On April 10, 1965, the Poseidon Lines freighter Transatlantic was inbound on the St. Lawrence Seaway just below Sorel. Having just departed Sorel, the outgoing freighter Hermes made way for the incoming Transatlantic in the Lac Saint-Pierre area, but Hermes seems to have strayed into shallow water. The latter's stern got sucked toward the shore, which sent her bow out into the incoming channel and caused her to strike Transatlantic on the port side.
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| Photo of Transatlantic, © Frans Kerkhof, from Shipspotting.com. |
According to Shipspotting.com, "Transatlantic was heavily damaged, burst into flames, and was soon on the bottom of the river. Three lives were lost on the latter ship while Hermes suffered considerable bow damage and ultimately had to go to Montreal for bow repairs."
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| Viewed from astern, the now burning Transatlantic is under the care of two tugs, with Marine Industries Ltd.'s Capitaine Simard in the foreground. The tug in the background is probably George M. McKee. Firefighters can be seen here working aft of the superstructure. |
The tugs in the above photo belong to Marine Industries Limited (MIL), and Mac Mackay had mentioned them in his Tugfax blog here (Capitaine Simard) and here (George M McKee).
Efforts to save the ship were unsuccessful, and Transatlantic ended up capsizing to port, and sank to the bottom with her starboard side exposed above the surface.
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| Transatlantic lying on her port side with the passing Saguenay Lines freighter Sunrise in the background. You can see the fire-charred paint on the bridge of the former. There is a petroleum slick enveloping the bow of the ship. |
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| Viewed from forward, the ship's bilge keels and a set of empty lifeboat davits can be seen. |
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| This time viewed from aft, the empty lifeboat davits can also be seen in this photo. |
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| Looking forward from the bridge, you can see a deck cargo of drums, which may explain why the ship caught on fire after the collision (or maybe the just contributed to the fire). |
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| A man stands forward of the bridge on the side of the capsized ship, with fire-charred paint on the superstructure visible to the left of the photo. |
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| A group of men stands on the side of the bridge superstructure. |
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| Tugs in the background appear to be approaching the capsized Transatlantic. |
Looking at the photos on the Mariner's Weather Log website, the bow of Hermes was fairly sharp and protruded well beyond the waterline, and the post-salvage photo shows there is significant damage to Transatlantic's superstructure. In addition, where the post-salvage photo does not clearly show damage to the hull (though any hole may have been patched in order to refloat the ship) and the pre-sinking photo above shows the ship initially heeling to starboard, I wonder if it was the firefighting efforts that caused the capsize to port.
While the photos in this post (except where indicated) are from the Foundation Maritime / AECON collection, I have been unable to determine if Foundation Maritime was actually involved in the salvage operation, and I have not even found mention of any firm connected with the work. Transatlantic herself was determined to be a constructive total loss, and she was broken up in Sorel in 1967.
For more information, the websites listed below have additional information on the incident and its aftermath, along with more photos of the ship both before and after the sinking. In addition, the Bowling Green State University site has information on the tug Capitaine Simard.
Additional Sources:
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University
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