SS Monarch

The Monarch was a passenger-package freighter built in 1890; it was sunk off the shore of Isle Royale in Lake Superior in 1906 and the remains are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

History
The Monarch (Official Number 96843) was a wooden freighter built in 1890 in Sarnia, Ontario by John Dyble for the Northwest Transportation Company. It was launched on June 27, 1890, the last ship built in Sarnia until World War II. The ship was 259 feet long, 35 feet in beam and 15 feet in depth. Installed in the ship was a 900HP triple expansion steam engine with two Scotch boilers, allowing it to attain 14 mph. The ship's hull was heavily reinforced with iron, and she was fitted with 65 cabins.

The Monarch was used to transport both passengers and packages on the Great Lakes between the time it was built and its wreck in 1906, primarily running between Sarnia, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Duluth, Minnesota. In 1899, Northwest Transportation merged with another company to form the Northern Navigation Company, Ltd.

On December 6, 1906, the Monarch finished loading a cargo of wheat, oats, salmon, and general merchandise and departed Thunder Bay for Sarnia in a blinding snowstorm. For some reason, the ship headed off its planned course, and that night it rammed at full speed into the palisade area on the north side of Blake Point on Isle Roayale. The engineer kept the engine engaged to maintain the ship's position on the shore, and a crewman, James D. McCallum, carried a line to shore through the rough seas. The crew and passengers used the line to escape the wreck, and only one person perished. The survivors camped on Isle Royale for four days, salvaging food from the wreck and keeping signal fires alight, before they were rescued on December 10.

Salvage operations on the Monarch were carried out over the next two years. At some point, the ship separated, leaving only the bow section visible. The engine and associated machinery was salvaged in 1908.

The wreck today
The wooden Monarch has disintegrated on the site, although a number of pieces of wreckage can be seen. There is a trove of cargo still lying on the bottom of the lake near the wreck. Approximately 85 dives were made to the Monarch in 2009 out of 1062 dives made to wrecks in the Isle Royale National Park. Large portions of wooden wreckage are scattered on the bottom at a depth of 10 – 80 feet.