Qualla: SS Henry B. Smith

SS Henry B. Smith: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At five o'clock on the afternoon of November 9, 1913, the SS Henry B. Smith backed away from the ore dock at Marquette, Michigan, and headed into Lake Superior. Observers on shore watched deckhands scrambling across her deck, trying to close thirty-two cargo hatches that normally took hours to secure. Twenty minutes later, the full force of the storm hit. Witnesses saw the 545-foot freighter turn hard to port -- possibly making for the lee of Keweenaw Point -- and then she was gone, swallowed by what would become known as the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the deadliest inland maritime disaster in North American history. All twenty-five crew members perished. Only two bodies were ever found. The wreck itself would not be located for exactly one hundred years.

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SS Henry B. Smith: Iron Ship, Iron Cargo

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Henry B. Smith was built in 1906 by the American Ship Building Company at Lorain, Ohio -- a steel-hulled lake freighter measuring 545 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 31 feet high, with a gross tonnage of 6,631. Her triple-expansion engine drove her through the Great Lakes haulin...

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SS Henry B. Smith: The Pressure to Sail

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Smith arrived at Marquette on November 6 to load iron ore. A southwest gale had already descended on Lake Superior, dropping temperatures to twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit. The cold froze the ore solid inside the hopper cars, forcing men to break it loose by hand. Loading dra...

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SS Henry B. Smith: Twenty Minutes to Disappear

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Shore observers watched the Smith's deckhands working frantically on the open hatches as the ship pulled away from Marquette. Closing thirty-two hatches on a 545-foot freighter was methodical work under good conditions -- bolting down heavy steel covers one by one while the deck ...

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SS Henry B. Smith: A Century in the Dark

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 sank twelve ships and killed more than 250 sailors across Superior, Huron, and Erie. The Smith was one of many losses, but she became one of the most enduring mysteries -- a large steel freighter that simply vanished, her resting place unknown for a ...

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