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Ship of the M onth - cont'd. 10. terday, some cove re d wi th ice, others co vered wit h snow, and all proc e e d i n g cautiously. A fleet of eight or nine vessels, upbound, rode out the storm at W h i t e f i s h y e s t e r d a y a f ternoon and evening, but late at night they weig h e d anchor and went up the l a k e . " QUEDOC and KAMLO O P S sailed together across Lake Superior, taking the n o r therly route to Passage Island. They were ob served by Capt. Harry La vers of the Algoma Centra l steamer J. FRA TE R TAY LO R as she pas se d downbound. The following statemen t from Capt. Lavers a p p eared in the "Owen Sound D aily Sun Times" on De cember 14th: "I pas se d quite close to the KA MLOOPS somew he re between Cari b o u Island and M i c h i p i c o t e n Island, and while it was blo wi ng fairly hard at the time, I did not think there was any danger, a l t h o u g h I thought about her sa fety after we had passed her. There was another f reig hter going wit h her, but she was some little di stance away, and I could not say what boat it was, but I k now that one of the two boats was car rying quite a hea vy deck load, and I am of the i m p r e s s i o n that it was the one nearest to us, w hich w o u l d bethe K A M L O O P S . " Some sources w o u l d later say that the deck load o b s erved ab oard K A M LOOPS i n cluded coiled fence wire, and this w o u l d ap pear to be c o nfirmed by a letter that KAMLOOPS' chief engineer, J. A . C. Hawman, of Co ll in gwood, sent home to his wife from the Soo. He r e m arked that there was a p r i n t i n g press for the Fort W i l l i a m n e w s p a p e r stow ed on the 'tween deck, and big spools of wire on deck. He stated that the d e c kload alre a d y was all iced up, but that the steamer was h e a d i n g out that day for the Lakehead. No m atter what the deck load contained, there was great danger in car ry in g a n y thing on the exp os ed dec k in such ext re me weat h e r conditions. Dec k c a r goes are n o t orious for c o l l e c t i n g h eavy a c c u m u l a t i o n s of ice as sp ray is blown across the deck or wav es break right over a ship, the wei gh t of that much ice topside, in a d d i t i o n to the ice that ma y gat he r on expo s e d d e c k houses, ma y a d v e r s e l y affect the sta b i l i t y of a vessel. Capt. Roy Simpson, of the QUEDOC, w o u l d later des cr ib e an event w h i c h took place on the even i n g of Tuesday, D e c ember 6th. His report a p p eared in the December 14th ed ition of the "Mont re al Gazette". "'On De cember 6, we were below Isle Royale, the QUE DO C was leadi ng and the K A M L O O P S was one qua rt er mile astern. At 10 o' clock Tues d a y night, the lo okout on the QUEDOC su d denly saw a dark mass ahe ad and gave the ala rm im me diately. "'The QUEDOC turned sha rp ly to st arboard to avoid runn i n g head on into the rocks, at the same time b l o w i n g the dan ge r signal to the KAMLOOPS. A nor th gale was blowing. There was a h eavy sea and it was rou gh going. The v i s i b i lity was ver y poor on acco un t of frost fog. It isnot kno wn if the KA MLOOPS saw the rocks or h eard the signal. The K A M L O O P S had no w i r e l e s s a b o a r d . ' "The pilot hous e of the QUED OC is high er than the pilot house on the K A M LOOPS and for that rea so n it is thought by Capt a i n Simp s o n and the crew, the KAMLOOPS may not have seen the r o c k s . " Early on D e c ember 7th, the storm w a r nings were raise d aga in aroun d Lake S u perior as yet an other wi n t e r storm m o v e d in from the n o r t h w e s t b r i n g i n g b i t ter cold, high winds at first from the north ea st , and snow. V i s i b i l i t y was s e v erely redu c e d by frost fog comin g up off the water. The t emperature d r o p ped to 10 degree s Fahre n h e i t below zero. The win d sh ifted to the n o r thwest and inc r e a s e d in v e l o c i t y to peak at 80 miles an hour. The st orm con t i n u e d un a b a t e d well into Thursday, the 8th, and the te mp erature fell to -18°F. at Duluth. For a period of thir t y - s i x hours, no ships a r r i v e d at the C a n adian Lakehead. As might have bee n ant ic ip at ed , da mage reports soon b egan to come in and the press was full of stories of ships in distress. The A l g o m a Cent r a l bulk carr ie r A G A W A (I) had lo cked dow n at the Soo at 4 : 30 p. m. on D e c e m b e r 6. She was on her last trip of the ye ar and was c a r r y i n g a storage cargo of 2 0 0 , 000 bus he ls of wheat. Caught by the storm in n o r t h e r n Lake H u r o n in the ea rly m o r n i n g hours of We dnesday, D e c ember 7th, she slid her bow onto the reef at the ent ra nc e to Mich a e l Bay, on the south shore of