SS Anna C. Minch

The SS "Anna C. Minch" was a cargo carrier which foundered, broke in two and sank in Lake Michigan during the Armistice Day Blizzard on November 11, 1940. The "Anna C. Minch" was a steam powered, steel hulled bulk freighter constructed in 1903 by the American Ship Building Company at Cleveland, Ohio.

All twenty-four of the crew were lost when the ship went down. The cargo she was carrying at the time of her sinking was hardwood lumber. Her wreckage is located one and a half miles south of Pentwater, Michigan, not far from the wreckage of the SS William B. Davock, which foundered in the same storm.

hip history

The "Anna C. Minch" was struck by the steamer "Harvey D. Goulder" while at the Cargill grain elevator in Superior, Wisconsin on April 12, 1907 resulting in $2000.00 in damages. On November 12, 1911 she struck a dock in the Chicago River. At Lorain, Ohio on September 30, 1915 she struck the south end of a bridge protection pier on the Erie Avenue Bridge. The "Theodore H. Wickwire" and the "Anna C. Minch" tore loose from their mooring lines on Buffalo Creek, drifted downstream and damaged several steamers along with crushing a yacht against a concrete dock on March 27, 1916. She collided with the steamer "Charles M. Warner" on Lake St. Clair and suffered severe bow damage on November 6, 1916. She was struck by the steamer "Steel King" on November 18, 1917 while moored at the dock at Toledo, Ohio, suffering starboard bow damage. Her mooring was damaged from the Cleveland, Ohio breakwall when she was struck by the steamers "Matthew Andrews" and "Philip Minch" on February 26, 1918. Her rudder was damaged when she was grounded one mile below the St. Clair Ship Canal on August 31, 1920. The "Anna C. Minch" was struck by the steamer "Harry W. Croft" at Buffalo, New York on October 20, 1920, also she was grounded in fog on the north end of Bois Blanc Island in the Straits of Mackinac on October 17, 1921. On December 21, 1921 she suffered gale damage at Erie, Pennsylvania and then ice damage in the same location on February 23, 1922. She struck the bottom twice when entering Conneaut, Ohio on October 17, 1923. She suffered wheel damage at Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 22, 1923. The "Anna C. Minch" struck the dock at Duluth, Minnesota on November 1, 1924 and also struck a dock at Buffalo, New York on October 28, 1925. She was stranded in fog at Fox Point, Wisconsin on December 4, 1925 and was leaking when she was freed by tug boats.

References

* [http://ul.bgsu.edu/cgi-bin/xvsl2.cgi Great Lakes Vessels Online Index: "Anna C. Minch"]

External links

* [http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0shipping--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4---Document---0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---001-011-1-0utfZz-8-0&a=d&c=shipping&cl=CL1.1.40&d=HASH39ec0877e2117c68eb1140 University of Detroit Mercy]
* [http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/m.htm Boatnerds.com - Shipwrecks]