The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-27
GREAT TRAGEDIES
IN LAKE RECORDS
DULUTH SAILOR RECALLS REC
oRDs OF INLAND sEAs-MANY
VESSELS DISAPPEAR.

year on the lakes" said an old sailor
Of the inland seas when he read, the
other day, that I21 lives had been lost
between Duluth and Buffalo since the
opening of navigation last spring.
| They've been changing the char
acter Of the ships, you know, and the
big modern ones are seldom wrecked,
/ it's the old tubs that go down But
l the boys who go down with them are
just as good fellows, and just as good
| sailors-yes better-than those who
sail as they like to call it, on the
new boats. Sail nothing! Modern nav
igation on the lakes isn't sailing any
more than living at the Spaulding here
or the Iroquois in Buffalo is keeping
house. Take a trip on one of the old
wooden freighters some time. instead
Of running down to Detroit or Buffalo
| in floating palace and see for your
self what sailing is, and what sort of
men che sailors Of those vessels are
what sort of men they are that figure,
often nameiessly in stories or lake dis
asters.
Lady ETsin Wreck.
Eyes, 1t has been a bad year; but
not the worst. ] recollect 1860, when
SIS lives were lost in these waters.
That was the year the Lady Elgin
went down. She had 800 excursionists
aboard, fifty regular passengers and a
crew Of thirty-five, and only ninety
eight of them all were saved. The
boat had left Milwaukee late at night
with the wind blowing just moderate,
but at midnight there was a thunder
storm-a hard one-and Lady Elgin,
steaming toward Mackinaw, was ram
med at the midships gangway on the
larboard side by the schooner Augusta.
The steamer sank in twenty minutes.
"That was in September. Two
months later, just before navigation
closed, there was a terrible storm and
many wrecks. One of the worst was
that Of the Dacotha, a propeller, which |
sank in Erie, off Sturgeon point, carry |
ing every one Of the boys down with |
1t. Why they never saw a piece of the |
old boat. There haven't been any such |
bad wrecks as these this year, praise |
be.
Then there was the Pewabic, which |
was run down by the propeller Meteor |
off Thunder bay light, in Huron, in '65. |
There were ITO passengers, or about
on her. They said just after the smash |
that sixty were drowned, but Capt. |
George Mackay, of the Pewa.bic, told me
few years ago, that they lost only |
thirty.
Vessels That Vanished.
IT got the dates Of some other lake
disasters put down." said the old sail
or, looking at a little book There |
was the schooner Whitney in '72. She
foundered here in Lake Superior and |
we never got a clue to her. She left |
port shipshape and why or how she |
foundered nobody ever knew
TN '7s the Wanbuna and the thirty |
men on her went down in Georgian
bay-and nobody could explain that
either.
1.-THE next year the Alpha, a passen-
ger steamer, sank in the lake forty odd |
miles from Chicago, and not one OF
the fifty-seven who were on her es-
capped. There was another disappear
ance. something like this one, in 'S2. /
That was the steamer Asia. More
than 10 went down then. Next year
the Minnesota foundered in Superior, |
all lost there, too.
81 didn't tell you about the Atlantic, |
did I? Well, she was a steamer and |
was rammed by propeller, the Og |
densburg, and only few were rescued |
when she went down. This was back
in 1850.
Now down here in the eighties
again, there was the Vernon. She van
ished into Lake Michigan in 'S7, and |
the death list was thirty-six.
1.-THE Hume, fine schooner, left Chi
cago one spring day in 1891 and that
night she disappeared. They didn't fine
a bit of her wreckage, either. Later
that year the schooner Atlantic sank
in Superior, and none of her crew es-
capped, either. When the Nashua found
cred in Huron in 81, nineteen were lost.
The Eddy and the Doty two other
schooners, went down in 93. Later the
first ones of the modern type of boats
the Gilcher, the Hudson and the West
ern Reserve-wenr down, and few We're
saved from them. The Gilcher sank In
Michigan, sixteen sailors died with
her. The Western Reserve, coming
from Cleveland to Twin Harbor, went
down in Superior, thirty lost there.
Two Hundred Wrecked Every Year.
"Oh. that isn't all of them, not
tenth. Why it has been estimated that
more than 200 be ets are wrecked every
year on the lakes, and / guess that's
a low figure. OF courza not all of
these go down but / suppose a fourth