The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-06-30
WRECK ON LAKE Erie
The Steamer Margaret 0lwill Foun-
ders Of Lorain, 0.
NINE PERSONS WERE DROWNED.

Q
The Lost Include Captain Braun. His
WHO and Son and Lady Passenger.
Four Rescued by Passing Vessels.
The story OF "a survivor.
Cleveland. June 30.-In the heavy
northeast gale Wednesday night the
steamer Margaret Olwill. laden with
stone, from Kelly's Island TO Cleve-
land foundered in Lake Erie of Lo-
rain. Nine persons we're drowned.
Four members OF the crew have been
picked up by passing steamers and
brought into port. The dead are:
Captain John c. Braun. Of Cleveland;
Lizzie Braun and Blanchard Braun,
wife and 9-year-old son OF the cap
tain; Mrs Cora A. Hitchcock. a pas
senger; William Doyle, fireman;
George Hebron, seaman; frank Hipp,
wstchman: two seamen, names and
residences unknown. The others all
resided in Cleveland.
The rescued: John Smith, first mate.
Of Cleveland: Alexander McRae chief
engineer; Luke Schinski, second en-
gineer; Duncan Coyle. seaman. all Of
| Cleveland
Smith, McRae and Schinski were
rescued by members Of the crew OF the
steamer Sacramento and taken into
Lorain by the tug Cascade. Coyle was
| picked up by the passenger steamer
State of Ohio and landed at Toledo
yesterday. From the reports of the
| survivors the Olwil's cargo Of stone
shifted while the vessel was laboring
in the trough of the sea. Shortly be-
| fore she went down the rudder chains
| parted, allowing her to fall off into
the trough. AS the helpless craft rose
on top of a heavy sea the stone slid
| TO leeward. and the steamer listed
heavily and sank to the bottom. The
| rescued members of the crew were
| found floating on the surface of Lake
Erie, clinging to the bits of wreck
| age. Their rescue was attended by
exhibitions of extreme heroism, for a
heavy sea was still running when
they were picked up.
| Coyle the deck hand who was res
cued by the steamer State of Ohio and
taken to Toledo, says that they left
Kelley's Island at o'clock Wednes
day night There was little or no
wind blowing and everything was ia
vorable for a pleasant run. At 8
o'clock the wind began to blow from
the northwest and the little boat, with
thousand tons capacity, began TO go
at a lively clip. At 10 o'clock the
| gale commenced, and the wind blew at
the rate of so miles an hour. Sud
denly the gale turned to the north
east.
Captain Braun found that the boat
was making little headway and con-
cluded the only thing to do was to
turn back with the storm. According
to the story of Coyle it was o'clock
when the captain gave the order to
turn about. The vessel had turned half
way round. when the rudder chain
parted, and in an instant the boat
was at the mercy of the storm. She
was caught between two waves, and
as she was borne along on the top of
one of them she rolled over on the
side. The cabins were torn open and
floated on the water. while the rest
of the ship went to the bottom. Coyle
says he saw Schlnski, the second en-
gineer, and Heffron. the wheelman,
after the boat went down, but that
was all. Coyle caught hold of tho
after cabin and climbed upon it. Heff-
ron was clinging to part of the same
cabin.
Captain Willoughby, of the steamer
State of Ohio, sighted the wreckage
about Sis in the morning directly in
the course from Cleveland to Toledo.
The big steamer Immediately put into
service her life saving crew, and after
sailing around the wreckage for an
hour and a half Coyle was rescued.
Heffron was thrown line, but he was
too weak to take hold of it, and went
| down in the presence of a large crowd
on board the steamer.
Several attempts were made to get
the yawl boat in the water, but the
sea was still running high and the
work was extremely perilous. Heff-
ron's death was a pathetic one. AS
he grabbed the rope, encouraged by the
crowd, he made a superhuman effort
to put the rope around his body, but
he was too weak, and fell exhausted
into the waves.