Michael Heinkelmann
Michael Heinkelmann is known as the young man whose career as a marine engineer was brought to an untimely end in the loss of the steamer Wocoken, being chief engineer of that ill-fated vessel. He was born in Marine City, Mich., in 1861, and was the son of Andrew and Barbara (Lebens) Heinkelmann. His first sailing was in 1885 as deckhand on the propeller Edward Smith and the following year he served as fireman on the George King, and a year later as second engineer on the Harry Cottrell. He was second on the Oswegatchie, and the Turner in 1888; of the H. S. Pickands in 1889; of the Viking in 1890, and chief of the Colonial in 1891. The next year he was chief of the V. H. Ketcham, and in 1893 chief of the Andaste, serving for five months, and of the Wocoken from that time until she went down off Long Point, Lake Erie, October 14, 1893. The vessel entered a gale which damaged the boiler house to such an extent that the water poured in through the opening and caused the ship to founder. A number of the crew were saved, but the chief engineer was among those who were lost. He had been married but a few months at the time of the accident, his wife being Miss Josie Snell, of Marine City.
Previous
Next
Return to Home Port
Volume I
This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.
Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.
|
