Name SS Benjamin Noble Beam 40 ft (12 m) Length 73 m | Type canaller Launched 1909 | |
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Displacement 1,481 long tons (1,505 t) Builder |
The SS Benjamin Noble was a lake freighter that operated on the Great Lakes. Built in 1909 by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company, she was 239 feet (73 m) in length and had a beam of 40 feet (12 m). She was built as a "canaller," a vessel designed for use in what were then the dimensions of the Welland Canal, but was converted by her owners for services in the open Great Lakes. Heavily-laden and top-heavy with a cargo of railroad rails, she sank in Lake Superior near Knife River, Minnesota, in April 1914 with the loss of all hands in a storm. Of the estimated 16 crew members, only about the names of 10 are known.
After more than 90 years as a ghost ship, the hulk of the Benjamin Noble was rediscovered in the autumn of 2004. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 as NRHP site #07000984.