She cost nearly $450,000 to build. She earned her owners perhaps five round trips. On the evening of October 18, 1910, the SS William C. Moreland -- one of the largest freighters on the Great Lakes, carrying a full load of iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin, to Ashtabula, Ohio -- ran full steam into Sawtooth Reef off Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. Forest fire smoke had blanketed the shoreline all day, and the crew misjudged their position by miles. The momentum of her immense cargo drove the 600-foot vessel so far onto the reef that she practically bounced over its first ridges before coming to rest on the second. Within days, her hull had broken into three pieces. At the time, she was the largest vessel ever lost on the Great Lakes.
The William C. Moreland was built by the American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio, for the Interstate Steamship Company, a subsidiary of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company of Pittsburgh. Her keel was laid on May 10, 1910, and she launched just weeks later on July 27, christened by the niece of her namesake -- William C. Moreland, a Pittsburgh lawyer and former vice president of Jones and Laughlin. She belonged to the 'standard 600-footer class' and measured 7,514 gross register tons. Her hull featured an innovative arched frame system that created unobstructed cargo holds, and her tapered 'hopper' configuration allowed unloading rigs to discharge cargo with minimal manual labor. She was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine fed by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers. She entered service on September 1, 1910, under Captain Claude M. Ennes, shuttling coal upbound and iron ore downbound.
The Moreland departed Superior at 03:55 on October 18, 1910, on what would be her fifth round trip, laden with iron ore valued at $43,000. The weather on Lake Superior was calm, but smoke from forest fires on the Keweenaw Peninsula partially obscured the crew's visibility as they followed their usual course. Captain Ennes ordered his crew to report when Eagle Harbor Light came into view. Shortly before 21:00, the mate summoned Ennes to the bridge -- he had spotted an unidentified flashing white light and was unsure of their position. Moments later, the Moreland struck Sawtooth Reef at full speed. She was the sixteenth vessel to run aground there. Her bow came to rest in shallow water, her stern in deeper water, while her midsection hung above the lake bottom. The crew's attempt to reverse off the reef failed. By the next day, gale-force winds forced the evacuation of all 25 crewmen to shore.
What followed was months of punishing salvage work against Lake Superior's relentless weather. Tugs and lighters arrived from Fort William, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan, but gale after gale drove the salvage crews into the shelter of the Portage Canal. By November 2, the hull lay in three pieces. The underwriters declared her a total loss and paid $392,000. They awarded the Reid Wrecking Company a 'no-cure, no-pay' salvage contract. James and Thomas Reid arrived with the steam lighter Manistique and the tug Sarnia City. They found the hull coated in ice and the iron ore cargo concreted solid in the holds. James Reid suffered a stroke during the operation. A helmsman had his fingers crushed. A workman fell overboard and nearly froze. Between January and May, looters stripped the wreck of furnishings and equipment. On June 1, 1911, the crew finally floated the wreck free -- only for a tug's propeller to cut the hull patches loose, sinking her again within hours.
The Reid crew eventually salvaged just the stern section, towing it into the Portage Canal on September 1, 1911. That stern then began a five-year odyssey. It sat in the Portage Canal for over a year, was towed to Detroit through a gale that nearly sank it, languished at docks in Windsor and Port Huron, and rested in the Reid boneyard until 1915. Then the First World War created a desperate shortage of lake vessels, and two founders of Canada Steamship Lines purchased the stern for $55,650. The Superior Shipbuilding Company built a new bow section in Superior, Wisconsin, matching the Moreland's original dimensions. The completed vessel launched on September 9, 1916, and was christened Sir Trevor Dawson on October 18 -- exactly six years after the Moreland wrecked. The reborn ship sailed under multiple names for over fifty years before being scrapped in Cartagena, Spain, in 1970 as the Parkdale.
The bow section of the William C. Moreland eventually slipped off Sawtooth Reef into deeper water between late 1911 and early 1912. Over the following century, ice and waves flattened what remained of her forward hull. Today, the wreck site sits near Eagle River, Michigan, with identifiable portions of the bow, machinery, and a windlass still visible on the lake bottom. The site is the largest wreck in the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, drawing divers to a vessel whose entire career lasted less than two months but whose story -- of ambition, catastrophe, and improbable resurrection -- spans decades.
The wreck site lies near 47.42N, 88.32W, off the shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula near Eagle River, Michigan. From altitude, Sawtooth Reef is not visible, but the rugged Keweenaw coastline and the small community of Eagle River mark the general area. The Keweenaw Waterway and Portage Canal -- where much of the salvage saga played out -- are visible cutting across the peninsula to the southwest. Nearest airport is Houghton County Memorial Airport (KCMX), approximately 20 miles southwest. The wreck itself is underwater and not visible from the air, but the dramatic Keweenaw shoreline tells the story of why this coast was so dangerous to Great Lakes shipping. Best viewed at 3,000-5,000 feet AGL to appreciate the exposed northern coast of the peninsula.