[justiceseeker93]

Fascinating story. But one obvious historical error by the author:

The last confirmed sighting of the ship happened a couple of days later, on Sunday afternoon, when a passing railcar ferry radioed shore to report the ship still afloat.

No way. Radio did not exist in 1899. It was invented by Marconi in the first decade of the 1900s. (It was used, BTW, by the Titanic to alert a rescue ship, but that was 1912.)

Would anyone know anything about John V. Moran, the man for whom the ship was named?

[tanknetter]

Probably signal lamp or semaphore.

[Brown Deer]

The shipbuilder was U.S. Congressman Frank Willis Wheeler.

The ship was named for John Vallee Moran (1846-1920) of Detroit.

[Brown Deer]

Moran, btw was not Irish. They were French-Canadian, the name originating as Morand.

[Brown Deer]

lol, John V. Moran’s great grandmother Marie-Anne Belleperche Morand was a 6th great aunt of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[SunkenCiv]

Quibble — Marconi didn’t invent radio — Tesla demonstrated radio at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, eventually won a pyrrhic victory in court.

[knittnmom]

According to the article I read yesterday, he was one of many who sailed on the Titanic, and did not survive.