By: Sailboat Bob

The Francisco Morazan is one of the best known shipwrecks of the Great Lakes and certainly the most visible. She ran aground in 1960 in the treacherous Manitou Passage, another victim to the Witch of November. She doesn’t lie alone, there are so many wrecks in the passage it’s been declared an underwater shipwreck preserve. She’s well known because much of her is above water, aground in the shallows off South Manitou Island. Well known, yet few know her storied history.

She crossed the world’s oceans for 38 years before wrecking in sight of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, only two of those years knew her as the Francisco Morazan. The ship had eight different names and 10 different owners. She was first christened the Arcadia in June of 1922 in Germany, and carried that name for a dozen years until 1934. 

In 1934 she was sold and renamed Elbing. Her propulsion plant was upgraded, and for the first time a swastika flew off her stern. In 1940 she went to war. The Elbing was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, Hitler’s navy, for Operation Sea Lion, the Nazi invasion of England that never came to pass. Then in 1941 the Elbring was shelled and set on fire by the battle honored destroyer HMS Tartar in Norwegian waters, but the Nazi’s were able to save and repair her. In 1945 she was operating out of Nordenham. As the allies closed in on Germany proper she was heavily damaged by land based artillery near Hamburg, but again survived by beaching before she sank. She recovered from that battle and was captured intact on the Elbe in May of 1945 as Hitler’s Third Reich disintegrated.

As a spoil of war the ship was passed around with little honor or regard. She was first registered in London under the name Empire Congress, then transferred to the Norwegian Government. They named her the Brunes in 1946, the Skuld in 1947, and then the Ringas in 1948. Ringas was the third name she would carry for over a decade, and the name she carried into maritime history again when she saved 49 souls from the Belgian Victory ship Mahenge. The Mahenge collided with a French ship named the Granville in the English Channel on June 30, 1952 north of the Channel Islands. Details of this collision are sketchy. But there is documentation that the Mahenge sank in the Channel and her 46 crew and 3 passengers were saved by the Ringas. 1952 was also the first time the Ringas entered the Great Lakes, delivering kaolinite to Muskegon. Eight years later she would rest forever 125 miles north of her first Lake Michigan Port.

The freighter was well past her prime when sold in 1958 to a Greek owner and renamed the Los Mayas. She was back in Muskegon in 1959 and flying a Panamanian flag when she ran aground and was holed.  Later that year she was sold again, renamed the Francisco Morazan, and given a Liberian flag. 

Her last port of call was Chicago, November 28, 1960. What her distant owners and young skipper knew of the Old Witch is questionable. Captain Eduardo Trivizas was 24 years old. A graduate of the Greek Navy School, he had just five years of professional sailing experience. The ship left Chicago trying to beat a winter system, a race the aging freighter was poorly suited to win. She had feed pump problems the night of the 28th and was caught in heavy fog that slowed her before heavy snow made things worse. The storm hit with full force the next day, and at 6:35 pm on November 29, 1960 winds drove her into South Manitou Shoal. Fortunately, no serious injuries were reported from the grounding.  She wrecked basically on top of the Water L Frost, a wooden steamer of almost exactly the same length, 237 feet. The Walter L went under in November 1903. 

There are 11 ships in the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve. They were lost during a span of over a 100 years from 1857 to 1960, and each went down in the fall, from Mid-September to Late November. Late season storms in the Great Lakes are traditionally referred to as the Old Witch or the Witch of November.

Efforts were made to force the removal of the Francisco Morazan’s wreckage, but her salvage was not financially feasible and finding owners to sue went nowhere. The wreck is now the property of the State of Michigan. Perhaps it’s fitting that a ship with such a hard life be allowed to rest in one of the most beautiful places in the world. South Manitou Island is part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. The wreckage is easily visible from trails along the island that are visited by many hikers, campers and kayakers via ferry from Leland. To the east majestic dunes reach to the beach, while the pristine fresh waters of Northern Lake Michigan flow through her well-preserved hull. Nature has claimed her, and while the State of Michigan may propose to own her, local cormorants now command the Francisco Morazan. 

References

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Francisco_Morazan_(1922)

National Park Service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Francisco_Morazan_(1922)

NOAA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Francisco_Morazan_(1922)

Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve: http://www.michiganpreserves.org/manitou.htm

German Ship Building Archives:  https://web.archive.org/web/20100223044616/http://www.poseidon-schiffahrts-archiv.eu/2-Koenigsberg/Schiffe/1925-1945/23-Elbing/23-Elbing.html

List of Shipwrecks 1952:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_1952