Fedora
Bulk Freighter · United States · Lost 1901 · Apostle Islands & Western Lake Superior
A wooden steamer bound light to load ore was consumed by fire from an exploding lamp and beached off Basswood Island in 1901.
Christopher Kniech
See Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
Fedora was a wooden steamer built in 1889 at Bay City, Michigan, and later operated by the Cowle Transportation Company. On September 20, 1901, while traveling light from Duluth to Ashland to load iron ore, a kerosene lamp exploded in her engine room, starting a fire that also disabled her pumps. She burned and was beached off Basswood Island in the Apostle Islands, becoming a total loss.
Vessel
- 1889
- Registry no. 120746
- Frank W. Wheeler Shipbuilding Company
- Bay City, Michigan
- Wood
- 282 ft
- Not established
- Not established
- Steam, single screw
- Cowle Transportation Company (at time of loss)
Loss
- September 20, 1901
- Fire
- Off Basswood Island, Apostle Islands, Lake Superior
- Lake Superior
- Duluth, Minnesota → Ashland, Wisconsin
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Broken hull structure with engine beds surviving on the site.
- Not established
- Not established
- Within Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Position
- 46.860° N 90.779° W
- Surveyed position
- Basswood Island, Apostle Islands, Wisconsin
Surveyed wreck position off Basswood Island published by the Wisconsin Historical Society's shipwrecks database.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (72/100)
Crew size and casualty outcome are not established in the sources reviewed.
Wisconsin Shipwrecks (Wisconsin Historical Society)
Build, wreck site description.
Sturgeon Bay Advocate, September 28, 1901
Contemporary account of the fire.
Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Shipwrecks database
Surveyed wreck position, archaeological site plan.
