The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-02
STEEL STEAMER LOST.
Big Western Reserve Breaks in
Two in Lake Superior.
ONLY ONE ON BOARD SAVED.
The Owner. Captain Minch, His Wife,
Perish-Bodies Coming Ashore.

vsAuLr STE. MARIE, Mich, Sept. 1.-The FISH tug
I. N. b. A. arrived tonight, having "a passen.
ger Harry stewart, OF Algonac, Mich, wheels
man and only survivor OF the mammoth steel
steamer Western Reserve, which foundered
Tuesday morning about o'clock, sixty miles
above Whitefish point, en- route to Keewenaw.
The Western Reserve left the 500 Tuesday. hav-
ing on board AZ passengers Captain Peter Mineh,
the owner. his wife, two children and sister-in-
law, beside the regular crew OF twenty-five
hands. The rest OF the steamers history Is
short, and the fatality 10 best told in the words
of Stewart, the only survivor OF the terrible
disaster:
Everything went we'll until about sixty miles
above Whitefish point, when the first warning
OF impending danger was a terrible crash
caused by the huge craft breaking in two. She
took water fast, and the yawl boats were
lowered. Captain Minch, family, officers and
crew to the number of seventeen got into
wooden yawl and the others took metallic one.
The Reserve sank in ten minutes, and before
she was out of sight the metallic yawl capsized.
The other boat succeeded in rescuing two OF the
occupants, :nd the nineteen survivors started
for Whitefsh point, sixty miles away. Con-
siderable sea blew up, but the yawl weathered
the breakers all night until o'clock
next morning When about ten miles from
lifesaving station No. 10 and about
mile from shore the boat capsized Stewart
says he saw none OF the occupants afterward.
The cries of the children, the screams OF the
women and the moaning OF the men were ter
rible for few moments. He struck for shore,
and after two hours in the water landed about
ten miles above the station. and had to walk
there before reaching any one able to render
him assistance. Search failed to reveal trace
OF any other survivors of the wreck, and there
seems to be no question that all were drowned.
A dispatch from Deer Park says three bodies
and q yawl from the wrecked steamer Western
Reserve were cast up by the waves near there
today. The body of Captain Minch, owner of
the lost steamer, was among these. He was
identified by q watch found on his person.
The two other bodies are unidentified, one be-
ing that OF pretty, dark-haired lady.
CLEVELAND, o., Sept 1.-The steamer West
ern Reserve left Cleveland last Sunday after
noon for Two Harbors, Mich, for iron ore. On
board, in addition to the crew, were the princi-
pal owner, p. g. Minch, wealthy ship owner
of this city, his wife, his son Charlie aged 10
years, daughter OF years, his
sster-in-law, Mrs. Engelby. of vermil-
Q years old. They were out for recreation. The
list of the crew, as nearly as can be obtained,
is as follows: Albert Myers. captain; Fred
Engels. first mate; William II. Seaman, chief
engineer; Charles Wills, George Davis, Daniel
Forbes, c. Myers, Harry Stewart, Robert simp.
son, Charles Levan, Bert Smith, l. II. Halen,
John Latham, Horace Borough, Martin Klau-
sin, Daniel Stickuey, r. Longield, Albert Daven-
port, Daniel O'Connel, II. Coffee and John Will