Brief History of the Panther

The Panther (official number 150497) was built in 1890 by the famous James Davidson Shipbuilding Company at West Bay City, Michigan.  She was built as a 237-foot wooden hull steamer with a 36 foot beam and 19 foot draft, and is one of the very few wooden ships that was lengthened later in her career.  Built for the grain trade she had a single hold.  After sinking in 1910 in Lake Michigan, she was raised in 1911 and repaired and lengthened to 247 feet.  Ownership was transferred twice after that to the American Steamship Company of Duluth then again in 1916 to Massey Steamship Company of Fort William, Ontario. 

On June 26, 1916 in heavy fog she was down bound with a load of wheat off Parisienne Island when the up bound 478-foot steel steamer James J. Hill loomed out of fog and collided with her amidship.  The captain of the Hill did the intelligent but counter-intuitive move of keeping his ship firmly planted in the hull of the Panther until all the Panther crew managed to escape onto the Hill.  At which point the Hill backed away and the Panther quickly sank to the bottom.

The Site:   The Panther is locked about 6 miles southeast from Whitefish point about mid-way on your path to the Mather.  She is one of the few mid-depth range dives in Whitefish and is a nice second dive on the way back from the Mather.  She sits in about 110' of water with the deck in about 95 feet.  Everything forward of the boilers is pretty well broken up and the best part of the dive is the stern.  The wooden cabins are gone exposing the engine.  The boilers are housed in a unique steel boiler cabin and are the most interesting part of the wreck site.  The fantail is fairly intact and the steering quadrant is visible above the deck.

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