They called them pig boats. With their rounded hulls and porcine-looking snouts, the whaleback barges designed by Scottish immigrant Alexander McDougall drew skepticism, derision, and more than a few laughs from experienced Great Lakes sailors in the late 1880s. Only 44 whalebacks were ever built, and Barge 115 was one of them -- launched in August 1891 from McDougall's own shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, after no established builder would touch his unconventional designs. For eight years she hauled iron ore across the Great Lakes without fanfare. Then, in December 1899, she became the final shipwreck of the century, and her crew's survival became one of the most remarkable stories on Lake Superior.
Alexander McDougall was a Great Lakes captain who believed conventional barges were dangerously inefficient in heavy seas. Their flat sides caught waves broadside; their squared decks held water instead of shedding it. His solution was radical: a vessel with a rounded hull shaped like a whale's back, where water would slide off the deck rather than pooling on it. The superstructure sat on turrets mounted above the curved deck, and the conoidal ends tapered to blunt points that critics compared to pig snouts. When every shipbuilder he approached refused to construct them, McDougall founded the American Steel Barge Company in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1888 and built the vessels himself. Barge 115 was laid down on May 21, 1891, and launched on August 15 that same year. She measured 1,169 gross tons and carried no sails or engine of her own -- she was towed by steam-powered freighters, hauling iron ore from the mines of Minnesota to the ports of Lake Erie.
Barge 115 earned her keep but paid for it in steel and bruises. In May 1893, while under tow by the whaleback freighter Colgate Hoyt, she was struck by the downbound whaleback Thomas Wilson. She limped into dry dock in Duluth for repairs. A year later, she broke 16 hull plates in a collision with the steamer Mesaba on Lake George. In 1897, she ran aground in the St. Marys River below the Sault Ste. Marie Canal while loaded with iron ore, requiring her cargo to be lightered before she could be freed. That same summer, ten bottom plates and two keel plates had to be replaced after she struck an unknown river bottom. By 1895, management of the fleet had passed to Pickands Mather & Company of Cleveland. Through it all, the oddly shaped barge kept working, a stubborn vessel for a stubborn design.
December 10, 1899. Barge 115 loaded 3,000 tons of iron ore at Two Harbors, Minnesota, for what was supposed to be the season's final run to Lake Erie. Captain Arthur A. Boyce and his seven-man crew set out under tow of the Colgate Hoyt, heading for the Soo Locks. They sailed straight into a storm. For 40 hours, the two vessels crawled across Lake Superior. Then, at 6:05 a.m. on December 13, the towline snapped. South of Pic Island, Barge 115 was suddenly alone on the largest freshwater lake in the world, engineless and adrift. Colgate Hoyt searched frantically for four hours before dwindling fuel forced her to continue to Sault Ste. Marie. The crew of 115 was given up for lost. But the barge drifted for five full days before the lake finally threw her against Pic Island on the north shore, making her the last shipwreck on the Great Lakes in the 1800s.
The crew abandoned the wrecked barge using her small life raft, making multiple trips between the stranded hull and the rocky shore until all eight men reached Pic Island. Some carried extra clothes. Others carried food: two loaves of bread and a ham. They also had candles and grease. Exploring the island, they found an old roofless log cabin with a stove inside. They fashioned a roof from tree branches and spent the night. The next morning, they tore the cabin apart and built a makeshift raft from its timbers, paddling to the mainland. For four days they walked along the shore, camping in the bush, the December cold biting through whatever clothing they had saved. Then they stumbled upon a Canadian Pacific Railway track. Following the rails, the crew reached Middletown, Ontario, around noon that day. The cook's feet were frostbitten, but all eight men survived. Every one of them made it home for Christmas.
Barge 115 lay undiscovered for over 80 years. In 1980, wreck hunter Ryan LeBlanc located her remains on a rock bottom near Pic Island. The force of the wreck had been staggering -- twisted steel plates from the hull were found lodged high on the cliff face where the barge had pounded against the island. Dive footage from around the time of discovery revealed that the stern section and its turret remained intact, while the bow had broken apart. Her intact bell was recovered shortly after the wreck was found. Today, the wreck of 115 sits as a monument to the brief, turbulent era of the whaleback, a design so unusual that only 44 were ever built, and as a testament to the eight men who survived a December ordeal on Lake Superior through little more than bread, ham, candles, and sheer determination.
The wreck of Barge 115 lies near Pic Island (48.698N, -86.655W) on the north shore of Lake Superior, just west of Marathon, Ontario. Pic Island is clearly visible from cruise altitude as a prominent landmass jutting into Lake Superior. Approach from the south at 3,000-5,000 feet AGL for the best view of the island and the surrounding coastline where the barge met its end. The nearest airport is Marathon Airport (CYSP), approximately 15 km to the east. The Canadian Pacific Railway line runs along the north shore, the same rail line the crew followed to safety in 1899.