The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-10-06
SURVIVORS PICKED UP AFTER
cLiNelNe ALL NIGHT TO
THE WREckAGE.
LITTLE CHANCE OF ESCAPE
VESSEL TURNED TURTLE BE-
FORE OCCUPANTS COULD
ABANDON HER.

NldI IIICICC, 'io', wv
souall Saturday night on Lake Mich1-
gan, the steamer J. H. Hackley cap
sized and twelve persons were drown
ed. The Goodrich line steamer She
boygan rescued the other nine per-
sons on board the Hackley. after they
had foated about on pieces Of wreck
age all night. Reports of the disas-
ter reached Marinette Sunday.
The Hackley was struck by the
squat when seven miles off Green Is
land. The upper work was blown away
before the men could reach a haven.
The boat then turned owe and went
down in deep water.
The drowned are: George Leclaire.
Jr., Jacksonport, Wis; Joseph V.
Orus, captain of the Hackley, Fish
Creek; Edna Barringer, Lawrence
Barringer, Fish Creek: Henry Rabi-
toy, Fish Creek; Carl Kelky, Fish
Creek; Miss Frances Vincent, Miss
Vincent's sister, Egg Harbor, Wis;
Freeman Thorp, Fish Creek; Nels
Nelson, Sturgeon Bay; Frank Fitz-
named Truckly, cook on the boat.
Names Of Some Who Escaped.
Frank Blakefield, Orrin Rollin, Mil
ton Hansen, Blaine McSweeney and
two men of Ellison Bay, Wis, were
rescued.
AS the Hackley went to the bottom,
those who would and could seized on
floating pieces of wreckage, while the
women and three or four of the men,
failing to find any object to which to
cling, sank in the raging sea, so far
as is known. q
The waves were rolling high and
several of those who at first saved
themselves from immediate death lost
strength and sank. 1t was several
hours after the Hackley sank before
the Sheboygan hove within hailing
distance. The shouts of the floating
men attracted the attention of the
sailors on the S%heboygan and every
assistance was lent.
The rescue was effected at z a. m.
and the officers of the Sheboygan feel
sure that they took aboard every per
son afoat. Some of the persons who
were rescued say that it is possible
that one or more of the eleven per-
sons missing may have escaped death.
This view is not given much credence
by the sailors of the S~hebOygan.
Survivors Exhausted.
The Sheboygan made into Fish
Creek when hope Of rescuing other
persons seemed improbable. The res.
cued persons were SO exhausted from
thein struggle against drowning that
they were unable for some time to
tell anything about the wreck.
The persons saved by the S%hebovgan
say that with the crashing away OF
the upper work. all persons aboard the
Haclkley ran on deck. Hasty prepare
tions for a plunge into the water were
begun, but before any plans could be
carried out, the boat listed. turned
over and went down like a rock.
Search is still making for any per
son who may have escaped death and
for bodies of those who were drowned
The j. H. Hackle~ was a fifty
four-ton screw steamer which was
built at Muskegon, Mich. in 1882.
The Hackley was owned in Fish
Greek bv the CAPTAIN and other resi-
dents of that village. The steamer
made a trip every other day between
Sturgeon bay and Washington island
going IN one day and back the next
The Hacklev left Menominee. Mich.
Saturday afternoon. late. and was
bound for Fish Creek and Green Bay