Beaver Islander's Final 1968 Supply Trip Through a Winter Storm

Event

Date

1968-12-27

Kind

Weather

Where

Saint James Harbor

Participants

Lawrence M. McDonough (captain) · Johnny A. Gallagher (engineer) · Russell J. “Russ” Green (first_mate) · Walt Wogan (passenger) · Joseph L. “Bud” McDonough (passenger)

Carried out by

Beaver Island Boat Company

Eras

Modern era

Concepts

maritimeshippingtourismcommunityenvironment

Within

Beaver Island archipelago

Summary

The Beaver Islander made its 299th and final trip of the 1968 season on December 27, carrying winter supplies from Charlevoix to Saint James — the most trips the ferry had made in a season, against a previous record of 286. The cargo included fresh milk, canned food, a high-powered snowmobile for Walt Wogan, grain for a local cattle owner, 30 mineral-enriched salt blocks for the island game club to scatter for deer, a bathtub, and building materials for a new telephone building and a new home for the Catholic sisters who taught at the public school. The report says the return crossing met a severe snowstorm, poor visibility, heavy seas, and disabled radar, direction finder, depth sounder, and windshield wiper. The ferry nevertheless reached Charlevoix and entered a three- or four-month winter rest.¹

The account names Lawrence McDonough as captain, Johnny Gallagher as engineer, Russ Green as first mate, and Walt Wogan and Bud McDonough as passengers. It describes the trip as essential to carrying supplies to the island’s winter community, not as a wreck or failed voyage.¹

The crossing

The Islander left Charlevoix at 9 a.m. sharp on December 27 under clear visibility; the report says a passenger flying 500 feet above Charlevoix could readily make out the island’s shoreline. By the time the boat had unloaded at Saint James around 12:30 p.m., the harbor had been overtaken by what the paper called Friday’s “vicious storm,” and McDonough turned the 100-foot ship into an east wind for the return crossing to her winter berth in Round Lake. Unloading alone had taken more than an hour, with snow clogging the dock.¹

With radar out for repair, no working radio direction finder, and a faltering windshield wiper, McDonough and Green searched by eye for the harbor buoys, joined by passengers, and found them one after the other before setting a course for Charlevoix. Holding a direct 160-degree heading proved impossible in the roll of the sea, so McDonough steered by feel to compensate for wind and current pushing the boat south of its mark. By marine radio he knew at least two steamboats were in the shoal passage between Beaver Island and the Straits of Mackinac, and without radar he had no way to know whether others might be on a collision course. Several passengers below were seasick in a roll the report put at 30 degrees or more. Nearing Charlevoix, McDonough eased the throttles on the boat’s two Caterpillar diesel engines, and he, Green, Gallagher, Wogan, and Bud McDonough went out on the icy foredeck to listen for a foghorn and watch for the Medusa cement plant’s smokestack. The foghorn sounded first, then the stack came into view, and the Islander tied up minutes later.¹

Season and island context

The report frames the trip against a demanding 1968 season: since its first 1968 crossing on April 19, the Islander under McDonough, Gallagher, and Green had averaged more than one trip a day of just over five hours each, driven by tourist traffic and cottage construction that continued even after the summer season ended. St. James Township Supervisor Lloyd McDonough estimated the island’s year-round winter population at around 225, up from 211 in 1960 after a dip below 200 earlier in that decade; Dick LaFreniere thought the figure might run a shade higher. The account records two new village homes that winter, owned by Jerry LaFreniere and Doyle Fitzpatrick, continuing cottage construction aided by snowmobiles, and unconfirmed talk of as many as 100 new cottages the following year on land bought from the American Central Division. Boat company manager James Gallagher reported Islanders had bought a dozen new snowmobiles that fall, bringing the total on the island to 18 or 20.¹

Evidence and limits

The event date is the report’s December 27, 1968 date, and the 1968 season is explicitly identified in the article. The source does not give a vessel official number, complete crew list, exact weather measurements, a formal cargo manifest, or a precise route track. Its population figures and statements about cottage construction are retained as contemporary estimates rather than a census or complete development record.

The source says the Islander’s winter berth was in Round Lake, but the event is located only at Saint James Harbor because the crossing itself is described as a route rather than a surveyed point sequence. No emergency, damage, or casualty is inferred from the storm narrative.

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Added 1 August 2026. Recent changes