Hesper – Bulk Freighter 1890-1905 (SHIPWRECK)
Hesper – Bulk Freighter 1890-1905 (SHIPWRECK)
Beaver Bay MN
The Hesper was a wooden-hulled, single propeller, triple-masted, freight-carrying steamship which towed schooner-barges. The steamer was one of several near-identical ships built for the large Bradley Transportation Company fleet of Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1890s. It was launched at the Ship Owners Dry Dock Company at the Radcliffe Yard in Cleveland on June 28, 1890. It was a double-decked bulk freighter measuring 250 feet in length and rated for about 2,700 tons capacity. The Hesper was issued its first certificate of enrollment at the Cuyahoga District Customs Office in Cleveland on June 30, 1890 by George A. McKay, deputy collector. That document listed the ship as a “propeller” with plain head and round stern.
Enrollment certificates state that the vessel was 250.3 feet long, with a breadth of 41.6 feet and a depth of 20.2 feet. It measured 1,539.98 (net) tons. The Hesper’s enrollment document of 1899 indicates that it was changed stating that it now had one deck, only two masts and measures 1570 tons, its 1893 enrollment (#81) being “surrendered by reason of change of description and tonnage.” The enrollment also states it had “cabins forward Texas house and ships cabins aft” and that it has a dining room, kitchen and hallways.
Spring Storm
The Hesper was lost when it was caught in a late spring snow storm in 1905. The 60-mile-an-hour northeaster drove it well off its intended course and hurled the vessel on a reef which now marks the southwest edge of Silver Bay Harbor. The Hesper was lifted over the reef by a giant wave, after enduring a pounding for some time, only to founder and break up in 42 feet of water. The 15-man crew, along with Captain E.H. Heaton, remained aboard as long as there was any hope of saving their vessel. They launched two lifeboats and pulled away moments before it broke up.
Julius F. Wolff in Lake Superior Shipwrecks, 1990, reports the following testimony from a fisherman who witnessed the disaster:
Before the hull slid off into the deep water her cabins and spars were washed off and the stack had also fallen. The deck came off after the boat went down and it is plain that she is badly broken up forward for her collision bulkhead came ashore. The steamer’s steel tow line is holding the fantail deck which floats on the surface and another section of the deck is held by the shrouds. Parts of the wrecked vessel are distributed along the coast for a distance of 5 miles.
The Duluth Evening Herald of May 5, 1905 described the abandonment and sinking of the Hesper:
The boat went ashore shortly before daylight on the same reef upon which the Tampa foundered twelve years ago. The captain and members of the crew, sixteen in number, got ashore in lifeboats which they were able to launch on the “lee” side of the vessel, but they lost all their effects. The sea was so heavy that by noon the vessel was in pieces. The accident was due to the loss of her bearings, the vessel drifting out of her course in the heavy sea and wind. She was running light, coming up for a cargo of ore and was due in Duluth yesterday morning at 9 o’clock.
After reaching shore, Captain Heaton wired that the crew had reached shore safely but the steamer was so badly pounded that it became a total wreck. At the time of its loss, the steamer was managed by Hutchinson & Company and was insured for $50,000. However, another reference states that it was valued at $80,000 at the time of its loss.
Hesper Detailed Information MN historical Society Shipwreck Map
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