the 'Bannockburn' - a ship that disappeared

An undated view looking south into Lake Erie at Port Colborne, Ontario - about 30 km west of Buffalo, NY

The Bannockburn, named after the famous Scottish battle in 1314, in which Robert the Bruce won Scotland’s independence from the British, is assumed to have been destroyed in a heavy storm, but the wreck of the ship has never been found, and no bodies were ever recovered.

The Bannockburn was built in 1893 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Company of Middlesbrough, England and was steamed across the Atlantic, through the St Lawrence Seaway, and into the Great Lakes. Registered at Montreal, the ship was used for Canadian service in Port Arthur, Ontario (today Thunder Bay).

On 21 November 1902, the Bannockburn set out into Lake Superior with a crew of 20 carrying a cargo of 85,000 bushels of wheat headed for Georgian Bay. At 9 am, the Bannockburn suffered a slight grounding, but there didn’t seem to be much damage. At 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Passage Island and northeast of Keweenaw Point, sometime that day, Captain James McMaugh of the Algonquin, another lake freighter, reported viewing her through binoculars about 7 miles (11 km) to the southeast of him, about 80 miles (130 km) off Keweenaw Point and 40 miles (64 km) off Isle Royale. He was well-acquainted with her profile and he stated that he viewed her "several times" over the course of a few minutes to note her progress, which was very nearly on course. At a certain moment, however, he attempted to spot her and was surprised that he was unable to do so. Captain McMaugh considered that maybe the ship had hit a patch of heavy fog or bad weather, and was not concerned. Captain James McMaugh may have been the last to see the Bannockburn.

A powerful winter storm raked Lake Superior that night. At 11 pm the nightwatch pilothouse crew of the passenger steamer Huronic, also upbound on the lake, reported seeing lights on a ship they passed in the storm which they believed were in the pattern of those of the Bannockburn. However, no signals of distress were observed, and the two ships passed each other without incident.

The Bannockburn was reported overdue the following morning at the Soo Locks, but given the weather the previous night, this was not considered unusual. When she still did not report several days later, however, the fear that she had been lost began to grow.

On Friday, 12 December, the Captain of the Grand Marais Lifesaving Station found a cork life preserver from the Bannockburn washed up on the beach. This item is the only known wreckage from the ship ever to have been recovered.

The fate of the Bannockburn is unknown. Some thought it was the weather, while other ideas are a boiler explosion, the at-that-time uncharted danger of the Superior Shoal, or the minor accident the ship had when leaving Port Arthur.

Tonnage: 1,620 grt, 1,035 nrt
Length: 245 ft (75 metres)
Beam: 40.1 ft (12.2 metres)
Depth: 18.4 ft (5.6 metres)
Installed power: Triple expansion 3-cylinder engine with two boilers, machinery aft
Propulsion:
One propeller
Crew: 20
The Bannockburn often towed the four-masted schooner barge Minnedosa.