The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-06

TOLEDO, Sept. Sat the bottom
of Lake Erie. at it's western end, some
where between the mouth of the De-
troit river and the point where the
muddy waters of the Maumee river
and the deep blue of the lake are en-
gagged in the process of assimilation,
there lies sufficient material to furnish
horrible examples to temperance lee
turers for the next score of years. 1t
is the; sunken cargo of the good ship
Favorite, bound from Buffalo to To-
ledo, laden with whisky and rum, in
the autumn of 1889.
The story of the wreck was almost
forgotten history, until recently an
item appeared in the papers announc-
ing the organization of a company of
Detroit and Toledo capitalists for the
purpose of endeavoring to recover the
cargo. Capt. Frank Abair and several
other old-time lake captains then re-
called details of the wreck.
The Favorite was one of the best
of lake vessels of her day She was a
schooner, trading principally between
Buffalo and Detroit, but frequently
touching at Toledo. Upon this, her last
voyage, she cleared from Buffalo with
cargo of liquor, consigned to Toledo
firm. According to those interested in
the plan for recovering it, the Favorite
had on board 1858 barrels of whisky and
1872 barrels of rum. a.
Just as the vessel was entertaing
Maumee bay q sou'wester blew up
suddenly and drove the Favorite out
into the lake and northward toward
the mouth of the Detroit river. Some
where abreast of Monroe piers, or be-
tween there and Stony Point, the YES
sci foundered and was abandoned by
her crew. Only one of these survived
the stornl.' He was rescued by some
fishermen, who found him more dead
than alive, clinging to some floating
wreckage. a.-~ e t-v-.e.s ~
The schooner broke up. rapidly, as
was evidenced by, wreckage that was
washed ashore. The sole survivor in
time made his way to Toledo. He re-
manned here only a few days. Then he
disappeared. 1t was though his mind
had become. affected by the exposure
he had undergone. Many thought he
had committed suicide or wandered
away In the wilderness which then sur
rounded Toledo.
Several efforts were made to find
him because it was thought he might
be able to pilot party to the point
at which the vessel had gone down,
but the project had to be abandoned
The story of the finding of this lone
survivor of the wreck, whose name is
withheld by those interested in the new
effort to locate the cargo, was told the
other day by one of the Toledoans in
terested in the new company, said he:
"a short time ago a party of De-
troiters and Toledoans planned a cruise
on Lake Erie. 1t was a jolly party out
to have good time. We planned the
cruise among the islands of the lakes.
In fact, our idea was to find something
new, If possible, and to go as near as
possible to where a man had never
been before. One day, while skirting
the Canadian shore, we did reach a
small island.
1T was one of those mere specks of
land, just peeping up through the blue
waters of the lake. We had no inten-
ton of landing until we saw thin
column Of smoke rising. We could see
no human habitation. We cruised
around the little island twice, in the
hope of attracting some ones attention
Failing in this, we made a landing
with a small boat we had on board In
! the center of the island, well surround
| ed by shrubbery, we found veritable
Robinson Crusoe, who was apparently
as much surprised as We were. He
| was an old man, clothed in the garb
| Of a fisherman, with long gray hair
| reaching we'll down his shoulders
| When we hailed him he stood like a
| sphinx and scowled at our intrusion.
| Then, as we approached him he re-
treated into his shack, built of logs
and wreckage, and shut the rickety
old door behind him with bang.
Our first intention was to retreat
for fear of hostilities, but a more in
trepid member Of the party scoffed at