View source for SS Mataafa

{{Short description|Steam freighter that sank in Lake Superior}}
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| Ship image = Mataafa postcard.jpg
| Ship caption = ''Mataafa'' wrecked outside Duluth harbor after the storm of November 28, 1905}}
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| Ship name = SS ''Mataafa''
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| Ship builder = Cleveland Shipbuilding Company
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| Ship completed = 1899
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| Ship out of service = 1965
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| Ship fate = Wrecked 1905, raised and repaired; scrapped 1965
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| Ship tonnage = {{GRT|4,840}}
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| Ship crew = 24 in 1905
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'''SS ''Mataafa''''' was an American [[steamship]] that had a lengthy career on the [[Great Lakes]] of North America, first as a [[bulk carrier]] and later as a [[car carrier]]. She was wrecked in 1905 in [[Lake Superior]] just outside the harbor at [[Duluth, Minnesota|Duluth]], Minnesota, during a [[Mataafa Storm|storm that was named after her]]. She was built as '''SS ''Pennsylvania''''' in 1899,<ref name="auto">The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 - 1999, by Dave Swayze, 2001</ref> and renamed ''Mataafa'' when she was purchased in the same year by the Minnesota Steamship Company. After her 1905 wreck, she was raised and repaired, and served for another sixty years before being scrapped.

==Design==

Built in 1899 as SS ''Pennsylvania'' by the [[Cleveland Shipbuilding Company]],<ref name="auto"/> she was {{convert|430|ft|m}} long and had a [[Beam (nautical)|beam]] of {{convert|50|ft|m}}.<ref name="auto2">Mariners Weather Log Volume 50 No. 3, December 2006, U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA</ref> She was rated at {{GRT|4,840|disp=long}}, and her engines were capable of producing {{convert|1,800|hp|kW|lk=on}}).<ref>Chapters & Stories, Superior's Shipwrecks, Jim Cordes Publishing, 2009</ref> Like most steel ships on the [[Great Lakes]], her hull was made of large steel plates riveted to steel frames.

==Early career==

The company that built her leased her out as SS ''Pennsylvania'' for a few months, but quickly sold her to the Minnesota Steamship Company (MSC), which renamed her SS ''Mataafa''. Her first season with the MSC was not without difficulties; she struck a rock in the [[Straits of Mackinac]] and arrived at [[Chicago]], Illinois, with a leak, and then ran aground above the [[Soo Locks]] on her way back to Minnesota.<ref name="auto2"/>

In 1901, she became a part of the original Pittsburgh Steamship Division of [[U.S. Steel]] when the division was formed.<ref name="auto2"/> Due to fog, she ran aground again, this time on Knife Island Reef in Lake Superior, on June 2, 1902.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?153495  |title=Mataafa (+1905) |publisher=Wrecksite  |accessdate=20 August 2019}}</ref>

==Wreck==
[[File:Nov291905LifeSavingCrew.jpg|thumb|A [[United States Life-Saving Service]] crew rowing out to rescue survivors from the wreck of SS ''Mataafa'', which is visible in the background, on November&nbsp;29,&nbsp;1905.]]
At three-thirty in the afternoon of November 27, 1905, she was on her way out of Duluth, Minnesota, loaded with iron ore and towing the barge ''James Nasmyth''. According to Captain Richard F. Humble, they were rounding the [[Apostle Islands]] when a [[nor'easter]] hit. After hours of fighting the storm, Humble decided to turn back to safe port in [[Two Harbors, Minnesota|Two Harbors]], Minnesota. After five more hours of struggling with the nor'easter, the ship made it back to Two Harbors, but was unable to enter the harbor due to the darkness. Her only remaining option was to try to make port at Duluth.

As she approached Duluth, it became clear that it was useless to try to bring both the steamer and the barge through the narrow [[Duluth Ship Canal]] into the harbor, so Captain Humble gave the order to cut loose ''James Nasmyth'', after which ''Mataafa'' attempted to make it into the harbor alone. She made it about half-way between the twin concrete piers when a backwater surged out. Heavy water struck her stern, driving her prow down to the muddy bottom, and then slammed her stern against the north pier. Her rudder tore off and the water pulled her prow out toward the open lake, then smashed her stern against the south pier. She grounded in the shallow water outside the north pier,<ref name="auto1">The Infamous Freighter Mataafa, The Mind of James Donahue, by James Donahue</ref> where she broke in two, her stern settling slowly into the water.<ref>''Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals'', William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: ''DOOMED ON SUPERIOR'', November 1905, pg.274</ref>

When the ship broke in two, twelve men were in the after portion. Three of the men struggled out to the forward part of the ship. The nine who remained aboard the after portion died of exposure during the night; one of the bodies in the after half had to be chopped out of solid ice.<ref>''Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals'', William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: DOOMED ON LAKE SUPERIOR, Chapter 8, pg.274</ref> The fifteen men in the fore half fared better; although rescue attempts were futile during the stormy night, the next day a small boat made it out, and all fifteen were taken off in two boatloads.<ref>GenDisasters: Duluth, MN Steamer MATAAFA Disaster, Nov 1905, by Stu Beitler</ref>

==Later career==

''Mataafa'' was [[Marine salvage|refloated]] and repaired. She continued to be accident-prone; On October 14, 1908, she was in a collision that sank {{SS|Sacramento}} in the harbor at [[Duluth, Minnesota]].,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000071882796&view=1up&seq=255 |title=Annual report of the Supervising Inspector-general Steamboat-inspection Service, Year ending June 30, 1909|publisher=Penn State University | accessdate=28 December 2019}}</ref> On 1 October, 1910 she rescued the crew of {{SS|New York|1879|2}} after the ship burned and sank in [[Thunder Bay, Michigan]], [[Lake Huron]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RH7VAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ship:++Goodyear,+1910&pg=PA103 |title=Beeson's Directory of the Northwest Lakes  |year=1911 |publisher=Harvey C. Beeson |via=Google books |access-date=26 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?297383 |title=New York (+1910)  |publisher=Wrecksite |access-date=26 December 2020}}</ref> and in 1914 she struck another pier.<ref name="auto1"/> She did play the heroic part on a few occasions, however; on July 17, 1912, she rescued 19 men from the sinking wooden steamer ''New York'' in [[Lake Saint Clair (North America)|Lake St. Clair]], and on the same day six years later she rescued the entire crew of the barge ''Commodore'' off South East Shoal in [[Lake Erie]].<ref name="auto2"/>

She was rebuilt due to wear in 1926, and in 1946 she was converted from a [[bulk carrier]] to a [[car carrier]], after which she served the [[Nicholson Transit Company]]. She served until 1964, when she was sold to Marine Salvage to be scrapped. She was dismantled in [[Hamburg, Germany|Hamburg]], West Germany, in 1965.<ref name="auto2"/>

==Legacy==

Because the wreck of ''Mataafa'' occurred just outside Duluth, hundreds if not thousands of people were witnesses to the event. This made the wreck of ''Mataafa'' famous enough for the November 1905 storm to become known as the "[[Mataafa Storm|''Mataafa'' Storm]]."<ref name="auto1"/><ref>The "Great Storms" of 195 and 1913, Great Lakes Steamship Society, The 1905 "''Mataafa'' Storm"</ref> The Duluth Cigar Company quickly capitalized on the wreck with the "''Mataafa''" Cigar, which bore a picture of the wrecked bulk carrier.<ref>''Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals'', William Ratigan, published by Galahad Books, Book IV: DOOMED ON LAKE SUPERIOR, Chapter 8, pg.279</ref>

==See also==

* [[Graveyard of the Great Lakes]]

== References ==
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags which will then appear here automatically -->
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111016120013/http://vos.noaa.gov/MWL/dec_06/shipwreck.shtml The U.S. Dept. of Commerce/NOAA page about the ship]
* [https://www.gendisasters.com/minnesota/15799/duluth-mn-steamer-mataafa-disaster-nov-1905?page=0%2C1/ The GenDisasters page about the wreck]
* [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1905-11-30/ed-1/seq-1.pdf chroniclingamerica.loc.gov ''Mataafa'']
* [http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/ An index of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes]
* [http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/ships2/id73.html/ An essay about the ship and her career]
* [http://www.jimcordespublishing.com/superiorsshipwrecks.html/ An essay about the storm]{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* [http://www.jbford.org/storms/  A page discussing notable storms on Lake Superior]

{{1901 shipwrecks}}
{{1905 shipwrecks}}
{{1908 shipwrecks}}
{{1914 shipwrecks}}

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<!--- Categories --->
[[Category:1899 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Cleveland]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1901]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1905]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Lake Superior]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1908]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1914]]
[[Category:Great Lakes freighters]]