Ships that Survived Major Accidents to Sail Again

[Guest]

M/v Walter J McCarthy backed into the Hallet dock slip in Superior one lay up ripping a hole in the stern and flooded the entire engine room.
The Pringle fleets m/v Paul Thayer a month after the Fitz went down grounded at Southeast Shoals tearing her fwd 1/3 of her bottom out, repaired at Toledo yard. The steamer Detroit Edison grounded so severely in Grays Reef that she never did sail again.

The Detroit Edison was repaired following that 1980 grounding despite sustaining extensive bottom damage and sailed until December of 1982 before entering its final layup and subsequent sale for scrapping in 1986.

[Denny]

Thanks Chief1. Forgot about the McCarthy incident in Duluth as I should’ve knew that one! Another is when the unloading boom I think it was broke then or something to that effect when the George A. Stinson now American Spirit was unloading ore at Zug Island in Detroit. They remember ran without an unloading boom until they finally got it fixed. They had to have a unique and a special type of unloading system installed for a while. There’s been a few instances where ships have had their unloading booms break on them thus having to get new booms installed. I can’t recall right now who some of them were but, the Richard Reiss was one. Hope that this information helps out!

[Guest]

M/v Walter J McCarthy backed into the Hallet dock slip in Superior one lay up ripping a hole in the stern and flooded the entire engine room.
The Pringle fleets m/v Paul Thayer a month after the Fitz went down grounded at Southeast Shoals tearing her fwd 1/3 of her bottom out, repaired at Toledo yard. The steamer Detroit Edison grounded so severely in Grays Reef that she never did sail again.

Eugene J. Buffington, Thomas F. Cole, J.P. Morgan Jr., Algowood

[Guest]

The steamer Detroit Edison grounded so severely in Grays Reef that she never did sail again.

The Detroit Edison was repaired at Sturgeon Bay after her December 1980 grounding and sailed again. It was a short lived return to service though, with her laying up for the last time two years later.

[Chief1]

M/v Walter J McCarthy backed into the Hallet dock slip in Superior one lay up ripping a hole in the stern and flooded the entire engine room.
The Pringle fleets m/v Paul Thayer a month after the Fitz went down grounded at Southeast Shoals tearing her fwd 1/3 of her bottom out, repaired at Toledo yard. The steamer Detroit Edison grounded so severely in Grays Reef that she never did sail again.

[Denny]

There have been many ship accidents to where ships have survived “Major Accidents during their careers and have sailed again!” Perhaps a good source and way of finding out more answers on your question would be to go to and check out the Fleet Photo Gallery on boatnerd’s website. If you read up on some of the history of the ships, it will mention if any ships have had any types of accidents at least any major ones during their careers and have continued to sail again. There are just so many IMO at least anyway that it would take and include a very long and extensive list of them! Some that come to mind, as mentioned on the Roger Blough as far as them grounding a few years ago and I think 🤔 they may have hit an object near Whitefish Point. They had to be lightered of their ore cargo onto other GLF vessels then the Blough went to the Sturgeon Bay to get repairs on her done. Don’t forget her original shipyard fire in 1971 at Lorain as that delayed them going into service by about a year. It was in 1972 that they entered service due to the fire. Also remember the Alpena had a serious fire at Sturgeon Bay a few years back and she was repaired at Sturgeon Bay. The Cartiercliffe Hall had a very serious and devastating fire in 1979. That fire killed a few of the crew members, destroyed the accommodation block completely as well. The ship was repaired and returned to service later with an entirely new accommodation block. It later had two owners the CSL or Canada Steamship Lines fleet as Winnipeg and later Algoma Central Corporation as the Algontario before being scrapped overseas. The Fitzgerald’s sistership the Arthur B. Homer was involved once in a serious collision to which damage occurred to the ship and its pilothouse to which they had to get a new pilothouse. In 1980, both the Algobay and the Montrealais were both involved in a collision on the St. Clair River in fog. Both vessels received significant damage and both were repaired. In 1986 I think 🤔 it is on Lake Huron, the James R. Barker was disabled and without power. It needed then the William J. DeLancey to come alongside and she towed the ship side by side to Sturgeon Bay where the Barker was repaired. In 1996 the H.M. Griffith was on Lake Superior when its cargo of coal started to burn. The ship then unloaded a few thousand tons of it into Lake Superior near Whitefish Bay. They were then allowed to proceed to the Soo where the Griffith was checked out and later continued on. She sails today as Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin of CSL. American Steamship has had its share of vessels hitting objects and causing some damages to the ship. In the 1990s, the Buffalo collided and hit the Detroit River Light causing extensive damage to the bow of the Buffalo. They were repaired in Toledo and sails as Algoma Buffalo now. Others are the American Mariner in 2000. They hit Light Buoy #7 in Lake Huron causing extensive damage to the ship. They had to be lightered by the Adam E. Cornelius and later the Mariner made it then to Toledo for repairs. A few years ago she grounded in the Lower St. Mary’s River the Mariner did on her first trip out of layup. In 1992, the H. Lee White hit the Grosse Ile Toll Bridge causing major damage to that bridge. I don’t recall if the White had any damage? The Paul R. Tregurtha has had a couple of groundings once in Duluth on her way out, another near the Rock Cut near the Soo then. These are some of the most serious ones accidents that come to mind. Hope this all helps out!

[Guest]

The fire onboard the Nicolet occurred on December 28, 1979 when sparks from welding repairs ignited a fire on her unloading belt. The fire gutted the unloading equipment and the entire forward-end including the pilothouse as mentioned. It took 21 hours for the Toledo Fire Department to put out the fire and five firefighters were injured while fighting the blaze.

A couple of days before the fire onboard the Nicolet, the E. M. Ford was repeatedly dashed against a dock during layup in Milwaukee by a storm and sank. Her hull cracked from the stress when she settled. In late-January 1980 the Ford was raised from the bottom of the harbour and towed to Sturgeon Bay for repairs in March 1980. The E.M. Ford was blessed and rededicated in a ceremony at Bay Shipbuilding on July 31, 1980.

The Roger Blough suffered major damage in a grounding near Whitefish Bay a few years back and she was subsequently repaired.

[Guest]

With the career ending casualties that have occurred to lake freighters over the past several years I thought it be interesting to start a thread on ships that were returned to service despite being heavily damaged in accidents that could have, under different circumstances, led to their retirement.

I can think of one instance that happened at the end of the 1979 shipping season when the motor vessel Nicolet had its forward cabins and pilothouse gutted by fire while in winter layup at Toledo. The ship was repaired and had a new pilothouse installed. With the ship going on 75 years old at the time, I figured it was probably done. I'm assuming that fire did not spread into the self-unloading system and this played a key factor in the decision to repair along with the severe downturn in the shipping industry of the 1980s was still in the future.