Wright commented on his new boat, "We've still to learn all her tricks, and some of the lads in the fo'c'sle are complaining that the paint in their rooms is still a little sticky."

At 12:53 on the morning of November 9, the James Carruthers was sighted taking on coal at the Picklands, Mather & Company dock near De Tour, Michigan.

A little after dawn, the James Carruthers turned to port on a course that would keep her south of Great Duck Island and on a straight line for Georgian Bay.

After the great storm finally blew itself out late on November 10, copious amounts of wreckage from several boats began to wash onto Lake Huron's shores.

Evidence of the James Carruthers was slow at first, until great amounts of debris from Canada's newest and largest freighter began coming ashore, mostly near Kincardine and Point Clark.

A large field of wreckage was found offshore between Kincardine and Goderich, nearly 70 miles (110 km) south of the James Carruthers's known course.

During the height of the storm late on the afternoon of November 9, several witnesses heard steamer whistles and sighted distress rockets far offshore of Inverhuron.