Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-18
FIRST WHALEBACK To FOUNDER
Barge No. 115. with Its Crew of Nine
Men, Has Bcen Given In MS Lost
by Company.

CHICAGO, Dec. ia dispatch from Sault
Ste Marie, Mich. to the Lake Marine News
! Bureau says;
Whaleback barge No. lis, which has been
missing on Lake Superior since Wednesday
last, was today given up fer lost, with its
crew of nine men. The only names known
Of the lost are:
Captain Arthur A. Boyce.
Mate Michael Stynop.
| Cock William Buckner.
The steamer Holgate Hoyt, which had the
lost barge in tow, gave up the search for
her today and passed down through the
locke, bound for Lake Erie The tug Vigi-
liant, which was also searching for No. 115,
likewise gave 1t up. While It is likely that
the Whaleback company will send out its
steamers from Duluth in a further search,
the crew of the Hoyt have no doubt but
the barge went down in the great storm of
Wednesday.
After starting out from the head of Lake
Superior said the captain OF the Colgate
Hoyt. 1--WE ran into a furious cold northwest
gale. For forty hours we bucked into the
seas and finally we succeeded in getting
within ten miles of Pick island, where we
got into comparatively smooth water the
wind being off shore. | then changed our
course to the southwark. running parallel
protection. | had been on this course for
about an hour when at 3 SO o'clock Wednes-
day morning | went into breakfast. At that
time saw the lights on the barge all right.
Five minutes later | was told the tow +line
had parted and No. 115 was drifting out into
the lake. l Immediately put the Hoyt about
and for four hours | surged back and forth
over the course, but not thing could l see
of the barge. / kept up the search until
dark when | ran down to Whitehsh Point.
There met Capta.l Smith. agent of the
Whaeback fleet at the 500, Tho was on the
tug Vigilant. The two of us then joined in
the search. We kept at it until the weather
proved too much for us, when we came
back, fearing we might be caught out on
Lake Superior in heavy snow storm. We
had only forty tone of coal and were in dan
ger of running out of fuel.
During the gale on Tuesday, when the
Hoyt was pulling into the great northeast
storm, the crew could see the men on the
barge pumping water that was corroded with
iron ore. This would have indicated that
something was wrong, but no distress sig
nal was displayed on the barge and 1t was
thought that all was we'll particularly after
the boats had run into smooth water. How
soon after breaking away from the Hoyt
No. 115 went down cannot be guessed. The
lifeboat and everything on the deck of the
barge was either washed away or frozen so
tight to the deck that it could not be
moved"
The lost vessel was built at Superior in
1891 by the American Steel Barge company
and was 256 feet long and SO feet beam. 1t
carried about 5000 tons of iron ore and
was valued at about $4,000. This is the first
of the whaleback fleet of the Great Lakes
thA
be lost, the first one having been
pounded to pieces against TIN, Cleveland
breakwater Just year ago rd III the rest
OF the whaleback fleet the | ige passed
to the Rockefeller intere,,it it@FeI fhc general
shake-up of vessel property ;n October.
There was no insurance on either vessel or
cargo