Evening journal., 1901-05-25
TWELVE PERSONS DROWNED BY
BREAKING In TWO OF STEAMER
In STORM ON LAKE MICHIGAN
Of the Fourteen on Board, Including The Captains Wife,
OaIy Two We're Rescued One Became In-
sane From His Experience
Crew Of Six Men Of a Tug
boat Missing
ITS TWO LIGHTERS GIVEN UP
Terrible Storm in Lake Region Re-
suits in Great Loss Of Life and
Property


Mich. May 25.--A ter
i'.e l.Og.Atas CT prevailed all ycstel.
Gay and Thursday night. Tho stcara.
er Baltimore. coal laden. broke in two
ana sank or Aua1hla yesterday morn
ias before daylight Twelve were
drowned. irelud.ng a woman. An en-
gineor and deck hand. the only sur
viyors. We're brought hero yesterday
afternoon. Tho Baltimore was owned
By p. II. Fleming & Co., OF Chicago
Thcdead NJ. II. Place, captain. Cleve.
land; Mrs. " H. Place, his wife, stew.
ardess; Michael Brcathen, first mate;
Edward owen. wheelman c. w. Sears,
wheelmcn; G. w. Scott, watchman:
Herbert Winning. watchmar; August
Anderson, deck hand; John Delders,
second steward; p Marcoaux. of Chi.
oago, first engineer; William Barker,
fireman; p Kruger, fireman.
The two survivors were tossed about
4 In the lake for several hours. lashed to
a piece of wreckago. George McGin-
r.7, a deck hand. one of the rescued,
became insane from his experience
The other survivor, Thomas Murphy.
Of Milwaukee. second engineer, was
able 10 tell the story OF the disaster
Il was some time after the Columbia
had brought the shipwrecked men into
port before Murphy was revived suf
foiently TO tell his story.
"We we're bound from Lorian to
sault Ste Marie" he said, "and had in
tow n large steam drill and scow
when of Thunder bay Thursday night
Captain Place saw that the steamer
was making bad weather, for the
4 waves had smashed In the engineers
quarters and the washrooms and tho
water was running into the hold
/ Captain Place decided to turn about
and run for Tawas for shelter. Every
thing won't all right until we were OIL
! Au Sable, when tho steamer struck
heavily on the bottom. The seas broke
, over her az tho same time, and car
ried away the deckhouse. then the at.
ter cabin. and finally the smokestack
, fell Both rails forward broke in two
just aft of the forward deckhouse, and
we knew that it was only a few min
utos before the steamer would go to
pieces continued Murphy
1T IS every man for himself now"
shouted Captain Place, continued the
engineer. The look of despair on
Mrs. Places face was something I shall
never forget Il was awful We took
the captains advice, and every man
started to save himself as best he
could. scme OF the boys took to the
rigging, hut McGinnis and lashed
ourselves to a ring belt in apiece Of
the after cabin. and we were washed
overheard shortly afterward.
"The strain was too much for Nc
Cinnia, and he went crazy before wo
had been in the water very long. He
tried to throw me off the wreckage. but
/ talked to him and encouraged him
to hold on. Twice he got loose and
tried to drown us both. but each time
I succeeded in cuicting him. l told
hin beat was coming to take us
cff, and then l would get hi.l tied fast
again.
"The passenger steamer City of Hol-
land passed by us early in the morning,
but we were too far away for her crew
TO see us, l believe. II made me feel
pretty despondent for a time. for wa.
getting veIy weak and the seas broke
over my head so as to drive the breath
out of my body at times
"The Columbia finally came along
and picked us up. just as I was about
TO give up hope. l am afraid all Of
the rest Of the crew were drowned. in
cluding Mrs Place. l only wonder
how it was that we lived ct oil. Our
wreckage was big enough to make a
raft. but II was small, and the seas
swept il constantly"
2 The tug Columbia, OF Detroit, with O
government steam dredge and two
loaded lighters for the 500. was caught
IN the storm. The lighters and dredge
were lost. parting their six-inch cable.
The crew of six men is missing. While
searching for her tow the Columbia
picked up two men from the Baltimore
On a reft They were almcst dead and
were taken to East Tawas. Another
man was on ,he raft, but was lost. de-
s.,;e the e-orss to save him.