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The Senator
Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake and the Mason County Historical Society, which operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum, Historic White Pine Village and the Rose Hawley Archives in downtown Ludington.
Part 4: S.S. Senator
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
The last four months of 1929 were a deadly time for Lake Michigan shipping. At least four shipwrecks claimed the lives of over 100 people. This series will discuss each of those wrecks and will also make some comparisons to why some resulted in total losses while others had much fewer lives lost.
The ships lost included the S.S. Andaste (Sept. 9), the S.S. Milwaukee (Oct. 22), the S.S. Wisconsin (Oct. 29), and the S.S. Senator (Oct. 31). Of those five wrecks, two of them resulted in total lives lost. Neither of those two ships, the Andaste and the Milwaukee, were equipped with wireless radio.
Other parts of this series:
Part 1: 25 lost on the S.S. Andaste
Part 2: Sinking of Milwaukee was worst car ferry disaster
Part 3: Wisconsin sinks of eve of Great Depression
The previous shipwrecks discussed in this series were caused, most likely, due to rough seas on Lake Michigan and only involved a single vessel. The sinking of the S.S. Senator, though weather related, was caused after it was rammed by another ship.
Both the S.S. Milwaukee and S.S. Wisconsin had sailed out of Ludington at one time. Records are unclear if the Andaste or the Senator ever visited Ludington, but the Senator was named in honor of a Ludington resident.
The Senator was built at the Detroit Dry Dock Company of Wyandotte in 1896. She was 410 feet long, 45.5 feet wide, and had a depth of 28 feet with a gross register tonnage of 4,048.75 tons and a net tonnage of 3,178.66 tons. The ship was powered by a 1,450-horsepower triple expansion steam engine fueled by two coal-burning Scotch marine boilers capable of traveling up to 13 mph. Her original captain was H.B. McQueen.
Originally owned by the Wolverine Steamship Co. of Detroit, she entered service on July 25, 1896 as one of two ships built for the company.
The ship was named for Ludington lumberman Dr. George W. Roby (1823-1900), the father of John B. Roby, president of Wolverine Steamship. Roby was born in Ohio and served as an Ohio state senator. In 1845, he began practice as a physician in Pike County, Ohio and continued in practice until 1863. He then became a pharmacist in Columbus until 1871, moving to Ludington that year where he changed careers and founded the lumber firm George W. Roby & Co. The company operated a mill on Pere Marquette Lake beginning in 1872. At its inception the company reportedly owned some 140 million feet of standing pine. The mill was sold in 1886 to Pardee, Cook & Co. It was destroyed by fire in 1890 and never rebuilt.
G.W. Roby
George W. Roby and his son-in-law, Lewis C. Waldo, moved to Detroit in 1890 where they owned the Roby Transportation Company and Northwestern Transportation Company.
The Senator was not named after George W. Roby because another ship, operated by the Roby Transportation Company had already been named in his honor, the George W. Roby. Built in 1889, it was, at that time, the largest steamer on the Great Lakes. That ship operated for seven years and was sold when the company built a new vessel, the L.C. Waldo, in 1896.
The Oct. 31, 1929 accident was not the ship’s first. In June 1898, it got stuck on Ballard’s Reef near Detroit. But, on Aug. 21, 1909, the S.S. Norman B. Ream struck the Senator and sank her off Pipe Island in the St. Mary’s River, tearing a large hole in her starboard side. The crew managed to barely run the boat on the middle ground before her hull filled with water. She was raised on Sept. 12, 1909 and towed into the port of Cleveland. She was repaired at a cost of $90,000.
In the morning of Oct. 31, 1929, the Senator was under the command of Capt. George Kinch and was transporting a cargo of 268 Nash automobiles, worth $251,000, from Kenosha, Wis., where they were built, to Detroit.
The S.S. Marquette, under the command of Capt. W.F. Amesbury, was bound from Escanaba for the steel mills of Indiana with a load of iron ore.
Though visibility was limited to about 100 feet, Capt. Kinch sailed the Senator at full speed. News accounts stated the Senator sounded a passing signal of one short blast, indicating a port-to-port passage. The Marquette reportedly acknowledged the signal by returning one short blast of her own.
The Marquette collided with the Senator in foggy conditions 16 miles northeast of Port Washington, Wisconsin. The Senator sank within eight minutes while the Marquette continued on its journey.
“Capt. Amesbury took criticism for not stopping to help the crew of the Senator after the ship turned on its port side and sank,” a Port Huron Daily Tribune newspaper article stated. “The freighter went down in about five minutes. It sank so quickly that crew members didn’t have time to launch lifeboats.
“Deckhand William Driscoll of Detroit, who was making his first trip on the a lake boat, said he was sleeping in his bunk when the Marquette drove its bow into the port side of the ship.
The Senator
“He said he slipped into a shirt and trousers and even put on a life preserver before he went on deck. By the time he reached the deck, Driscoll said ‘the ship was listing far over to port.’
“‘There was no time to get off the boat because the Senator was going right under our feet. We walked right out on the side and into the water. Seven or eight of us swam to a piece of wreckage and hung to it.'”
Of the 28 crew members, seven died, including Capt. Kinch.
“Wheelsman Herbert Petting said he was with the captain in the pilot house. ‘The captain came to me after the collision and said: ‘Can you swim? You’d better get out of here.’
“Petting said he left the wheel and ran to the deck to save himself.
“Driscoll said he later saw Kinch walk out with the other men into the water. He said Kinch had a life preserver on, but the ship was starting to dive to the bottom and he thought the captain got pulled down with it.”
In addition to the captain, the dead included assistant steward Mrs. Matthew Gromley (it was typical of newspapers to not publish the first name of married women), First Mate John Neilson, Second Engineer T.A. Ammon and Porter Tony Moreno, all of Detroit; H.J. Grious of Toronto and Emil Passenger.
“Radio operator Ralph Ellis said he and two other sailors jumped to the deck of the Marquette before it pulled away. Another 15 survivors were in the water for about an hour. All were rescued by the fishing tub Delos H. Smith, which was working nearby and heard the crash.
“Petting and second mate Harvey Nicholson charged that the Marquette disappeared into the fog and never put out lifeboats. They blamed Amesbury for the loss of many of the sailors who perished.
Photos of the shipwreck.
“Amesbury told investigators he ordered two lifeboats lowered and said he left the bow of his ship lodged in the side of the Senator for about 10 minutes. He said he thought there had been time for the sailors to climb on the Marquette. The Marquette’s second mate disputed Amesbury’s story. He said Amesbury ordered the boats manned, but only because he thought his own ship might be sinking. Once it was found that the Marquette was not in danger, the mate said the boats were never lowered.”
An investigation report later found both captains equally at fault for steaming at high speed in dense fog. Ship owner Nicholson Universal Steamship Company of Delaware later honored Captain Earl Godersky of the tug Delos H. Smith and his three-man crew for their fog-enveloped rescue.
The wreck of the Senator was discovered by Paul Ehorn and Rob Polich on June 10, 20025 using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). She lies 430 feet underwater.
The Senator’s pilothouse and bow cabins were found to be in great shape. The cars stored on deck lay in a crumpled pile off the starboard stern. Inside, the ROV found autos lined in neat rows of three in one of the holds.
In April 2016, the wreck was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Senator
The Mason County Historical Society is a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in 1937 that does not receive any governmental funding. It owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum in Ludington, Historic White Pine Village in Pere Marquette Township, and The Rose Hawley Archives and the Mason County Emporium and Sweet Shop in downtown Ludington.
For more information about donating to and/or joining the Mason County Historical Society, visit masoncountymihistory.org.
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