Hamonic (steamship)

Hamonic was a passenger vessel designed for service on the Great Lakes.[1][2] She was launched in 1909, and served until she burned, in a catastrophic fire, at Sarnia, Ontario, on July 17, 1945.[1][2] However, unlike the catastrophic fire that struck her sister ship, Noronic, in 1949, where 119 passengers died, all of Hamonic's passengers and crew survived.

Hamonic passing under the Blue Water Bridge
History
Name: Hamonic
Owner: Northern Navigation Company
Operator: Northern Navigation Company
Port of registry: Collingwood, Ontario
Route: Detroit-Port Arthur/Fort William-Duluth
Builder: Collingwood Shipbuilding Company
Launched: 1909
Fate: Burned July 17, 1945 at Sarnia, Ontario and scrapped 1946
General characteristics
Class and type: Steamer
Type: Great Lakes Passenger ship/freighter
Length: 341 ft (103.9 m)
Beam: 50 ft (15.2 m)
Depth: 25 ft (7.6 m)
Decks: 4
Propulsion: coal-fired Scotch boilers, quadruple expansion engine (by John Inglis and Company), 6,000 ihp (4,500 kW) single shaft/propeller
The wreck of Hamonic

Elmer Kleinsmith, a crane operator, operating a crane designed to load and unload coal, was near enough to use his crane's bucket, to rescue the ship's complement.[1][2] Some sources say there were no fatalities, others say there was a single fatality.[3][4]

Other members of her fleet included Huronic, Doric, and Ionic.[5]

References
  1. Cathy Dobson (2003). "The Hamonic Burns at Sarnia". Sarnia Observer. Retrieved 2019-03-20. As the ship burned that fateful morning of July 17, 1945, Kleinsmith loaded eight to 10 people into the bucket at a time and carried them to safety. In the Sarnia Observer published that afternoon, Kleinsmith was credited for continuing to load his crane until all the passengers in the bow were removed.
  2. John Rochon (2014-11-21). "The sad death of the Hamonic". The Sarnia Journal. Archived from the original on 2019-03-20. Retrieved 2019-03-20. Luckily, Elmer Kleinsmith, a crane operator for the Century Coal Co., saw the blaze, fired-up the crane and used the bucket to move passengers and crew to safety. Miraculously, all 350 people aboard survived the ordeal but the same couldn’t be said of the Hamonic.
  3. John Henry (2013). Great White Fleet: Celebrating Canada Steamship Lines Passenger Ships. Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781459710481. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  4. "Marine Memories: Hamonic". Moore Museum. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2019-03-20. The Hamonic was a well-appointed passenger ship with many facilities, including a barbershop, music room, ballroom and dining salon with large windows for viewing the passing scenes. Canada Steamship Lines ran 7-day passenger cruises on the Hamonic, from Detroit to Duluth, including a stop at Sarnia.
  5. "Canadian Northern Docks - S.S. Noronic and Huronic". Thunder Bay Public Library. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
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