In the stormy North Atlantic off Anticosti Island, November 18, 1972. MICHIPICOTEN begins to break in two. Photo by captain of the Polish tug KORAL. Courtesy John O. Greenwood

The steamer MICHIPICOTEN made her last trip for the Algoma Central fleet (Providence Shipping Company Ltd.) in October 1972. On November 15, 1972, in tow of the Polish tug KORAL, she cleared Quebec City bound for a Spanish breaker's yard. Whilst in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Anticosti island on November 17th, she broke away from the tug in heavy weather and soon broke in two. The two halves separated the following day and the stern section quickly foundered. The bow half remained afloat until November 19 when it reared up almost perpendicular to the seas and disappeared in the spume of the storm-swept Gulf.

Off Anticosti Island, November 18, 1972. The bow and stern sections of MICHIPICOTEN separate. Photo by captain of the Polish tug KORAL. Courtesy John O. Greenwood

There has now come to light an amazing series of photographs of the whole sinking and they are, to our knowledge, the first photos ever of a laker sinking while en route to a European scrapyard, although eleven ships have been lost in tow during the last decade. They were taken by the skipper of the tug KORAL and they illustrate the mountainous waves which MICHIPICOTEN encountered on salt water, seas which she was never designed to withstand.

For his permission to use these photos (two are reproduced on this month's photopage), our thanks go to John O. Greenwood of Cleveland.

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