MORRELL foundered in Lake close to three hundred barrels of Huron during the early morning flour and corn meal were salvaged hours of November 29» 1966, the along the Ontario deaches of Lake Huron. In October of the same year body of one of her deckhands, that of Saverio Grippe of Ashtabula, the charred upper works of the pro pellor GOLIAH were discovered near Ohio, was found washed up on the beach of Inverhuron Point, nine the mouth of the Pine River. Her mites north of Kincardine, Ontario. mast floated ashore at Kincardine. According to Mansfield,the GOLIAH One day later, Howard Trussler of had cleared the St. Clair River, up Point Clark picked up a life pre bound on Septmber 13, 1848 with a server and a flare container from the MORRELL which he had found on very heavy cargo consisting of 200 the beach south of Kincardine, at kegs of powder, 20,000 bricks, 30, 000 feet of lumber, 40 tons of hay, the mouth of the Pine River. and 2,000 kegs and barrels of pro One month later, Alex Ritchie and visions and flour consigned to var Constable Bernard Ashton of South ious mining companies along Lake hampton, Ontario discovered in the Superior. Three hours later the schooner SPARTA followed the GOLIAH shore ice south of that port, a mattress, a mans shoe, a small sec up into Lake Huron within sight of tion of a life boat, and an oar. the Michigan shore. Capatin Fuller, The oar had the name 'DANIEL J. master of the SPARTA, reported hearing and distinctly feeling an MORRELL' stamped on it. explosion, though many miles dis The body of Saverio Grippe, the tant. There were no survivors from life preserver, the oar, and the the GOLIAH other articles, if of the same ori gin, had floated east and north a Was it the flour from the GOLIAH distance of sixty to eighty miles which washed ashore across the lake across the breadth of Lake Huron and was picked up on the Ontario from the mouth of Saginaw Bay. beaches? Probably. At this distance from the event though we have no For more than a century the resi conclusive evidence. dents along the Canadian shore of Lake Huron, from Bayfield north to Since 1848 recurring stories of Southampton, have been the recipi flour washing ashore near Inver ents of manna from the waves, most huron have been many and varied. ly in the guise of flour. The origin of the flour has always MAY-JUNE Page 95 been a matter of Intriquing specu water made a paste about half an lation to me. The haze of yester inch thick inside the bags. The year has produced a number of con flour bebeath the paste was dry and flicting stories. All were from re as good as when it was milled. We liable sources. Yet, the flour that used it until we ran out of it was washed ashore in 1915, the ear about three years later. The bags ly 20's, and during the first year were of two sizes. The big bags of the Second World War no one act were pretty fancy. They were white ually knows where it came from. bags decorated with a big red star over a green cresent." During my years of interest in legends of the Lakes it has been a genuine pleasure and appreciated privilege to chat with ship masters and crew members who handled canvas or fired or wheeled on the wooden ships of a bye gone era. Always at some time during these conversat ions I have asked two questions. Where were you during the storm of 1913 and what do you know about the flour washing ashore at Inverhuron? My interest in the flour stories was re-kindled by the discovery of the MORRELL relics that were found clear across the lake. Now, by reason of sheer logic of the fact that a man rarely forgets the year of his marriage (though he may ocassionally forget some of the anniversaries) we will follow through the story of the flour floating ashore in 1915. Neil 'Skipper' McKinnon of the AZOV C.P. Labadie Collection Tenth Concession of Kincardine Town ship, wheeled on the passenger and package freighter SUSQUEHANNA be "No! He's right! That flour did fore the turn of the century. Apro not come off the AZOV", chimed in pos of my perenial question, he re Malcom 'Mac' McDonald, oldtime plied: "I was married in 191^. The shooner man of Goderich. "I know. next year, in the summer, I rememb The AZOV belonged to my father. She er taking the team hitched to the foundered in Lake Huron, right gravel box, down to the beach at enough, and drifted ashore at Inver Inverhuron to buy a load of flour. huron, but she drifted off again A custom's officer, I think it was and was found bottom up near Port Mac McPherson, had set up shop in Elgin and she's still there. Be an old shack to sell the bags of sides, on her last trip we loaded flour which were washing up on the lumber at Meldrum Bay on the Mani shore. Some said the flour was out toulin. She had a hold full of dry of the old schooner AZOV which had pine and a deck load of green hem foundered out on the lake. Some lock. I know! I was her mate and said not. Personally I didn't think helped load her. But I didn't sail it was. I never did hear for sure with her. When we finished loading what ship the flour was off. The there was quite a stiff onshore MAY-JUNE Page 96 PHILADELPHIA Rev. E.J. Dowling Collection breeze kicking up, so I went ashore the steamer PHILADELPHIA of 1,600 to look for a drink. When the tons capacity, which, up bound for breeze died down they looked for me Duluth with coal, was lost by col for a day or so then sailed without lision with the steamer ALBANY off me. That was the second time sleep Pointe aux Barques, Lake Huron, on ing one off likely saved my life. November 7, 1893, both steamers go ing to the bottom in deep water Archie McDougal 1 of Kincardine, carrying 2k members of the crews to who sailed with 'Skipper' Neil's their deaths in the greatest lake father, Captain 'Howling Hughie' disaster of the decade." McKinnon aboard the schooner SEPHIE helped out. "I was on the lakes when that happened. It wasn't a THE PHILADELPHIA carried coal. schooner. I think it was an Anchor The AZOV had carried lumber. Would Line steamer that went down with it be possible that the ALBANY had that flour. I don't know just when carried flour? If it did, how did it was, but it was years after the the flour get clear across Lake ship went down away out in deep Huron from Pointe aux Barques to water that the flour came ashore. Inverhuron? There were two or three bags every little which ways all the way from Newspapers of November 8, 1893, the 7th of Kincardine clear north dateline stories from various lake to Baie d'Or." ports telling of the collision. Modern interest in scuba diving Sand Beach, Michigan, November 8, for sunken treasure has revived in 1893...The particulars of the dis terest in old charts and lists aster off Pointe aux Barques are which indicate locations of old still meagre owing to the fact that wrecks. On one such listing there the men have been instructed by the is the following notation: "In 1868 owners to say nothing to anyone. the Anchor Line built at Buffalo The ALBANY of the Western Transite MAY-JUNE Page 97 Line was down bound with flour -for When the surf boat went out, the Buffalo. The PHILADELPHIA was up life saving crew found among the bound with coal and package freight floating wreckage, eleven bodies, for Duluth. some with broken limbs and other wise injured, but all with life The night had been fairly clear preservers on. The bodies were though there were heavy cloud banks found floating with heads and feet and the wind was blowing fresh. down. The propellor CITY OF CONCORD Both boats were making good time. assisted in looking for the bodies They had heard each other's whist until noon. Eleven bodies were re les but had no idea of any danger covered and taken aboard and were until the crash came and all was taken to Tawas. confusion. East Tawas, Michigan, November 8, The PHILADELPHIA struck the 1893...The bodies of the sailors ALBANY just forward of number 2 drowned off the steamers ALBANY and gangway, aft of the cabin doors, PHILADELPHIA were brought in here cutting her way into the ALBANY for by the CITY OF CONCORD. The captain a third of her width. The ALBANY of the CONCORD states that he dis was brought alongside and towed for covered the wreckage of the ALBANY about twenty minutes, but the sea about five o'clock yesterday morn was to heavy to make time that way, ing and that of the PHILADELPHIA so she was dropped in tow astern about half an hour later.

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