GC8615R SwtM - S.S. Chicora (Traditional Cache) in Michigan, United States created by The Mitten Crew

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GC8615R ▼

A cache by The Mitten Crew Message this owner

Hidden : 5/1/2019

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Size: Size: large (large)

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Geocache Description:

[2011 series / Great Lakes Shipwrecks]
SS Chicora was a passenger-and-freight steamer built in 1892 for service on the Great Lakes. Considered to be one of Lake Michigan's finest steamers, she was lost with all hands in January 1895. She is now remembered chiefly for being mentioned by Chicago writer Nelson Algren, in Algren’s prose-poem, Chicago: City on the Make: “Who now knows the sorrowful long-ago name of the proud steamer Chicora, down with all hands in the ice off South Haven?” as well as “Sunk under the ice in the waves off South Haven, sunk with all hands for good and forever, for keeps and a single day.”

Chicora, a wooden-hulled, screw-propelled, passenger-cargo ship, was built in 1892 by the Detroit Drydock Company of Detroit, Michigan, for the Graham & Morton Transportation Company. Designed by Frank Kirby, her cost was $150,000. Chicora was launched from the builder's Orleans Street yard at about 3 pm, 26 June 1892, and completed in July; her yard number was 111.

Chicora was approximately 200 feet in length. She was licensed to carry 1,500 passengers as a summer excursion boat, with passenger accommodations which included 56 staterooms, sleeping quarters for 200, a large smoking room and "spacious" social hall. Her passenger cabins, grand staircase and gangways were all finished in mahogany, and an electric plant provided power for the ship's 250 lights. For freight service in the winter off-season, Chicora was built "especially stout" and had six-inch outer planking and three waterproof compartments.

When newly built, Chicora was described as a "masterpiece", with "lines ... as symmetrical and beautiful as any yacht". She was considered to be the premier ship of the Graham and Morton Line, and one of the finest vessels on Lake Michigan—the "Queen Mary" of the lake.

Originally built for service between St. Joseph and Chicago, Chicora once made the 65-mile run between Benton Harbor and Chicago in 3 hours 40 minutes, at an average speed in excess of 19 miles per hour. In the winter of 1893/94, Chicora was placed on the St. Joseph–Milwaukee route, and again the following winter.

Chicora went missing on Lake Michigan January 1895 with a cargo of flour. Portions of wreckage of the missing vessel-consisting of the Port side and forward upper bulwarks five feet wide and 12 feet long along with the passenger gangway were found a mile on the ice near South Haven, Michigan. Pieces of wreckage are also reported to have been found. In April 1895 it was reported wreckage was coming ashore at New Buffalo, Michigan. On 19 April 1895 a witness claimed to have seen the Chicora stern down and bow up in the lake between South Haven and Saugatuck, Michigan, on 23 January 1895. Two messages that appeared to be from the ship were also found. A bottle containing a note reading "All is lost, could see land if not snowed and blowed. Engine give out, drifting to shore in ice. Captain and clerk are swept off. We have a hard time of it. 10:15 o'clock." was found on April 14th. A week later a jar was found in Illinois containing a note reading "Chicora engines broke. Drifted into trough of sea. We have lost all hope. She has gone to pieces. Good bye. McClure, Engineer."

Visit 14 geocaches in the SwtM series. At each geocache collect a letter and number combination. Insert them into the phrase: FiTS LIKe A GlOVE Use the coordinates from the phrase to find the final geocache and become a Mitten Master
Tannery Falls	S.S. Carl D. Bradley	Fort Gratiot Lighthouse
Norway to Wakefield	Gordy Howe Intl. Bridge	ElvisFest
S.S. Chicora	Jacob's Falls	Fox Theater
Point Iriquois Lighthouse	S.S. Badger	ArtPrize
Grand Island	Calumet	Mitten Master