Qualla: SS Arlington

SS Arlington: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

"You just think you're going to Whitefish." First mate Junis Macksey said it plainly, the way a veteran sailor states what he knows. He had ordered the wheelsman to hug the north shore of Lake Superior, where the land would shield the low-riding Arlington from the worst of the building seas. Captain Frederick 'Tatey Bug' Burke countermanded the order. They would take the direct route. Macksey had spent a career reading Lake Superior's moods. Burke was the owners' brother, hired after the company released the Arlington's experienced skipper following the 1939 season. Through the night of April 30, 1940, as gale-force winds turned the lake into a battering ram, the two men fought over the fate of a twenty-seven-year-old freighter carrying 98,000 bushels of wheat with only three and a half feet of freeboard. By dawn, the Arlington was gone. Every crew member survived -- except Captain Burke, who stayed in the pilothouse as the ship slipped beneath the waves.

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SS Arlington: A Canaller Named Three Times

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She was hull number 192 at the Detroit Shipbuilding Company yards in Wyandotte, Michigan, in 1913 -- a steel-hulled, propeller-driven canaller built to fit the dimensions of the Saint Lawrence River locks. Her first name was F.P. Jones. In 1919, she became the Glencadam. The Math...

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SS Arlington: A Captain and His Mate

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The dynamic aboard the Arlington in 1940 was combustible. Junis Macksey was a veteran ship's master in his own right, serving as first mate. Captain Frederick Burke was the brother of the ship's owners, installed in command after the company dismissed the Arlington's previous ski...

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SS Arlington: The Night the Lake Took Over

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 10:00 p.m. on April 30, the wind had escalated to a full gale. Waves boarded the Arlington consistently, washing across her deck and hammering her hatches. The ship had only three and a half feet of freeboard when fully loaded -- every wave that broke over her bow ran the leng...

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SS Arlington: Five-Fifteen in the Morning

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Burke finally ordered a course for the north shore -- the route Macksey had wanted all along -- hoping to beach the ship and salvage her later. But it was too late. By 4:30 a.m., the fireman reported the number 2 hold flooding, the wheat cargo swelling with moisture, the bulkhead...

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SS Arlington: Eighty-Three Years Below the Surface

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Why Captain Burke stayed aboard remains one of Lake Superior's enduring mysteries. He was not a seasoned Great Lakes captain; he was the owners' brother, placed in command through family connection rather than merit. Whether he froze, whether pride held him to the pilothouse, or ...

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