page_title: Mataafa Storm
section_title: The wreck of SS Mataafa
hierarchical_section_title: Mataafa Storm / The wreck of SS Mataafa
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo postcard of the Great Lakes freighter Mataafa lying wrecked at the entrance to Duluth harbor after the storm of 28 November 1905.
context_page_description: The Mataafa Storm, or Mataafa Storm of 1905, was a storm that occurred on the Great Lakes on November 27–28, 1905. The system moved across the Great Basin with moderate depth on November 26 and November 27, then east-northeastward across the Great Lakes on November 28. Fresh east winds were forecast for the afternoon and evening of November 27, with storm warnings in effect by the morning of November 28. Storm-force winds and heavy snows accompanied the cyclone's passage. The storm, named after the steamship Mataafa, ended up destroying or damaging about 29 vessels, killing 36 seamen, and causing shipping losses of US$$3.567 million on Lake Superior.
context_section_description: At five o'clock in the afternoon on November 27, 1905, the bulk carrier SS Mataafa was on her way out of Duluth, loaded with iron ore and towing the barge James Nasmyth. She was hit by the storm, and though she struggled on for a short time, by the time she had reached Two Harbors, Minnesota, at 4:00 p.m. the next day, it was clear to her master, Captain R. F. Humble, that she could not make the run. He gave the order to turn about, and she turned her prow toward Duluth.
  As she approached the port, it became clear that it was useless to try to bring both steamer and barge through the narrow Duluth Ship Canal into the harbor, so the Captain Humble gave the order to cut James Nasmyth loose. Then Mataafa attempted to make it into safe harbor alone. She made it about half-way between the twin concrete piers when a backwater surged out. Heavy water struck her stern, driving her prow down to the muddy bottom, and then slammed her stern against the north pier. Her rudder tore off and the water pulled her prow out toward the open lake, then smashed her stern against the south pier. She grounded in the shallow water outside the north pier, where she broke in two, her stern settling slowly into the water.
  When the ship broke in two, twelve men were in the aft portion; three of them struggled to the forward portion. The remaining nine remained aboard the after portion and died of exposure during the night; one of the bodies in the after half had to be chopped out of solid ice. The fifteen men in the fore half fared better; although rescue attempts were futile during the stormy night, the next day a small boat made it out, and all fifteen were taken off in two boatloads.
caption: The wreck of Mataafa.
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