An old photo of the SS Tashmoo, from version 1.0 of International Metropolis. Launched in 1900, she sailed the river and the lakes until June 18, 1936, when she struck a submerged rock in the river, and limped towards Amherstburg, where she made it to a dock, before sinking in 18 feet of water.
The Detroit News, has a good history here.
This article ran in the Windsor Daily Star, July 22, 1936:
CONVERT TASHMOO’S UPPER STRUCTURE INTO SUMMER HOME
While the Tashmoo will soon be a thing of the past, her hull now being in the hands of the wreckers, that proud ship’s upper structure will remain a familiar sight to visitors along the Detroit River at Amherstburg. Yesterday the structure was lifted intact from its position on the sunken pleasure ship by employees of Captain J. Earl McQueen of Amherstburg.
Captain McQueen intends to convert the structure into a summer cottage, only minor changes being necessary to accomplish this. The cottage will face out into the waters of the river and will remain a link with the past, for the Tashmoo plied these waters for almost 40 years.
Does anyone know anything about this? Amherstburgians? It’s not still there is it? Is it standing, but hidden?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Also, I’ll be guest hosting today on Scaledown Radio. It’s on from Noon to 1:00 pm, on CJAM 91.5 FM. Listen in, if you can’t pick up the signal on your radio, you can listen live on-line, or even after the show streaming it via the CJAM website.
Today, I’ll be talking a little bit about this weekend’s upcoming Doors Open event, as well as the resignation of Greg Heil from the Heritage Committee, and Councilor Ron Jones’ lies in the paper following that.
Check it out if you can.
From the Border Cities Star - December 6, 1924, almost a century ago to the…
Built in 1929, the house at 2177 Victoria Avenue was originally numbered 1545 Victoria, pre…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
View Comments
Here is the story of the Tashmoo:
The Tashmoo had a trajic history. Old-timers thought her cursed and bound to come to a bad end because she was a sidewheeler with an Indian name.
One incident happened on Dec 27 1927, when one of the worst storms ever hit Detroit. 60 mph winds held back water from Lake St. Clair dropping the river by 4 feet. Tashmoo snapped her 14 heavy steel cables and was blown from her dock at Griswold Street smashing into the steamer Promise at the Woodward dock of the Detroit Belle Isle and Windsor Ferry Company. Visibility near zero, the Tashmoo seemed to disappear. Then the sound of her bashing into the Belle Isle Bridge rang out. Tugs arrived and struggled to get lines aboard. While nearing the Detroit Shipyard at Orleans Street, she snapped her hawsers and plunged upstream. Only 10 yards away from the Belle Isle Bridge, the tugs finally subdued her one last time.
August 3 1934, strong winds drove her hard aground on the Canadian shore opposite Tashmoo Park while returning to Detroit from Port Huron with 250 passengers. The Put-In-Bay was sent to the rescue and 150 of the passengers were transferred off the Tashmoo.
Tashmoo's final blow came June 18 1936, shortly after midnight while on a private moonlight charter with the Pals Club of Hamtramck, Tashmoo struck a loose submerged rock in the narrow passage called Hole-In-The-Wall coming out of the Sugar Island Channel. The lights went out as the steamer shook. A hole was punched in her hull and water poured in faster than the pumps could handle. Jean Calloway and her orchestra kept playing and the 1400 passengers were unaware of any danger. Captain MacAlpine ordered "FULL SPEED AHEAD" in his attempt to make it to the Amherstburg shore. Ten minutes later, she was at the Brunner-Mond coal wharf. No one was injured and the passengers walked off the ship to the tune of "Old Man River" while the Tashmoo settled on the bottom in 18-20 feet of water. Passengers had to walk a few blocks to the Boblo dock to meet the Columbia called to return them to Detroit. The crowd was drunk and made quite a ruckus along the way. They built fires on the dock while waiting. During the salvage attempts the Tashmoo's keel was irrepairably broken. Tashmoo was dismantled and her pilot house and a large portion of the deck below was purchased by Captain J. A. Mckenty, a tugboat captain from Chatham Ontario. He turned the cabin into a summer cottage at Mirwin's Park near Chatham. On June 10, 1951 the cottage was destroyed by fire.
Captain C Morrison!
I just purchased the DAWNLIGHT in the fall of 2012. Had her hull inspected using the Travel Lift at Bay Port Marina in Midland. They did a great job and the inspection did well. I have lots of historical information on the DAWNLIGHT. I reconize Smith as being one of the owners before it was sold to Carol Baker and Mr. Chaney. I purchased the vessel from Ray Davis.
Feel free to contact me!
Dan Welsh
Dan Welsh,
It's nice to know where she ended up. She was quite an old tug, in her day and I wish you all the success with her. As I have said before, she was my first skippers job. Mostly in Sarnia in 1962.She is what I call "low profile tug " and made it nice working around the salt water vessels sterns and bow. We had a nickname for her back then. It was the "Windsplitter" maybe because she was so narrow. If there is anything else I can help you with please let me know. I live in St.Catharines. Cliff
My Grandfather Oromond (Ormy) Hamilton worked for Cap McQueen. Ormy's father Henry (Harry) was a hard hat diver who some of you may recall from his well known photo taken while standing on the dock in Amherstburg in his full diving suit. I have the original photo and one of my cousins owns the suit.
Ormy had his own tug at one time, The Rook, which I also have the original photo of. The photo's frame is made of wood, teak I think, that came from the handrail off the Tashmoo. I also have a coffee table made from the same handrail. My father made both, with my help of course!
I remember hearing many stories abut Jake Penner and the boys when I was young, but don't recall details.
Some of my fondest memories are of sitting on the balcony of Ormy's apartment across from what is now the Government dock and watching the freighters with him. He knew everything about every ship we saw, or so it seemed to a young lad. Where they were going, where they came from. What they had on. Pure fascination. Miss him dearly.
On the back of my photo of The Rook, dad recorded the date as being 1929 and the location as being "in front of the whisky dock 2 lots south of Duffy's". Apparently, by the ripe old age of 14, Ormy had had enough of rumrunning and retired to less dangerous work!
Anyway, I just stumbled across this website and enjoyed reading everyone's posts and thought some of you may enjoy mine. Maybe some of you knew Ormy. If so, I'd love to hear about it.
All the best.
Bruce