SS Edward Y. Townsend

SS Edward Y. Townsend (official number 203449) was a 603-foot (184 m) American Great Lakes freighter that served on the Great Lakes. She was primarily used to haul bulk cargoes such as iron ore, coal, grain and occasionally limestone. She was in service from her launching in 1906 to her sinking in 1968. She is best known for sinking on the way to the scrapper, near RMS Titanic, off the coast of Newfoundland.

Launch of Edward Y. Townsend
History
Name	Edward Y. Townsend
Operator	Cambria Steamship Company (M.A. Hanna Company, Mgrs.) 1906–1926 Cambria Steamship Company 1927–1929 Cambria Steamship Company (Bethlehem Transportation Company, Mgrs.) 1930–1968
Port of registry	Wilmington, Delaware
Builder	Superior Shipbuilding Company
Yard number	515
Launched	18 August 1906
Completed	1906
In service	1906
Out of service	1968
Identification	U.S. Registry #203449
Fate	Sunk on the way to the scrapper on 7 October 1968
Notes	She was the sister ship of the ill-fated Daniel J. Morrell
General characteristics
Class & type	Bulk freighter
Tonnage	7,438 GRT 5,673 NRT
Length	603 ft (184 m)
Beam	58 ft (18 m)
Height	32 ft (9.8 m)
Installed power	2 x Scotch marine boilers
Propulsion	1,800 hp (1,300 kW) triple expansion steam engine attached to a single fixed pitch propeller
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew	29

History

Edward Y. Townsend was built in 1906 by the Superior Shipbuilding Company, of Superior, Wisconsin, for the Cambria Steamship Company of Cleveland, Ohio. She was the longest vessel at the time of her launch, therefore she was given the title 'Queen of the Lakes'. She began service in September 1906.^[1]

On April 26, 1909, Edward Y. Townsend collided with the steamer Philip Minch off Whitefish Point, Lake Superior sustaining minor damage. Low water levels on February 1 through February 6, 1926, caused Edward Y. Townsend to run aground near Buffalo, New York.^[2]

SS Daniel J. Morrell

Daniel J. Morrell showing her Cambria Steamship Company smokestack

Even though Edward Y. Townsend was built by a different shipbuilding company than Daniel J. Morrell they were considered sister ships, because they were virtually identical.^[3] On November 29, 1966 Edward Y. Townsend suffered a crack in her hull while traveling on Northern Lake Huron (in the same storm that sank Daniel J. Morrell).^[4] She was deemed unseaworthy, and laid up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for two years.^[5][6]

Sinking

In 1968 she was sold to the Sea-Land Service Inc. for sale in the US Maritime Commission on vessels in the reserve fleet. She was later resold to a Spanish scrapyard. On September 15, 1968, Edward Y. Townsend passed down Port Colborne, Ontario in tow of the tugboats James Battle and Salvage Monarch. On October 1, 1968, she cleared Quebec with the steamer Dolomite, towed by the tug Hudson. She broke free on October 7 in a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, split in half, and sank in the same general vicinity as where the RMS Titanic had sunk, about 400 miles (640 km) southeast of Newfoundland.^[7]

See also

• 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard
• Great Lakes Storm of 1913
• Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
• List of storms on the Great Lakes
• Mataafa Storm
• Largest shipwrecks on the Great Lakes
• List of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes