- by Abbey Blockland
There are over 6000 shipwrecks combined scattered throughout the great lakes. The sinking of the S.S. Asia is ranked the eighth worst maritime tragedy in history.
Shipwrecks are common in this area from natural occurrences like hurricanes. There are not many docks nearby which makes it much harder for ships to find a safe place to dock during a storm.
On Thursday, September 14th, 1882 a destructive storm hit the S.S. Asia nearly killing 102 passengers and 24 crew members on board. Two survivors, Christie Morrison and Duncan Tinkis were the only remainders.
The ship didn’t take long before it sank in the Georgian Bay area. The captain tried to slow down the process by relieving all livestock on board, but it didn’t help. The storm was too fierce.
The lifeboats were filled with passengers beyond capacity, waves crashed against them as the storm's intensity grew and wiped out all the lifeboats except for two.
Christie Morrison and Duncan Tinkis made it on the shore of a beach with the help of one of the remaining lifeboats. On Saturday, September 16th, 1882 they were found and accompanied their rescuer back to Parry Sound.
Christie and Duncan held on to hope they would find more survivors of the wreck of the Asia, and many search boats travelled around in the Georgian Bay area; no survivors were found.
Later in life, Morrison married, had a child and passed away when she was 74. Tinkis maintained a general store and managed a hotel on Manitoulin Island until he passed away at age 36.
Morrison boarded the ship alone, while Tinkis came on board with H. B Gallagher and his uncle, J. H Tinkis.
A follow up with Christie Morrison was done in 1912 which stated that she was supposed to board the Northern Belle ship to go visit her sister but ended up missing her ship and had to board the S.S. Asia instead.
More information about Christie Morrison and the wreck of the Asia can be found at the Maritime Hstory of the Great Lakes website and this 2018 Owen Sound Hub story by Christie's great-granddaughter.
