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True Stories Of Ships And The Men That Sailed Them

Within these links are stories and pictures of ships and the men and women that sailed them, many of them lost at sea or on the Great Lakes.

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Edlia Hard Aground

The Storm That Wrecked The Freighter Edlia
 
At 4:05 p.m., as the coast of Cape Cod was in view, Garces knew he was losing the fight to save his ship. He issued an SOS and ordered both bow anchors dropped in a last-ditch effort to keep the vessel from being driven aground. But the seas were no match for the anchors. The ship was carried by the massive seas and came high on the shore off Nauset Beach almost broadside. Once she was driven into the mud, the decks were awash under 30-foot-high seas. Click For Story
 

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U.S.S. Dixie Serving A Destroyer

The War Horse Dixie - A Destroyer Tender

The Dixie was one of a little-known and certainly unsung fleet of ships that participated in the Navy's great battle for the Pacific during World War II and later the Korean conflict. She was a destroyer tender . . . that is, the vessel was a service vessel trailing behind the warships. Click For Story

 

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Stolt Dagali After Collision

Tanker Stolt Dagali Wrecked In Atlantic Collision

Nineteen sailors died when they were caught in the aft section of the tanker Stolt Dagali following a collision with the S.S. Shalom. The accident cut the ship into two parts and the after portion of the ship, its engines and lights still operating, dropped straight into the sea. Workers in the engine room, those asleep in the crew's quarters, and those in the galley never had a chance. Click For Story

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USS Defense

Minesweeper Defense Saw Action In Two Wars

The USS Defense was an Auk Class minesweeper launched in 1943 in the midst of the Second World War. It was a small, 221-foot steel ship that not only found itself in the midst of the Pacific campaign against the Japanese, but also the Korean conflict. Click For Story

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Cuyahoga

Eleven Die In Coast Guard's Cuyohoga Disaster

The U.S. Coast Guard's Commanding Officer Donald K. Robinson was faulted by a board of inquiry for the 1978 collision that sank his command, the Cutter Cuyohoga, and took 11 sailors to the bottom of Chesapeake Bay with it. Click For Story

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Sydney

Legendary Sea Battle Between Sydney And Kormoran

During the early years of World War II, the Australian Cruiser Sydney II and a German raider Karmoran engaged in a lonely shooting battle off the Western coast of Australia that sank both ships and created an unsolved mystery. While 341 of the German raider's complement of 390 were rescued by passing ships, the Sydney was lost that day with all 645 hands, and no one has ever been able to explain why. Click For Story

 

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Seafaring Brig Under Full Sail

The Wreck Of The Brig Annie Jane

A concrete monument still stands on a bluff on the Island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, marking the place where the bodies of 348 victims of the wreck of the sailing ship Annie Jane were buried in a single pit in the fall of 1853. That wreck just off the coast of Scotland is still marked among the worst shipwreck disasters in seafaring history. While other wrecks may have claimed nearly as many, if not more lives, few have produced a story of the kind of terror and consternation experienced by this one. Click For Story

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Ill-Fated Sylvanus J. Macy

Sinking Of The Sylvanus J. Macy

The Erie gale came upon the freighter Sylvanus J. Macy and her consort, the schooner-barge Mabelle Wilson with great fury. The two boats were on their way from Buffalo, their holds laden with coal, bound for Kenosha, Wis., when the storm hit on the night of Nov. 23, 1902. The Macy did not survive the gale. Click For Story

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James L. Donahue is the author of four fine books crammed with Great Lakes shipwreck and shipping history. His books, available through Thunderbay Press, can be purchased on line at Amazon, Borders and other popular book sellers. They include Steaming Through Smoke and Fire, Steamboats In Ice 1872, Terrifying Steamboat Stories and Schooners In Peril.

All written material on this site is copyright protected. Reproduction on other sites is permitted if proper credit is given and the material is not sold or used for financial gain. Reproduction for print media is prohibited unless there is expressed permission from the author, James L. Donahue, and/or Psiomni Ltd.

 
Great And Lost Ships Of The World