Posted by Bob3 on September 08, 19101 at 07:34:57:
In Reply to: grounding of the m.v photinia 14th may 1978 posted by tony thompson on September 04, 19101 at 15:45:08:
I was working at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay when they brought her in. After the drydock was floated, I took a stroll underneath & looked at the bottom. It was well hammered with several holes large enough to stand up in, and the innerbottom area had quite a few basketball sized rocks in.
During the pre-scrapping auction, I bought a 5 gal tin of tea & a few cases of 9% butterfat evaporated milk. All the beer had disappeared before the auction.
My buddy found a calendar belonging to the kid that was on anchor watch the night she grounded. It was his first voyage & he had been keeping a brief diary of the sailing. The last entry was the day of the mishap, and the brief entry read: "AGROUND - F*****!!"
I imagine that his first voyage was also his last.
I also had a chance to do some repair work on the "EM FORD" which beat itself to death at the cement dock in Milwaukee one Christmas Eve. She was the oldest vessel still sailing the Great Lakes at the time, having been built in the 1800s.