The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-06-06
4 LAKE MICHIGAN GALE.
MANY SAILORS DROWNED IN
VIEW OF THOUSANDS.


Helpless Vessels Go to Destruc-
tion-Life Savers Did Many Heroic
Deeds Chicago's Fire Depart
ment and Regular Soldiers Assist
Heavy loss of life and immense damage to
shipping Is the result of the severe storm
that swept Lake Michigan, the mercury
dropping from eighty degrees at 10 o'clock
In the morning to fifty at o'clock In the
afternoon. The western shore OF the lake
from Michigan City to Two Rivers was
strewn with wreckage, and off the
breakwater, on the Chicago and Evanston
shores, many vessels were pounded to pieces
and several capsfzed.
lost, and the number, 1t was thought on the
morning after the storm. would undoubtedly
reach thirty, lid probably two score or more.
On two wrecks directly of the Government
pier at Twelfth street and Thirty-arst street,
Chicago, men were clingin4 to hull or rig
ging all day, the elements defying the best
endeavors Of Government and volunteer life
savers.
At Fort Sheridan Colonel Crofton ordered
out the entire Fifteenth Infantry to patrol
the beach and watch the wreckage and help
dangered by the storm. Troops B and Z Of
the Seventh Cavalry, OF Indian war fame,
did yeoman service, and battled about in the
forts life saving apparatus
Eleven fishermen were caught on the Gov
eminent pier, and before the party could be
rescued one OF the number, Thomas Bedloe,
became so benumbed with cold that he was
washed off the structure and drowned.
After great labor, the tug Commodore
towed the lifeboat out, and O line was
thrown to the men. One by one they were
dragged to safety.
At o'clockp m. two-masted schooner
of Van Buren street collided with two other
boats and was broken In two BY the collision.
The schooner sank at once. At the same
hour three-masted schooner ran ashore off
the foot OF Eighteenth street. The waves
soon dashed 1t to pieces. A tug sent out to
aid the crew rescued five men from O peril
Gus position.
At 3.45 o'clock the schooner Meadow was
capsized of Van Buren street. It was
manned by seven sailors. She went over at
the south end of the pier. Three men were
swept away, and the other four could be
seen clinSing to the bottom of the vessel.
The tug Mollie Spence went out to rescue
the four, but did not succeed In saving
them.
Four men were drowned from an unknown
sailing vessel which foundered just south OF
the Government pier. After the vessel foun-
dered the tour men were seen struggling in
the water and soon disappeared from view.
An unknown schooner four or five miles
from the South pier was discovered shortly
after o'clock totally dismasted and laboring
In the waves. Her upper portion was gone
and It was feared she would 80 to pieces.
With these wrecks following each other SO
rapidly, the life savers were entirely unable
to cope with the work, and shortly before 4
O'Clock part of the Chicago Fire Depart
ment was called out to assist In the rescue Of
drowning crews. In the main their efforts
were unavailing, and while they worked
10000 persons watched their maneuvres
from the shore, over which waves twenty
feet high dashed In furious succession.
At 2 o'clock the Illinois Central road was
compelled to abandon its express service on
the outer tracks, some OF which were COM
pletely washed away. The gas launch Neya
put out from South Chicago with two girls,
John Williamson and another man. It was
feared the entire party had been drowned.
The life saving crew got to the Kerr bum
boat, a mile from shore, inside the long
break-water. The waves were apparently
battering the bumboat to pieces. The life
saving crew returned at 2 o'clock. They
succeed ed in taking of thirty men and one
woman and loaded them on the tug Craw-
ford. The bumboat became total wreck.
Minor accidents, some of them probably
fatal, were reported BY the score during all
day and night, and reports from Milwaukee,
Racine, and all along the west shore, showed
that the storm was as terrible In its effects
there as 1t was at Chicago.
Up to 8 o'clock d. N. six wrecks had been
reported between Twenty-sixth and Thirty
fifth streets alone, and the life saving crew
there had Mt that time brought eight bodies
ashore Toward dusk six men were seen
floating on an upturned hull, and soon the
latter sank.
The schooner NJ. J. Cummings dragged her
anchors and foundered 1000 feet from shore
Off Milwaukee, Wis. The life saving crew
went 10 the rescue. A line was got aboard
but it broke, and the lifeboat drifted of, cap
sized and floated southwark. Frank Goor-
pes, surfman No. G, managed to get aboard
the schooner and lashed the crew OF six men
and woman to the rigging.
Watched BY 60O0 people gathered on the
piers and along the shores, the tug Knight
Templar, towing a scow bearing anothe:
crew OF life savers, started out to rescue the
imperiled people. Back Of the scow was
towed IN empty surfboat, which, with the
scow, was permitted to drop down toward
the wreck. When the surfboat was within
lily Ie6I Ol uc MIC-A OuO VI lAO iLCA IL tno
Cummings mizzsn rigging threw up his
hpnIs and fell backward into the, boiling
waters. A short time before another haa
perished similarly.
Finally the surfboat dropped close to the
sunken vessel. Two figures slowly descend
ed the shrouds OF the mizzenmast and clunS
to lines but few feet above the waves. Five
minutes rassed as attempt after attempt was
made by the life savers to swing the ltfeboat
near the waiting men. A cry went up from
the crowd on shore as one figure was seen to
leap from the rigging and land In the boat:
Two minutes later o man sprang far out, and
as the boat ascended wave, 1t was seen thar
there were two figures in the boat. Then q
cheer that drowned the roaring OF the break
ers went up from the throats on shore.
Slowly the long line that held the surf-
boat was paid out, and the two rescued men
were permitted to drift toward the shore
one moment lost 20 sight In the foaminS
breakers, and again alive and sure OF rescue
az the boat rose on the top Of some mighty
billow. Along the beach at the foot OF
Jones Island crowd ran to meet the rescued
men. and they were dragged to place OF
safety.
The dead were: Captain John MeCul.
lough, Marine City Mate Timothy Bosour.
Buffalo, N. Y; Thomas Tuscott, sailor
H. AI~.y inn .