The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

24 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. STEAMER GLIDDEN SUNK IN ST. CLAIR FLATS CANAL. ' The wooden steam- er John N. Glidden, a vessel belonging to the fleet of which William Gerlach of Cleveland is manager, collided in the St. Clair Flats ship-ca- nal with the steel barge Magna, owned by the United States Steel Cor- poration, on Friday last and immediately sank. No more favorable spot to completely discom- mode navigation could have been selected, as all the commerce of the up- per lakes passes through this slender neck of Freighter Passing Through Canal with water. The Glidden with Aid of Tugs. its' Cargo of "1ron ore ; sank. diagonally across the channel, about 350 ft. from the lighthouse on the lower end of the piers. The stern of the sunken vessel, as is shown in the accompanying photos, is close to LOcts 25. through the canal about a tow length behind the Glidden, and, of course, were unable to stop. The Stafford crowded through the gap, through which the water was now racing furiously, and hit the drifting Magna. The tow line of the McWilliams broke, and, to add to the general excitement, the schooner began drift- ing down upon the Glidden. Further catastrophe was avoided, however, by the prompt interference of a tug which picked up the schooner. i od : In order to lessen the interference with shipping, tugs were dispatched from Cleveland, Toledo, Amherstburg and_ Detroit, and the lighter Newman was sent from Port Huron. Maj. W. H. Bixby, government engineer, took steps to see that naviga- tion was not entirely blocked, and dispatched the government steamer Hancock to the scene. Several vessels were taken through with the aid of tugs while daylight lasted. Maj. Bixby then. issued orders that no boat should attempt to run the canal until daybreak. The tug Lorman was stationed in the lake be- low the canal and the Hancock in the river above the canal to stop all vessels. In the morning the surrounding waters pre- sented a congested scene of shipping. Capt. William Gerlach, the owner of the Glidden, after vis- iting her with his attorney, abandoned the vessel to the under- 'writers. Capt. Cyrus Sinclair, general manager of the Great Lakes Towing Co., made a thorough. inspection of the sunken 'steamer and refused to make a bid on removing the wreck ex- cept by lightering the ore cargo with the wrecker Newman and endeavoring to pull her out of the the west pier and the bow extends across to within 60 ft. of the east bank, almost com- pletely blocking the channel. The facts as nearly as they can be gath- ered of the colli- sion are. these: The Magna was in tow of the steamer Empire City, 'boutid: up light. In order to avoid a pile driver doing repair work the Empire City swung well out into the channel. On account of the -wind, which was blowing the barge over toward the bank, the Empire City was running fast to keep her tow from swinging around and miss- ing the entrance to the canal. The steamer Glidden, bound down, was, according to a statement made to Maj. W. H. Bixby, government engineer, steering badly, and the suction from the Empire City is reported to have pulled the down-bound vessel over into the tow line. The next instant the steel bow of the Magna plowed into the Glidden, cutting the Glidden's bow cleanly like a knife as far back as the pilot house. The . Glidden, with her Bow View of the Glidden. way of passing vessels. -Maj. Bix- by had ordered no up-bound vessel to pass her without the aid of a tug, and no_ 'down- bound vessel with- out the aid of two tugs, yet notwith- standing these pre- cautions 'seven vessels hit the wreck in passing on Saturday and each one left her in a little worse condition than be- fore. The steamer Oceanica was the first to strike the sunken Glidden. She became un- manageable in the strong current and the tug that had her in tow could not handle her. The Oceanica took a sheer and cut an additional 5 ft. off the bow of the Glidden and carried away considerable of the wreck below the water line. The steamer George Presley also took a sheer into the wreck, crushed some planks and timbers and warped the boat out of shape. Whaleback barge No. 134 hit the wreck directly in the hole made by the Magna and almost split her open. The steamers Major and Beatty were next to strike the wreck, driven over by the cargo of iron ore, sank immediately in 20 ft. of water, the anchors of the Magna' sticking to her when she went down. The impact snapped the Mag- na's tow line and the barge drifted down the stream with the current. , A dredge tug went to her aid, and af- ter much maneu- vering succeeded in towing her through the gap between the Glid- den and the pier, and she then pro- ceeded with the Empire City. To add to the general confusion, the steamer W. R. Stafford and the schooner Ed Mc- Williams were coming down The Glidden as She Lies in the 'Channel, Looking up Canal. current which the tugs were unable to counteract, and finally the J. H. Wade broke away from the tug Wat- son while going at full speed and hit the Glidden just aft of the pilot house, carried away her bulwarks and light upper works, knocked the pilot house over to an angle of 45 degrees, and then took a lead over towards the west bank of the canal, smashing the side planking of the wreck and opening up. her seams for. almost her entire 'length. Capt. .. Harris W. Baker, wreck- ing master, thought somewhat of raising the sunk-