The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-09-10
WRECKED.
The Steamer Western Reserve Breaks In
Two-Twenty-seven Lives Lost on Lake
Michigan.

The Steamer Western Reserve Breaks In
Two-Twenty-Seven Lives Lost on Lake
Michigan.
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich, Sept 3
The fish tug e. M. r. A. arrived down
Thursday night, having as n passenger
Harry Stewart, of Algonac, wheels
man, the only survivor from the mann
moth steel steamer Western Reserve,
which foundered Tuesday morning
about 9 o'clock, sixty miles above White
Fish Point, on the course to Keewenaw.
The Western Reserve, upbound and
light, left the 500 canal Tuesday after
noon, having on board as passengers
Capt. Peter Minch, her owner, his wife,
three children, and his wifes sister, be-
sides the regular crew of twenty-five
hands. The rest of her short history
and the sad fatality is best told in the
words of Stewart, who is the only one
left of the twenty-seven souls to tell
the terrible tale:
Every thing went we'll until about
sixty miles above White Fish, when the
first warning any one on board had of
impending danger was terrible crash
about a. m, caused by the huge craft
breaking in two and breaking the main
mast about half way up the rigging.
She took in water fast from the start,
and the yawl boats were lowered.
Capt. Minch, his family and the officers
and crew of the boat, to the number OF
seventeen, got into the wooden yawl,
and the others took the metallic one
They had gone hardly ten minutes, and
before she was hardly out of sight, the
metallic yawl capsized. The other
went to her assistance, but only sue.
ceeded in rescuing two of her occu
pants, Capt, Meyers son and the stew
ard. The nineteen survivors started
for White Fish, sixty miles away. The
wind was about west when they started
but veered to the north, making con.
siderable sea. But the yawl weathereo
the breakers all night, and until Z the
next morning, when about ten miles
from Life-saving Station No. 10, anc
| about a mile from the shore it capsized
| Stewart says he saw none of the
occupants after that. He struck for the
shore, but the cries of the children
screams of the women and moaning ot
men We're terrible to hear for a few
moments, then all became silent. Stew
art was in the water two hours. He
struck shore about ten mile above the
station, and had to walk there cefort
reaching anyone to render him assist
ance. A search failed to find trace o
any other survivor of the wreck, and
there is no question they were al
drowned. The Western Reserve wa
one of the largest craft on the lakes
and has only been in the Lake Superior
trade little over year. She wa
owned by p. G. Minch, who, with hi
family, was lost on her.
The list of the crew, as nearly as cal
be obtained, is as follows: Albert My
ers, of Vermillion, o., captain; FREQ
Engalls, first mate; VIM. II. Seaman, o
] Cleveland, chief engineer; Chas. Wiles
second engineer; George Davis, assist
ant steward; Daniel Forbes, lookout
Carl Myers, wheelman; Harry Stewart
wheelman; Robert Simpson, oiler.
The Western Reserve was one of tn
new steel steamers on the lakes. Sh
was built by the Cleveland Ship Build
ing Co., and launched October 20, 1890
She was owned by the P. G. Minch &c
tate and others of Cleveland, o., an
was valued at 1920, 900 in Lloyd's Inlan
Register. The Western Reserve wa
800 feet long and Al feet beam. She wa
considered thoroughly stanch and sea
worthy boat.