Last Voyage of the Lambton

Lake Superior, greatest of the inland seas, extends over 380 miles and reaches to depths of more than 160 fathoms. Salt water sailors have said that the Great Lakes can be far more difficult to navigate than the open ocean, and Superior certainly lives up to that reputation. With harsh winters and weather that can suddenly whip a calm sea into a ferocious gale, the queen of the lakes challenges the skills of even the most experienced mariners. But despite the dangers, the demands of commerce have required that lakemen meet the challenge and face treacherous weather in a navigation season that is pushed to the limit.

Built in 1909 at the Government Shipyard in Sorel, Quebec, the CCG Lighthouse Tender Lambton was a steam powered tug of steel construction. With a length of 108 feet, 25 feet across the beam and a draft of 13 feet, she was a relatively small vessel, but well suited for the job of tending buoys and delivering supplies to the lighthouses of the upper lakes. Based out of Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, the Lambton was the sole source of transportation and provisions for countless lighthouse keepers and their families on the lakes. For years, she made her rounds, surviving many storms that claimed much larger vessels. Her first trip of the season in 1922, however, would also be her last.

On Thursday, April 18^th, the Lambton left the Soo Locks enroute to open the lighthouses at Parisienne, Caribou and Michipicoten Islands on Lake Superior. In addition to Captain Brown, there were 21 crewmen and lighthouse keepers on board. Winter weather was still lingering on the lakes, with a strong wind from the northwest blowing in snow squalls and driving packs of ice into Whitefish Bay. Traversing the bay, the crew of the Lambton sighted the steamer Glenfinnan, stuck in the ice, and changed course to assist. After numerous attempts at freeing her, including a tense moment when the vessels collided, the large steamer was pushed clear of the ice, and the Lambton continued on her way.

On April 19^th, a downbound ship passing the Lambton noted that she was making slow progress through the ice and apparently was having some trouble with her steering gear. There were no signs of distress, though, and the two boats continued on through the rough seas. By that evening, the weather had gone from bad to worse, as a severe windstorm whipped across Lake Superior. On boats across the lake, sailors secured hatches and headed below deck to spend a sleepless night riding out the storm.

As the weather subsided in the morning, ships across the lake checked in, but there was no word from the Lambton. A search was soon begun, but as the days went by, there was no sign of the missing vessel. Finally, on April 23^rd, the crew of the arriving steamer Valcartier reported that they had seen debris floating about 15 miles east of Caribou Island. The wheelsman on the Valcartier had previously sailed on the Lambton and was fairly certain that the wreckage was part of the missing boat’s pilothouse. Not another trace of the Lambton or her crew was ever found.

Since there were no survivors and the wreck was never found, the cause of the sinking still remains a mystery. It has been theorized that the boat’s steering gear was damaged in the collison with the Glenfinnan. Later during the storm, it may have failed, causing the Lambton to suddenly turn and roll over between the waves. There is also the possibility that she encountered a severe gale and took a nosedive into a huge wave. In either case, the end would have come so quickly that none of the crew would have had a chance to abandon ship. Many ships on the Great Lakes have simply disappeared in this way, with no one left to tell the tale. Even in recent times with modern technology, the huge Edmund Fitzgerald vanished right before the eyes and radar of another ship and sank before the crew could launch a lifeboat or even issue a distress call.

In 1976, Navy sonar teams searching for the Edmund Fitzgerald noted a number of unidentified wreck locations on the bottom in the area of Whitefish Bay near where the big ore carrier sank. Perhaps one is the final resting place of the Lambton and her crew, along with the other lakemen asleep in the cold, deep waters of Superior.