The Adam E. Cornelius, launched by the American Steamship Company, was named after one of the firm's two founding directors.
[1][3] In 1948 she was renamed the Detroit Edison, after the firm which was her primary client, and another vessel assumed the name Adam E. Cornelius.
In 1962 she was purchased by the Reoch Steamship Company, which renamed her the Avondale and was registered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The Westdale Shipping Company had moored the vessel in Port Colborne, Ontario, in 1975 after the hull was condemned.
Sold to Marine Salvage Ltd. and it was there that she caught fire in 1978, set by vandals.