1887.

The Terrible Gale of October 3. - The schooner City of Green Bay, of Chicago, went to pieces in a terrible gale that swept across Lake Michigan, October 3. During the prevalence of this storm six vessels were totally lost and six stranded or otherwise disabled. Out of a crew of six men on the City of Green Bay only one survived. Capt. William Costello was among the lost. The schooner was bound for St. Joseph from Escanaba with a cargo of ore, and sprung a leak. The crew let go the anchors and drifted all night, and at daylight were about two miles northwest of South Haven, from which place her distress signals were sighted, her anchor having caught in the meantime, with the crew in the rigging. The life-saving crew went to her assistance, and succeeded in putting a line aboard. The vessel broke in two amidships, and the line parted. A second line was hauled aboard and secured, but she soon went to pieces, her spars toppling over, carrying with them three of the crew, all of whom were drowned. Mr. Slater, the surviving sailor, was washed off the wreck, and was fortunate enough to seize a piece of floating deck, to which he clung and reached shore. The life-saving crew launched their surfboat and made a heroic attempt to reach the wreck. Captain Costello with a life buoy, dropped into the water, but did not live two minutes. His body was picked up by the life-savers. The captain of the lifeboat was swept overboard and came near losing his life. The City of Green Bay had quite an interesting history. She was 329 tons burden, and built by L. Nau in 1872. In the year 1873 she made a voyage from Chicago to Scotland ports, returning to Montreal with coal, thence to South American ports. She then made the passage to Liverpool, and started for Cuba, but encountered a hurricane and put into a Spanish port disabled. After two years on the ocean she returned to the lakes.

The Canadian propeller California, of Montreal, left Chicago for Montreal October 3 with 26 persons aboard, including five passengers. Captain J.V. Trowell in command. She encountered a heavy gale near the Beavers, which put out the fires, when the vessel swung around in the sea and commenced breaking up. She soon went to pieces, and all were left struggling in the water. The captain and engineer succeeded in getting a yawl boat out of the wreckage, the mate and several men having put off earlier in the only boat that could be launched. The two officers picked up the second engineer, cook, and a lady passenger. The boat drifted down alongside the propeller A. Folsom, anchored under St. Helena, and was picked up. Nine lives were lost and 17 saved.

The tug Orient with all hands sunk off Point Pelee, October 4, having sprung a leak in the stern. Her fires were put out, and she carried down with her Captain Daniel and a crew of five.

The schooner Venus, Capt. James Thompson, foundered in Thunder bay, October 4, carrying down with her the entire crew of six men.

Greatest Disaster of the Season. - The wreck of the passenger propeller Vernon on Lake Michigan with a crew of 22 and many passengers, October 29, involved a greater loss of life than any previous disaster during the season of 1887. She was at one time one of the finest furnished passenger boats on the lakes, and took the place on the Northern Michigan line of the steamer Champlain, burned early in the season, and was in command of Capt. George Thorpe. Captain Moran, of the steamer Superior, imparted the first details of the sad event. He saw three or four rafts with men clinging to them, and also a small boat containing a woman and three men. Though he made effort to rescue them, the high seas running prevented, as the Superior was herself disabled. The wreckage was scattered in all directions. Sections of the pilot house were found 18 miles apart, and a life-raft, without an occupant was picked up 12 miles northeast of Sheboygan. The entire loss of life is placed at thirty-six.

The month of October showed an aggregate of 285 accidents and disasters on all the lakes, which was 115 more than in the same month in 1886. The loss of life during the month was 135 persons, 126 of whom were drowned from vessels.

Thrilling End of the Arizona. - The steamer Arizona left Marquette November 17, for Portage lake on her last trip. She was compelled to put back by a furious storm from the northeast. While laboring heavily in the high seas five or six miles from Marquette a carboy of acid was broken, filling the space between decks with dense and stifling fumes and setting fire to the steamer. The poisonous fumes made it impossible to fight the fire, and the engineers and firemen were soon driven from the engine room. The chief engineer was the last man to leave his post, and only when nearly suffocated. He turned on a full head of steam and joined the rest of the crew on the upper deck. There were 900 barrels of oil and acid in the cargo. Capt. George Glaser stood with the man at the wheel. As the burning steamer drew near to port and swept around the breakwater, the fire blazed out from her sides, creating a general alarm and the steamers of the docks began sounding their whistles. The China and Nyack lowered boats to pick up the Arizona's crew.

Although the captain and crew had escaped death on the open lake they were in almost as great peril in the harbor, in charge of a burning ship, which was rushing on at full speed without a man at the engine. Sweeping around in a broad circle Captain Glaser headed the burning steamer square toward the breakwater, determined to land the men there. The burning steamer's engines still working held her nose up to the dock until the rudder swung her stern around, and the abandoned steamer shot along the pier into the slip by the waterworks. The crew, chased by the steamer, had to run for their lives along the breakwater to keep from being suffocated by the clouds of smoke and fumes of burning acid. The Arizona finally buried her nose in the sand and found her last resting place. She was built in Cleveland in 1865, and was owned by the Anchor line.

Steamer Champlain Burned - The steamer Champlain, of the Northern Michigan line, was burned at midnight June 16, between Norwood and Charlevoix. In ten minutes from the time the fire was discovered by the chief engineer, the entire vessel was in flames, and was headed for Fisherman's island. She grounded about a mile from shore, and the pass- engers were forced into the water, many of them in the excitement jumping overboard. Twenty-two lives are known to have been lost. Those saved floated around an hour before they were rescued by a yawl and fish boats from shore. Many were badly burned.

Loss of the Walters. - A heavy squall struck the steambarge P.H. Walters, shortly after leaving Marblehead for Cleveland with a cargo of stone, June 20, and capsized her instanter(sic), the vessel filling with water through the hatches. She sunk with twelve persons aboard, but four of whom were saved. As the boat sunk Capt. J.G. Gillespie seized his wife with one arm and a child with the other, and jumped into the lake, followed by the mate, who jumped through the window of the wheelhouse. Despite the efforts of the gallant captain his wife slipped from his grasp and was drowned. The captain secured a floating fender, as did also the mate and George, the captain's eldest son.

Sinking of The Theodore Perry. -- The sinking of the schooner Theodore Perry, July 22, involved the loss of five lives. Captain McCormack, who had gone forward, noticed that the barge was laboring hard in the heavy sea, and that she was opening up on the starboard side just under the deck beams. He sung out to the crew that the boat was sinking, and to save themselves. In less than three minutes she was under the surface. When the vessel went down the captain sprang on the cabin, and the mate, Hugh Deeving, on the forecastle deck, where they clung eleven hours before they were rescued. The two portions broke apart and drifted about near each other. They were picked up by the propeller Alaska.

Loss of the Niagara. -- The schooner Niagara was overtaken by a fierce gale on Lake Superior August 7, and foundered in seven fathoms of water. Captain Clements and the entire crew of ten men were drowned. The Niagara left Ashland in tow of the steamer Australasia, with 1,400 tons of ore. After weathering Keweenaw Point the wind freshened up until it increased to a furious gale, both boats laboring heavily. When ten miles above Whitefish Point the tow line parted, and with no canvas to steady her, the schooner fell off into the trough of the sea. For an instant she lay on her starboard side with the lee sail under water, the waves sweeping over her. She was then lifted on the crest of a mighty wave. As she righted there was a great crash, her spars toppled over, tearing up the deck and crushing the bulwarks as they fell into the sea.

Accident at a Launch. -- The steamer William H. Wolf, 1,791 net tons, was built at Milwaukee by Wolf & Davidson. Her length of keel is 284 feet, length over all 308 feet, breadth of beam 41 feet on deck, molded depth 24 ½ feet. The launch occurred on the eve of Mr. W. H. Wolf's 59th birthday, and was attended by a deplorable accident, resulting in the death of three persons; several others were fatally injured, about 20 badly hurt, and many others less seriously. Directly opposite the vessel to be launched was a large coal dock of the Northwestern Fuel Company. Upon the roof of this coal shed about 100 people had assembled to witness the event. The water displaced by her hull rose like a tidal wave and swept over the coal dock and up towards its roof, the supports of which gave way and fell with its living freight, many being precipitated into the river, and others crushed.

Statistics. -- The season of 1887 opened with great activity in ship- yards on the lakes. During the season of 1887 204 lives were lost on the lakes, and not less than $2,500,000 worth of property destroyed. Seventy-three vessels, aggregating 20,687 registered tons, ceased to exist. The total losses comprised 16 steamers, 43 schooners, six tow barges and eight tug boats, representing a financial loss of $792,000 on hulls and $408,000 on cargoes. Despite this large destruction of vessel property, the tonnage that passed out of existence was much less than one-half of the new tonnage built at the lake shipyards during the year and placed in commission.

A summary of the new tonnage gives the number of the various rigs as follows: Steamers, 55; tugs, 14; steamyachts, 9; steam piledrivers, 2; schooners and schooner yachts, 20; total, 100.

Other Events of 1887. -- April: Steambarge G. P. Heath burned on Lake Michigan, Schooner Louis O'Neil sunk on Lake Erie by collision with schooner Thos. Parker. May: Schooner Carrier sunk at Pentwater. Schooner Consuelo wrecked at Bailey's Harbor. Schooner L. Van Valkenberg sunk in Thunder bay by collision with the Lehigh. June: Schooner Sunrise wrecked near Chicago. Tug James A. Reed burned at Sturgeon bay. Steambarge Good Hit burned off Grosse Isle. Scows Toboggan and Hunter capsized and sunk near Milwaukee. July: Barge Geo. Worthington sunk by collision with schooner Geo. W. Davis off Colchester reef. August: Steamer City of Ashland burned near Ashland. Tug Patrick Henry foundered off Vermilion. Scow Clara wrecked near Miller's Station. Tug Frank Geel burned at Muskegon. Tug Fawn foundered in Lake Michigan. September: Scow Bluebell wrecked at Sheboygan. Schooner Mona totally wrecked near Point aux Barques. Schooner W. H. Hawkins sunk at South Haven. Schooner Ole Olson lost on Lake Michigan. Steambarge Ada Allen burned at Amherstburg. Schooner Pulaski wrecked in Good Harbor bay. October: The barge Oriental of Kingston, Ont., 328 tons register, left the Port of Charlotte, N. Y., with a cargo of coal, 650 tons, in tow of the tug Scotia. When about three miles off Port Dalhousie the tow line parted on account of a gale that had sprung up, and the Oriental went down with the crew of five. Schooner Jessie Scarth foundered on Lake Michigan. Schooner Manzanilla sunk on Lake Erie. Schooner Polynesia sunk on Lake Michigan. Schooner Havana sunk on Lake Michigan; three lives lost. Schooner James F. Joy sunk at Ashtabula. Schooner C. H. Hutchinson sunk on Lake Erie. Propeller Delaware wrecked at Hammond's bay. Schooner L. D. Bullock foundered on Lake Ontario. City of Owen Sound wrecked near Clapperton island. Schooner Marie Victoire wrecked at Sand Point. Schooner Dolphin sunk on Lake Huron. Schooner L. Seaton sunk on Lake Erie. Canadian schooner Rob Roy sunk at Sandusky. November: Schooner Commerce sunk at Racine. Steamer J. W. Westcott sunk in Lake Michigan. Propeller Egyptian sunk by collision at Lorain. Schooner Myosotis wrecked near St. Joseph. Schooner Blazing Star wrecked at Fisherman's shoal. Steamer B. F. Ferris sunk at Marblehead. Schooner White Star wrecked at Point Pelee. December: Steamer C. H. Merritt burned at Chatham, Lake Ontario.

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Volume II

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.