9. Ship of the Month - cont'd. WALDO... of Detroit. The WALDO is bound from Ashtabula to Milwaukee with a cargo of soft coal. It is reported to have run out on the rocks 3 ft. for ward. The cargo is now being thrown overboard to effect its release. " The grammar used in press reports often is laughable; presumably, the jettison ing of the cargo was done to effect the WALDO's release from the reef, not to release the coal, although some of the cargo apparently got "released" as well...! The same paper reported on December 19th: "Cleveland, Dec. 19 - The wrecker FAVORITE released the stm. WALDO, which was ashore at Garden Island. The WALDO is not damaged and went on to Milwaukee. " We noted in our first instalment of the WALDO's story, in the January issue, that during the autumn of 1905, Capt. John Duddleson of the WALDO observed a disaster in the making. About dusk on the evening of Thursday, October 19th, he sighted the wooden-hulled, 1887-built, 269-foot steamer KALIYUGA, of the St. Clair Steamship Company, downbound in Lake Huron between Thunder Bay Is land and Middle Island. KALIYUGA did not appear to be in immediate distress, although she was taking a beating in extremely heavy weather. The WALDO was the last ship ever to sight KALIYUGA, which was caught in the open lake in a wind shift, and foundered with the loss of all seventeen persons aboard. What makes this event all the more interesting is that we now learn that not once but on two occasions was Capt. Duddleson of the WALDO the last master to observe a ship in extremis. The "Buffalo Evening News" of Saturday, Sep tember 21st, 1907, recorded another such instance: "The stm. MAJESTIC, which burned on Lake Erie off Long Pt., has gone to the bottom. Capt. Duddleson of the stm. WALDO reported yesterday that the MAJESTIC sank as he was passing on his way down. He ran the WALDO in close to the wreck and saw the boat go down stern first. " MAJESTIC (U. S. 92116) was Hull 25 of the James Davidson shipyard at West Bay City, Michigan. A wooden-hulled freighter, she was 291. 0 x 40. 0 x 21. 1, 1985 Gross Tons and 1609 Net. The 1899, 1900, 1902 and 1905 editions of the "Blue Book of American Shipping" (Penton Publishing Co. Cleveland), showed MAJESTIC as being owned by Timothy Hurley, of Detroit. We now move ahead six years. Wolff's "Lake Superior Shipwrecks" includes an account of the wreck of L. C. WALDO on the Gull Rock reef between Manitou Island and the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the autumn of 1913. Accom panying that account is a photo of the WALDO showing the Great Lakes Towing Company's big lighter FAVORITE working off her stern. Wolff's caption for this photo indicates that the WALDO is "shown here in another grounding... ". The photo has posed a mystery for us not only because part of the front of her lower pilothouse appears to be missing, but also because there seems to be a patch of some nature on her side. A collision? We now think not. This same p h o t o has appeared from other sources, but with others taken near the same time, and we now are convinced beyond all doubt that what we are seeing is the WALDO being refloated from the Keweenaw in the spring of 1914. A close look reveals that there is something odd about the steamer's after deckhouse, but the situation is unclear because of the forward angle of the view. In fact, what is odd is that the entire after accommodations cabin is gone, and only the steel boilerhouse, smokestack and mast remain on the af ter end of the ship. We also are now in possession of a number of photos of the WALDO wreck taken immediately after the November 8th, 1913, grounding, and also the next spring when the ship was being refloated. The fact that the wooden after cabin was gone is quite clearly shown. (The remains of the deckhouse later washed ashore at Big Bay. ) The angle of the WALDO's deck confirms that she was broken amidships. But what is even more interesting is that, contrary to what we had been led to believe by contemporary press reports, L. C. WALDO's upper pilothouse had not been demolished by a stern-boarding wave, and was still standing. This being the case, the damage that put the forward steer ing position out of operation must have affected the lower pilothouse, not