SS Onoko

Construction Onoko (Official number 155048) was built at Radcliffe's yard in Cleveland by the Globe Iron Works Company and was launched on February 16, 1882. She had a length of 302.6-feet, a beam of 38.6 feet and a height of 24.8-feet. She was powered by a 900-horsepower compound steam engine fueled by two Scotch marine boilers, and gaff-rigged with auxiliary sails on four masts. She was commissioned by Phillip Minch of Vermillion, Ohio, for the Minch Transportation Company of the Kinsman Steamship Company and a syndicate of other investors. opened in 1881 when the new Weitzel Lock was built at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Onoko capacity to carry oats was believed to be at around 155,000 bushels. The Buffalo Courier provides an accurate account of when Onoko arrived in Buffalo. It said that "About noon on Saturday the new iron steamer Onoko arrived here with something over 88,000 bushels wheat. She left Chicago last Tuesday at 4:20PM and her time in coming down was three days and nineteen and a half hours". Onokos wooden spar deck was replaced with steel in 1901. Later that year the principal owners of Onoko, the Nicholas Transportation Company, bought out all the lesser stockholders to become sole owner of Onoko. Onoko had steel aft cabins installed in 1907 through 1908. In 1910, Captain Harry Stewart was appointed as the master of Onoko. On the night of December 1, 1910, Onoko ran aground on Southeast Shoal during a snowstorm 60 miles below Amherstburg, between Point Pelee and Wheatley, Ontario. She was released with three tugs, including Harding and Rescue, that were sent to rescue Onoko. She was carrying coal at the time. On December 2, 1910, the Duluth Herald wrote an article saying Onoko was not in any serious danger. The tugs succeeded in refloating her without serious damage to her hull. On October 7, 1912, Onoko sprang a leak and was intentionally beached in the Apostle Islands. The cost to patch her hull was minimal. ==Sinking==

In early September, 1915, Onoko grounded while departing a grain elevator in Duluth, but freed herself and cleared the harbor safely. It is thought damage resulting from the grounding led to the development of an aggressive leak that sank her a few days later. On September 15, 1915 Onoko departed Duluth, Minnesota, with 110,000 bushels of wheat bound for Toledo, Ohio. She sprang a major leak off Knife Island about 15 miles from Duluth, Minnesota. On September 15, 1915, the Duluth Herald wrote an article saying: All went well and the sea was smooth, when while on the regular course, about nine miles off Knife island, the engineer, J.J. Higgins, reported to the master, Capt. W.R. Dunn, that the vessel had sprung a leak under the engines and that the water was coming in fast. When Capt. Dunn went back to investigate, the water was spurting in and in a few minutes drowned out the fire. The captain saw that the situation was hopeless and ordered out the boats. All of the crew including the one woman on board, Mrs. C.R. Cranbee, wife of the steward, and the lone passenger, Antone Rehor, a cement contractor of Cleveland, had no trouble reaching the boats and safety, and in a few minutes the steamer, her stern having filled rapidly, tossed her nose in the air and plunged stern first to the bottom. ==Wreck==

The wreck of Onoko was discovered on April 10, 1988, by Jerry Eliason of Scanlon, Minnesota, and Kraig Smith of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, after they conducted a thorough search using a depth finder. Her wreck rests upside down in of water with her stern buried almost completely in mud. Her hull is broken nearly in two, with the split in her hull right in front of her boilers. Her wreck is surrounded by many artifacts from inside and outside her hull. Her cargo of grain is still in her cargo hold. It is illegal to remove artifacts from her wreck without permission because she is protected by the state of Minnesota. ==References==