Sea Stories The wreck of the City of Bangor End.

[captrmetz]

I talked to a scuba diver and he said he found a car laying in the rocks at about 150 down near Horseshoe Harbor. Said the car was all rusted up . The beach is still loaded with wreckage today.

[Billius]

Thanks for the story Capt. Metz. Last summer my wife and I visited the museum that holds the Chrysler. Interesting!

[Jared]

I wonder if I took my side scan up there if I would find any of the missing cars. A remote area for sure, but the salvage value may be worth the cost.

[Paul A]

That was a great historical recreation Capt. Metz! I like the flushing out of an historic report to make the story more easy to identify with and I really enjoyed your rendition.

[Dbuttonporthuron]

Amazing story as I sit by my fireplace

[captrmetz]

Then I heard a sound of a motor boat. I could not believe it was a rescue boat because it was coming from the wrong way heading for Copper Harbor. The motor boat had seen us and I said thank God we are saved and just in time. The motor boat came in closer and I noticed a few men in the boat. Finally when the boat got closer a crew member from the USCG shouted over a blow horn that we should make a big bonfire and he would come back for us that he had a crew from another shipwreck aboard. I shouted okay we will be waiting. So we built a huge bonfire; the dead trees were plentiful to make a fire with. I told the crew to settle down around the fire and I figured it world be about a four hour wait for the rescue boat to return to pick us up. We all felt anxious for the boat return but when the four hours were up and no sign of the boat. I wonder where they were. The NW wind started to really pick up and my hopes for a rescue started to fade. The wind changed direction to NE and it started to snow heavily. I sadly told the men we would have to wait till morning to get rescued. Some wanted to start walking but I said no with this heavy snow no one will make it to Copper Harbor. It was a long night. Hours passed like days and we kept the fire going all night finally I saw the faint light of dawn approaching but the snow and cold wind kept blowing. I sadly told the men because of the bad weather we would not be rescued. They all took the news hard. Some men started crying and moaning with pain; there hands and feet were frostbitten and they were hungry. It had been two days since we had food to eat. We tried to make the injured as comfortable as we could by re-tieing the blankets around their legs, feet, and hands. We had to stay another cold and snowy night in the Keweenaw. The next day we waited for rescue with hope we would not have to spend another night in the cold and when our hopes started to dim we heard the motor of the rescue boat. What a pleasant sound. The boat pulled along side of the ice and we helped the frozen crew aboard ready to set off for Copper Harbor. When we saw the houses nestled in the snow it was a great feeling. Copper Harbor was a small village and not to many people stayed the winter. We saw the rescue boat was slowing down in front of a white house. After the boat was tied up, the people in the house came out to help the crew get moved inside to a warm fireplace with food to eat. The house and hospitality belonged to the Burgs. Most of the exhausted fell asleep as soon as they were made comfortable. The Burgs did not have enough food for their unexpected guests but they had two pigs in the barn which they butchered to feed the men. Those two pigs were to be there winter supply of food but they knew the rescued men needed to eat. The Bergs fed and housed the 28 rescued men for nearly two weeks exhausting their entire winter store of food. T. L. Dorocher Shipping Co. paid Mr. Burg a mere $11.16 for his generosity. Dr. Andrew C. Rocher came to Copper Harbor to transport the City Of Banger crew to a hospital in Laurium for medical attention After the hospital visit the company made arrangement for the crew to go back home minus a few toes and fingers from frostbite. Some of the crew were hospitalize for two months because of their injures.
The company sent some of the owners of the City of Bangor out to the wreck site and with one look at the wreck they deemed it a total loss and left. As the winter got colder a salvage company plowed a road to the wreck site on the shore of Lake Superior to reach the wreck. They built a ramp alongside the ship to drive the cars off the ramp on to the lake ice. They put gasoline into the cars and all but a few started right away and were driven, in a line toward Copper Harbor. When all cars were off the ship they drove them on the ice coverd lake to Copper Harbor all but about 23 cars that had fallen over board. When the road was plowed from Copper Harbor to Mohawk they drove the cars to Calumet and when spring came they loaded the automobiles into railroad cars and took them back to Detroit for refurbishing. I quit sailing for one year but then I went back and sailed until my retirement. Each time that I would pass the wreck site I could make out the rusty hull of the once proud City of Bangor and my eyes would turn into slits remembering that terrible suffering and pain that the crew had to endure. The City of Bangor did not fare too good. The wreckage lay there where she ran aground for 18 long years, until WWII when she was scrapped for the war effort. Today there are still pieces of iron and inside boiler insulation pieces laying all over the beach. The beach is quiet now with seagulls trying to find a meal from scraps of left overs that campers may have left behind not knowing what a tragedy happened over eighty years ago.

Captain W.J. Mackin was played by me because I have sailed the same ships as he did the City of Bangor was 445 ft long my ship was 550 ft long with the same steam engine a 1800 HP triple expansion built in 1905, full speed at 8.5 kts with a tail wind. I also experience the many problems he did like losing my steering gear not once but twice. The only difference was I lost mine in good weather. I have turned ships around in heavy winds and seas. I feel we would never know how he felt and exactly what he did but I think I knew what he did because I would have done the same.
Thank you,
Author Capt. R. Metz
City of Bangor crew
all survivors
Captain William Makin
Theodore Dehlin
Glen Goodwin
Harold Hartway
Walter Pesenmecker
Lester Peterson
Robert Olson
Gerald Petty
A.V. Watson
Mike Wenta