The TAMPA was a bulk freighter that was built in 1890 in West Bay City, Michigan, by F.W. Wheeler & Co. It had a wooden hull with two decks and featured steel arches, diagonal straps, steel pumps, and a steel boiler house. The original owner of the vessel was D.C. Whitney Jr. of Detroit, Michigan.
The freighter was powered by a triple expansion steam engine with three cylinders, producing 1,000 horsepower at 76 revolutions per minute. It had two scotch boilers, each measuring 11 feet by 12 feet and operating at 150 pounds of steam. The TAMPA had one propeller and three masts.
With a length of 291.6 feet, a beam of 41 feet, and a depth of 19.8 feet, the TAMPA had a gross tonnage of 1,972 and a net tonnage of 1,632. It had a capacity of carrying 3,200 tons of cargo.
Throughout its history, the TAMPA had various incidents and events. It embarked on its maiden voyage to Lake Superior on August 19, 1890. In 1891, it towed the vessel ASHLAND. The TAMPA suffered damage in a collision with the whaleback steamship BARTLETT in Duluth, Minnesota harbor in September 1891. In November 1892, it experienced a broken rudder and was towed to Keweenaw Bay.
The freighter towed the ships PAISLEY and AMAZONAS in 1898. In the same year, it ran ashore near Beaver Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior, close to the stranded vessel ARTHUR ORR. The TAMPA was released and brought to Duluth, where it was rebuilt by J. Davidson of Bay City.
On July 18, 1911, the TAMPA sank in a collision with the freighter JOHN W. GATES at Walker Distillery in Walkerville, Ontario, in the Detroit River. It was subsequently raised and towed to Marine City, Michigan, where it was dismantled.
Finally, in 1923, the TAMPA was sunk as a breakwater in Belle River, St. Clair, Michigan, in Lake Huron. It served as a sort of billboard for a period and may have been scrapped by burning in the same year.
