The Theora

A "staunch and swift craft" hailed the Marquette Mining Journal in June of 1893, as to the arrival of Captain John Parker's new steam fishing tug from Duncan Robertson's shipyard in Grand Haven. Hull number 145640 was the first Robertson vessel prepared to serve permanent duty on Lake Superior, as well as the first steam vessel to be put into service in the Marquette Fisheries.

Built in the spring of 1893, the Theora, named after Captain Parker's daughter, arrived in Marquette to a curious crowd of spectators. She was an elegant vessel, 62 feet in length, 14 feet 3 inches wide, with a depth of six feet in her hold, and a net tonnage of 12.04 tons. Her "finely moulded hull [widened] out to give large deck room for the requirements of the business for which she [was] intended".

The new craft was propelled by a 13 by 14 [inch] non condensing steam engine, powered by a nine feet long boiler, capable of providing 125psi of allowable steam. This power train arrangement would be capable of "showing a pretty clean pair of heels to vessels of ordinary speed whatever the weather".

The Theora was soon proving herself as a productive Lake Superior fishing vessel for Captain Parker, bringing in a record cargo of nearly six tons of fresh lake trout in the summer of 1897. The record for a single haul of fresh fish would stand until the Handford & Mitchell fish tug Ethel J matched it in 1902. This would be a sharp contrast to the summer of 1918, when abnormally warm and calm seas kept the fish in deep water. On one outing, the Theora netted less than 65 pounds of fish, with all her nets deployed.

The Parker Fish Company continued an uneventful yet successful fishing business in Marquette's lower harbor with the Theora serving faithfully, being rewarded for her loyalty in the spring of 1899 with a fresh coat of paint. Besides her obvious duties as a fish tug, the Theora was often called upon to perform other duties at sea.

In November of 1897, the schooner Warmington, being towed by the steamer Glidden, left the harbor laden with iron ore, but were turned back by a severe storm. Shortly after arriving to the safety of the breakwater, it was found that the Warmington was leaking faster than her pumps could empty her. The captain of the schooner arranged to secure the services of the Theora to take his ship to a good berth in the harbor, where it would be allowed to settle into shallow water while waiting for a diver to examine her hull. Captain Parker and the crew of the Theora worked all night with hand pumps and siphons assisting the Warmington until the diver arrived to repair her.

In November 1901, the Theora was forced to abandon a scow carrying sawmill machinery and food supplies on the beach near Big Bay, after her anchor chain broke. The tug and her tow were near the beach waiting to be unloaded when a sudden wind began churning the waters around them, driving the scow hard aground and causing the loss of the Theora's anchor. Fearing that she too would be driven ashore, the Theora steamed back to Marquette to await better weather before returning to release the scow.

May, 1905, found the Theora rescuing the crew of the William T. Rend, which had stranded on Manitou Island at the tip of the Keweenaw in dense fog. The captain and crew of the Rend had attempted to take a small open boat to Copper Harbor, but it wrecked soon thereafter; the passing Theora quickly rendering assistance and delivering the captain and four crew members safely to their destination.

The Theora herself had a tense week on the lake in mid May, 1917, when she and the Anderson Fish Company tug Columbia were trapped in the late spring ice floes near Sugarloaf Mountain. Some of each vessel's crew were forced to walk across the ice to Little Presque Isle for provisions to tide them over. After returning with food, tobacco, and magazines, the crews waited until a momentary south wind opened a channel just large enough for the Theora to push her way around Presque Isle to the safety of the old pig iron dock. As soon as the weather cooperated, the Theora returned unharmed to her normal berth to prepare for the resumption of the summer fishing season. Excitement over the Theora's safe return was soon overshadowed by the sad news that her original owner and master, Captain John Parker, had died from a lingering illness while they were trapped at sea. For the past few years, the vessel had been under the command of his cousin, Captain William Parker.

Tragedy almost ended the Theora's career in 1920, when a red hot rivet or the sparks from the forge being used to re-rivet her boiler was responsible for an on-board fire which caused over $1000 in damage. Captain Parker carried no insurance on the craft, but the damage was held to her pilot house, boiler room, and upper deck cabins, allowing the outer hull to remain intact.

Although little information exists on the last six years of the Theora's life, photographic evidence from the period shows that she was rebuilt in the common Great Lakes style enclosed superstructure and continued to operate out of the lower harbor. It is presumed that the once proud yet aging craft, though perhaps gravely wounded from the 1920 fire, was repaired to serve her final days with dignity in the Marquette fishing industry to which she had been introduced some 33 years earlier.

In the years following the fire, the Theora fell into disrepair, eventually sinking at her mooring alongside the old Spear coal dock in the lower harbor in 1926. She was proclaimed a harbor menace, and in May of 1929, after a diver placed slings around her hull, she was raised from her muddy resting place by the crane scow DeTour of the Durocher Towing and Wrecking Company. The Durocher salvage crew was in town to salvage the steam freighter Oglebay, which had stranded and burned on the reef near Shot Point in December of 1927. They were asked if they could assist in the removal of the derelict tug while rough seas kept them from the Oglebay operation. The Theora's engine and other equipment were unceremoniously stripped from her hull in preparation for her escort, the wrecking tug General, to take her on a final voyage beyond the breakwater.

But the Theora would not surrender without a struggle to the fate from which she had protected her crew and cargo for over thirty years. The tug General attempted to roll the Theora over and sink her in deep water beyond Marquette's lower harbor breakwater, but she would not yield. As a final execution, unfitting such a once proud vessel, the tug General was forced to back away, give full steam ahead, and stave in a large hole amidships, sending the Theora to her icy grave.

The Theora rests peacefully on the bottom of Iron Bay as time and technology sails on above her, waiting patiently until a new breed of dedicated marine adventurers will once again roam her decks, plying the art of their craft. Members of the Marquette Marine Archeological Foundation continue to search for her remains, along with those of several other historic vessels lost in the icy waters surrounding the once prospering port of Marquette.