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HISTORY
SS Arthur
M. Anderson is a cargo ship of the laker type. It is famous for
being the last ship to be in contact with SS Edmund Fitzgerald
before Edmund Fitzgerald sank on 10 November 1975. Arthur M
Anderson was also the first rescue ship on the scene in a vain
search for Edmund Fitzgerald survivors (there were none). The
vessel's namesake, Arthur Marvin Anderson, was director of U.S.
Steel at the time.
SS Arthur M. Anderson came out of the drydock of the American
Ship Building Company of Lorain, Ohio in 1952. It had a length
of 647 feet (197 m), a 70-foot (21 m) beam, a 36-foot (11 m)
depth, and a gross tonnage of roughly 20,000 tons. It was second
of eight of the AAA class of lake freighters; the others being,
in order, SS Philip R. Clarke, SS Cason J. Callaway, SS Reserve,
SS J.L. Mauthe, SS Armco, SS Edward B. Greene, and SS William
Clay Ford. Arthur M. Anderson, along with Philip R. Clarke and
Cason J. Callaway, were built for the Pittsburgh Steamship
Division of U.S. Steel. Arthur M Anderson's sea trials commenced
on 7 August 1952, and it loaded its first cargo at the Two
Harbors dock on 12 August 1952. It received several refits in
its life including the addition of a new 120-foot (37 m)
midsection in 1975 which added about 6,000 tons to its gross
tonnage, bringing the total to about 26,000 tons. In 1981 it
received a self unloading boom which improved its cargo loading
and unloading. It is unique among the three Great Lakes Fleet
steamships in that it has a softer midsection that prohibits
loading as much cargo as the others; roughly 1500 tons less.
In February 2015 Arthur M. Anderson became stuck and stranded in
several feet of ice in Lake Erie near Conneaut Harbor, Ohio.
Arthur M. Anderson was freed from the ice on 21 February 2015
after five days with the help of the Canadian Coast Guard vessel
CCGS Griffon. CCGS Samuel Risley was slated to escort Arthur M.
Anderson to Detroit. USCGC Bristol Bay had also become stranded
while attempting to free the ship from the up to 10-foot (3.0 m)
thick ice.
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