AH-WR-0503

Joseph L. Hurd

Propeller · United States · Lost 1913 · Door County & Lake Michigan

A long-serving Detroit-built propeller best remembered for colliding with and sinking the steel freighter Cayuga near the Straits approach in 1895.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Built in 1869 at Detroit, Joseph L. Hurd served for decades as a passenger and freight propeller before being converted first to a lumber carrier and later a stone barge. In May 1895, in fog near Skillagalee Shoals close to the Straits of Mackinac, she collided with and sank the steel freighter Cayuga; the Hurd herself was beached at Harbor Springs and later repaired. She was finally stranded in September 1913 near Sturgeon Bay and, after being cut down further, was scuttled off a Sturgeon Bay quarry dock.

Vessel

Built: 1869
Registry: US official number 75154
Builder: Campbell & Owen
Yard: Detroit, Michigan
Material: Wood
Length: 171 ft
Beam: 29.2 ft
Tonnage: 759.88
Propulsion: None at loss (converted to unpowered barge)
Owners: Leathem Smith Company, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (at loss)

Loss

Date: September 23, 1913
Cause: Grounding
Location: Nine miles northwest of Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, later scuttled off Leathem Smith's quarry dock, Sturgeon Bay
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin → Manistee, Michigan
Cargo: Crushed stone
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established