The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1897-11-12
THE WRECK OF THE IDAHO
Nineteen Of the Crew Lost
Their Lives.
ONLY TWO MEN WERE SAVED
Story of the Survivors-Worst Storm on
the Lakes in Years-Other Vessels
Had a Hard Time With the Gale.

the Lakes in Years-Other Vessels
Had a Hard Time With the Gale.
Buffalo, N. Y, Nov. 9.-The follow
ing are the names of 16 of the 19 men
who lost their lives on the steamer
Idaho, which sank during the gale On
Saturday morning above Long point,
on Lake Erie:
Alexander Giles, captain, of Buffalo;
George Gibson, first mate, of Buffalo;
William Clancy, chief engineer, of
Buffalo; John D. Taylor. steward. of
Buffalo; Nelson Skinner. assistant en-
gineer; Louis Gilmer, watchman;
Richard Mclean, wheelman; Robert
Williams, wheelman; A. ]. Richards,
lookout; Henry Thompson, lookout;
Conrad B. Lankes, fireman; William
Gregory, fireman; John Holly, assist
ant steward; Frederick Miffort, oiler;
Edward Smith. deckhand, of Roches-
ter, and M. Bell, deckhand.
The names of three of the men
drowned are unknown to the steamship
company. One was a fireman, an
other deckhand and third porter.
The names of the two men saved are
Louis Laforce, junior second mate, and
William Gill, a deckhand, living at
1877 Kent street, Rochester. 1t is not
known at the office of the Western
Transit Company where the greater
portion of the dead men hailed from.
The Idaho went out of commission
three or four years ago, but this sum-
mer she was thoroughly overhauled.
After her overhauling she was placed
at the disposition of the Naval Veter-
ans Association, and by that organiza-
tion used as flagship during the g..
A. R. encampment in August. At the
close Of the encampment she was put
into commission again as freighter.
The captain of the ill-fated steamer,
Alexander Gillies, was one of the most
widely known Of lake seamen. He
was Al years old, and knew the lake
waters like book. His brother. DON
aid Gillies, is captain of the steamer
Harlem.
When the steamer Mariposa arrived
in port, about midnight last night, with
the news of the wreck, and having on
board the two surviving members Cd
the crew, Captain Root had this to say
regarding the storm on the lake and the
rescue of the two men:
''It was one of the worst gales ever
experienced in all my years on the
lakes. We started from Chicago with
load of oats. All the way down the
lakes we had fight with the storm,
and thought once or twice of putting
in somewhere until it blew over. / am
glad did not, for if had, these two
men who came down with me, would
have joined their mates by this time.
1t was about 1890 in the afternoon
when / first learned of the wreck. ]
was on deck when my first mate, My
ron Cham mberlain, came to me and told
me that he had sighted spar off to
the north, and that he thought there
was couple of men clinging to it. He
pointed it out to me, and when I got
my glasses on it, I could distinguish
the men plainly. We were running
under good head of steam at the
time, and put ON more and made for
the spar. When nearing it 1 was puz-
zled how to help the men off, for
could not lower boat in such storm.
Finally circled about the spar until
ran alongside, and my men picked the
poor fellows off. They had to drag
them away from the spar by force, for
the men had been there SO long that
their arms were numb and twisted
about the mast and almost frozen fast
there. When we got the men on board,
we put them in hunks, and gave them
warm food and soup, and had them
feeling pretty good when we reached
harbor.''