James Curran & McPhail
The "Twin Ferries"
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/6/2/106221155/published/05-james-curran_3.png)
Two ferries sank in a storm while being towed to Kingston Ontario in 1964. The James Curran sits upsidown but suspended in the water column. You can see the tow cable still wrapped around it. On the other side about 150ft away is the McPhail that sits upright. Both have amazing wheelhouses and life boats. They sit in 200 feet of water in Lake Huron.
There is much more about the history of these two sunken car ferries! Prior to 1962 when the Mackinaw Bridge opened for car traffic all cars were forced to transit the Mackinaw Strait via car ferry. The cost early at the commencement of car ferry transit was $1/car. When the bridge opened some "commerce constraints" were added attached to the bridge use which prohibited any other car transit business within several miles either side of the bridge. It was the death knell of the car ferries. Being "towed" via tug to Lake Ontario for refit the tug hit a squall and the two ferries in tow were either broken loose ... or ... cut loose intentionally for insurance ??? The two ferries sunk still attached to each other. The shipwrecks were first discovered by Stan Stock in the 1980's ... and then independently "re-discovered" by URA just a very short time later while surveying the lake with the Klein side scan SONAR. Only a very few people still have the actual location fixes for the two shipwrecks.
See the Recent Activity 2019 (Oct 20, 2019) page for images of URA diving the Twin Ferries.
There is much more about the history of these two sunken car ferries! Prior to 1962 when the Mackinaw Bridge opened for car traffic all cars were forced to transit the Mackinaw Strait via car ferry. The cost early at the commencement of car ferry transit was $1/car. When the bridge opened some "commerce constraints" were added attached to the bridge use which prohibited any other car transit business within several miles either side of the bridge. It was the death knell of the car ferries. Being "towed" via tug to Lake Ontario for refit the tug hit a squall and the two ferries in tow were either broken loose ... or ... cut loose intentionally for insurance ??? The two ferries sunk still attached to each other. The shipwrecks were first discovered by Stan Stock in the 1980's ... and then independently "re-discovered" by URA just a very short time later while surveying the lake with the Klein side scan SONAR. Only a very few people still have the actual location fixes for the two shipwrecks.
See the Recent Activity 2019 (Oct 20, 2019) page for images of URA diving the Twin Ferries.