© Unknown
December 7th has been etched into the American consciousness as one of the deadliest days in its maritime history. On December 7th 1941 the Japanese struck the American Naval fleet in Pearl Harbor, an attack that sent both nations headlong into a bloody and culturally changing conflict.
However there was another maritime tragedy that took place on the same date some 32 years earlier.
On December 7th 1909 the at 11 a.m., the
Marquette & Bessemer No. 2, a 350-foot-long steel-hulled car ferry, left the port of Conneaut, Ohio with a cargo of rail cars filled to the brim with coal. The heavy laden ship headed north, bound for Port Stanley, Ontario. A notable passenger onboard the
Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 was Albert Weis of Erie, the treasurer of the Keystone Fish Company. Weis carried $32,000 in a leather briefcase in order to purchase a Port Stanley fishery for his employers at the Fish Company.
Comment: Yes, the chinese lantern excuse is really getting star billing these days. Even mores so than Venus and the ever favorite "swamp gas".