Qualla: SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater

SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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.

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SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: A Steel Giant for the Iron Trade

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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, christen...

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SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: Smoke, Reef, and Ruin

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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...

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SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: The Salvage That Wouldn't End

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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 hul...

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SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: A Ship Reborn from a Wreck

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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...

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SS William C. Moreland: Two Months of Glory, a Century Underwater: Resting on the Reef

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

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 i...

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