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SS Anna C. Minch

cargo vessel sank in Lake Michigan

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ7393166 ↗
Source-derived summary

SS Anna C. Minch was a cargo carrier which foundered, broke in two, and sank in Lake Michigan during the Armistice Day Blizzard on 11 November 1940. The Anna C. Minch was a steam-powered, steel-hulled bulk freighter constructed in 1903 by the American Ship Building Company at Cleveland, Ohio.

All of the crew were lost when the ship sank. The cargo she was in transit with during her final run is disputed, it's mostly unknown what her cargo was at the time she foundered. Her wreckage is located one and a half miles south of Pentwater, Michigan, not far from the wreckage of the SS William B. Davock, which foundered and sank in the same storm.

Ship history

The Anna C. Minch was struck by the steamer Harvey D. Goulder while at the Cargill grain elevator in Superior, Wisconsin on 12 April 1907, resulting in $2000 in damages. On 12 November 1911 she struck a dock in the Chicago River. At Lorain, Ohio on 30 September 1915 she struck the south end of a bridge protection pier on the Erie Avenue Bridge. The Theodore H. Wickwire and the Anna C. Minch tore loose from their mooring lines on Buffalo Creek, drifted downstream and damaged several steamers along with crushing a yacht against a concrete dock on 27 March 1916. She collided with the steamer Charles M. Warner on Lake St.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “SS Anna C. Minch” is cargo vessel sank in Lake Michigan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Anna, Minch and cargo, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1940, 1903, 1907, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Anna, Minch and cargo is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “cargo vessel sank in Lake Michigan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7393166. Authority coordinates are 43.787, -86.531. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1903, 1907 and 2000.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “SS Anna C. Minch”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow SS Anna C. Minch primary sources, SS Anna C. Minch archive and Anna research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “SS Anna C. Minch”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “SS Anna C. Minch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.