Jim Hettinger: The Regina — a mystery solved

The Great Storm of 1913 sunk the Regina and gave rise to an enduring lakes mystery. As bodies washed ashore in the wake of the Great Storm, it appeared as though sailors from the Charles Price were wearing life vests from the Regina — or were they?

Milton Smith, the fortunate engineer who quit the Price before its doomed voyage, was called to assist in the identification of the bodies of his former shipmates. His chief engineer, John Groundwater, had washed ashore entangled, if not wearing, a life vest from the Regina. This set off speculation that the Price and Regina may have collided in the heavy storm and life jackets were tossed from one sinking ship to another.

The mystery came to an end in 1985 when the Regina was found by a commercial diver.

The Regina was a Canadian ship. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described the Regina: “Built in Dumbarton, Scotland, by A. McMillan and Son, the Regina was a steel package freighter built for the Canadian Steamship Lines and home ported in Montreal. Named after Regina, Saskatchewan, the ship was 269 feet long and registered 1,956 tons.”

The captain of the Regina was Ed McConkey, a 34-year-old laker with his first command.

Denny Lynn ran a business spotting ships and reporting their whereabouts back in 1913. David G. Brown writes, in “White Hurricane,” “The Regina’s appearance bothered him. Lynn noted its top heavy load of sewer and gas pipes that rose above the ship’s rail.”

While the top heavy load of pipes may have been bad enough, Dwight Boyer, in “True Tales of the Great Lakes,” observed another issue: “Topping off the cargo offering was a shipment of one hundred and forty tons of baled hay, most of which had to be accommodated somewhere on the deck covered with tarpaulins and locked down. With her considerable deck load, the Regina was probably as ill-equipped to begin a voyage under the threat of bad weather as any vessel on Lake Huron that morning.”

As with other ships, the Regina ignored the storm warnings and proceeded on her trip that would take her to 10 Canadian ports. Since the storm that had just walloped the upper lakes appeared to have blown itself out, mariners on the lower lakes felt comfortable venturing forth, never suspecting there was a hidden second punch about to be delivered by the storm. When that punch landed, it destroyed eight ships in a little under four hours on the Huron.

As the barometer dropped like a rock, the Regina approached Saginaw Bay, well known for being some of the most turbulent and dangerous stretches on the Huron.

At this point, Capt. McConkey must have realized the storm was too much for the top-heavy Regina. Moreover, it is believed he saw the modern freighter, the Charles Price, execute a turn and head back toward the safety of Sarnia. But the Price was a bulk carrier. Turning around would not be nearly as easy for the package freighter. Brown describes the difficulties:

“Turning around meant putting the Regina sideways to the waves for several minutes. McConkey could imagine his small ship rolling over like a log in the huge combers that were marching down the lake.”

Nonetheless, it appears the Regina was caught in the trough of the waves and she was literally dragged down the lake. Robert J. Hemmings, in “Ships Gone Missing,” writes: “McConkey ordered the starboard anchor dropped, hoping to be able to pull her bow around and into the wave path. But the anchor dragged along the bottom failing to catch and hold.”

The Regina shoaled near Harbor Beach, Michigan. McConkey ordered the crew to drop the anchor, possibly to stabilize the Regina and possibly to save energy. But the shoal had done its damage and water was flooding into the Regina.

The crew had little choice but to launch their lifeboats as the Regina began to slowly sink. Hemmings observed: “The men who struggled to launch the lifeboat left no record as to why they chose to escape their ship. However, evidence is inescapable that they were successful getting away.”

This was McConkey’s first command, and he chose to stay with the ship. As the lifeboat pulled away, McConkey blew the ship’s whistle, indicating a disaster was in the making. Although people on the shore heard the whistle, the storm was way too powerful for any heroics. The sailors were on their own.

It is believed the last person on the Regina was Capt. McConkey who had to have been exhausted after 18 straight hours of fighting the massive storm. Again, Hemmings described what might have been McConkey’s last minutes:

“No longer Captain McConkey, he was just Edward, a frightened thirty four year old with a toddler daughter, Aileen. She probably would not remember him, but he would remember her tiny warm fingers and bright eyes for the rest of his life.”

His body would wash ashore the following spring.

The discovery of the wreck in 1985 ended the 72-year-old mystery and ruled out any collision with the Price. Shipwrecks.com pointed out the following: “The discovery of the freighter’s anchor chain payed out across the bottom indicated the Regina had already come to anchor before it foundered.”

The Regina rests upside down in 75 feet of water. There is no evidence of a collision on the hull. Despite the cold water temperatures, the wreck is a popular site for divers, including a few from Battle Creek.

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Jim Hettinger is a Laker, a Western Michigan University trustee and the chief executive of Urban(e) Development Services.