It was her maiden voyage - well, sort of.
And it ended in disaster.

The Puritan, seen in her prime, sank in her prime off Isle
Royale in 1933.

On May 27, 1933, while operating in foggy conditions, the steamer George M. Cox slammed onto the Rock of Ages reef in Lake Superior, at the southern end of Isle Royale.

The ship had been traveling at a high rate of speed, about 15 knots, and the impact knocked the engine off its foundation. Deprived of its normal buoyancy, the steamer assumed a list to port of about 40 degrees. The bow was completely out of the water, but the aft end was awash.

The portside lifeboats were lowered and the 18 passengers and crew safely made their way to a nearby lighthouse. It was too small a structure to shelter all at one time, so for the chilly night, they took turns until help arrived.

Two hundred and fifty would-be passengers, waiting at Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ontario, would never sail on the Cox. Nor would anyone else.

Before salvage could be attempted, a storm came up and the ship slid off the rocks and sank in deep water, where it remains to this day.

Remote Isle Royale had recently become Michigan’s first national park. One of those who helped generate public support for the park was Walter Hastings, who resided at Lake Leelanau for many years. Hastings was a naturalist and cinematographer who filmed the wilderness island in winter several years before the Cox mishap and his film was shown in Michigan theaters to packed audiences.

After the steamer went on the rocks, the Enterprise announced that new arrangements would need to be made for the transport of cherries at Glen Haven, since “the steamer Puritan” had been “wrecked on Lake Superior.” The ship’s name change went unacknowledged by the newspaper.

It’s questionable, however, that the Puritan, renamed George M. Cox for its newest owner, would have ever come back to Glen Haven, anyway, although the ship had been very well known up and down the east shore of Lake Michigan, as a carrier of cherries, apples and other Michigan-grown perishable fruit.

As the Cox, the ship made, as one account put it, “one half-trip,” just like an ill-fated predecessor, the Titanic. Fortunately, however, in this instance no one was killed or even seriously hurt.

Built in Toledo in 1901, the sleek 290-foot ship was originally owned by the Graham and Morton line of Benton Harbor. It was requisitioned by the U.S. government for saltwater service in the first World War, but brought back to the lakes after the war’s conclusion and operated on Lake Michigan throughout the booming 1920s.

After operating for the Chicago, Racine, and Milwaukee Line, the ship was sold to Michigan Transit in 1924, and subsequently called regularly at Leelanau ports.

But in 1926, Michigan Transit, which also operated the large steamer Manitou, ran into financial problems. In its edition of April 28, 1927, the Enterprise reported that “it was feared the boats” which at the time were laid up at Manistee, “would remain inactive this season.”

The ships, which had wintered at Manistee, had remained “tied up by claims of various kinds against the Transit Company.”

But the newspaper was able to relate that, on April 20, the boats had been auctioned off “and both were purchased by R. Floyd Clinch of Chicago, one of several bidders. Mr. Clinch bought the Puritan personally for $102,000.”

In addition, he bought for $125,000 the Manitou for Central Security Company of Chicago, of which he was a director. Finally, a payment amounting to “about $100,000 was necessary to cover lien claims against the boats and cover court costs.”

It was reported a new corporation, with Clinch at the head, was under formation and the 1927 season’s schedule “is expected to be much the same as before.”

Clinch was the son-in-law of Tracy Lay, co-founder of Hannah and Lay of Traverse City, which was still a major regional business force.

The Enterprise said that Clinch “did not wish to see the region deprived of regular boat service.”

In summation, the newspaper concluded that “the assurance of uninterrupted service by the Manitou and Puritan is welcome news to this region. These boats mean much to the summer people who prefer water travel to either railroad or automobile; and also to the summer and fall produce shipping, in addition to other freight carrying.”

The ships did indeed continue to operate, but after the stock market crash of October 1929, and the ensuing Great Depression, the general economic situation changed dramatically.

Great Lakes passenger carrying steamship lines were dealt a blow few would recover from, and Clinch’s operation became insolvent in 1931.

Another sale took place and New Orleans’ interests, headed by George M. Cox, took possession of the Puritan.

Although her owners were new, when the steamer hit the rocks, she was under the command of a local captain who was already very familiar with the ship and her former running mate, the Manitou. Capt. George Johnson of Traverse City was exonerated from any fault in the accident at the Rock of Ages, but nevertheless retired from sailing. He then served as Register of Deeds for Grand Traverse County until his death 15 years later.

Johnson’s father was Capt. Frederick L. Johnson, who commanded the early steamer Sunny Side on Grand Traverse Bay. This little ship, built expressly for bay service at Detroit in 1864 and owned by Hannah and Lay, was destroyed by a storm at Charlevoix in November 1867. It had attempted to sail to Northport from there, but was forced to turn back and was battered, beyond repair, against the pier after returning.

Fortunately, as in the case of the Puritan/Cox incident 66 years later, there was no loss of life.