Wreck of the Merchant
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 8, 1875
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 8, 1875
The iron propeller Merchant, partially laden with 20,000 bushels of corn, 1200 barrels of flour, pork, flax seed and sundries, ran up on the outer end of Racine Reef about 11 o'clock Wednesday night, while on her way from Chicago to Milwaukee to finish out her cargo. She sank within 15 minutes. No lives were lost.
The tugs Hagerman and Rescue, with eight steam pumps, will try to free the Merchant, but it is the general opinion that the steamer is beyond recovery. A heavy northeast swell was running when she struck, which threw her around broadside on the reef before she went down, and must have used up her bottom. All the corn in her hold is wet, but the flour is thought to be undamaged, as her decks are still above water. The flour will be lightered today. Capt. Niles was not on deck at the time of the accident, it being the second mate's watch. The mate probably got the steamer on by attempting to save distance in hugging the reef. The night was perfectly clear. The 220-foot steamer is owned by the Anchor Line, and is insured for $100,000. Built in 1862 at Buffalo, she was the first iron-hulled commercial vessel to be built on the Lakes. |
Wreck of the Jo Vilas
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 11, 1876
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 11, 1876
The crew of the schooner Jo Vilas, after clinging to a frail raft for six hours in a fierce gale, thirty miles out on the lake, were rescued Monday afternoon by the schooner Andrew Jackson.
The violence and duration of the gale was such that the Jackson was not able to land the crew for twenty-four hours after the rescue. They arrived at the port of Racine yesterday afternoon. The Vilas had left White Lake, Mich., on Sunday morning, lumber-laden for Chicago, but she began to leak soon after starting out. The vessel's pumps were worked incessantly for twenty-four hours, but by 8 o’clock Monday morning a fierce gale was blowing from the southwest. The schooner, laboring fearfully, suddenly capsized midway between Racine and Kenosha, and about thirty miles out. Her crew of five and her deck-load of lumber were washed overboard. The men managed to get together a quantity of loose planks, and with terrible effort succeeded in constructing a fragile raft upon which they clung. One sailor who was still on board the Vilas was hauled onto the raft, by means of a line thrown, and five minutes later the vessel broke up and sank. For six hours the crew of six were exposed to the fury of the storm and the cold, on a raft which every moment threatened to go to pieces. The Andrew Jackson then hove in sight, and with the greatest efforts managed to rescue all the crew by heaving lines, it being impossible to reach them in any other way. In hauling them on board, one sailor, William Cook, had his left hand badly smashed, and another, Frank Folger, had one finger broken. The raft broke up before all the men were taken off, and there is no doubt but in another hour all hands would have perished. They state that their suffering was terrible, with the waves constantly breaking over them, and they every moment expecting to go to the bottom. |
Wreck of the Grace Channon
Milwaukee Sentinel - August 3, 1877
Milwaukee Sentinel - August 3, 1877
A serious accident occurred last night between Racine and Milwaukee, when the schooner Grace Channon was run down by the steam barge Favorite, about 10 miles off shore.
The Channon filled so fast that Capt. Murray was unable to save Alexander Graham, son of the owner, a lad about ten years of age, who could not be got out of his bunk. The crew, including a woman who served as cook and a boy about eight years of age, were hurried into the lifeboat, and they no sooner got a safe distance away when the vessel went down, with the older boy still on board. The captain of the steam barge, anticipating the sinking of the schooner after the crash, stopped his boat to rescue the ill-fated crew. The mariners were picked up and brought to the port of Milwaukee at midnight, and in a few hours after their arrival, they took the train for Chicago. The party stopped at the tug office in Milwaukee on their way to the depot, and presented a pitiable appearance, having escaped with barely enough to cover themselves, the little boy wearing a coat that swept the walks as he went along. Capt. Murray was so shocked by the disaster that he could scarcely give details of the accident. He could not account for the collision. He said it was bright moonlight at the time, and he was in his proper course. The steamer struck his vessel before he was aware that she was so close upon him. The steam barge Favorite had two barges in tow, and was on her way to Green Bay. |
Wreck of the Kate Kelly
Farmers Report Shipwreck
Racine Daily Journal - May 13, 1895
Racine Daily Journal - May 13, 1895
About 1 o’clock this afternoon a man on horseback was seen riding in from Wind Point, urging the animal to its utmost speed. It was evident that something was wrong, for the horseman made straight for the life-saving station.
There the man, a farmer named Bumgard, informed Captain George Breckenfeld of the life-saving crew that at about 12 o’clock he saw a two-masted schooner capsize three miles off the point. He was unable to tell the vessel’s cargo or color, but he said he could see three to five men clinging to the rigging. Later in the afternoon John Teemer, another farmer living near Lake Point, came rushing into town, to report that he had seen a vessel sink. He said she was a two-masted schooner, with part of a jib hoisted. She appeared to be water-logged. Suddenly she got into the trough of the monstrous seas, and went over. For a few minutes he could see men in the rigging, and a part of a sail flapping in the wind. The scene did not last long, however, and the craft with its human occupants, disappeared. Shipwreck May Have Been a Delusion Racine Daily Journal - May 14, 1895 The main topic of interest in marine circles today was the two-masted vessel reported by farmers to have capsized and sunk three miles northeast of Wind Point yesterday. Several Caledonia farmers have said they witnessed the vessel go down, and all were confident that there were at least three men on board. On account of the heavy seas and the vessel being low in the water, no description could be given. One farmer said he watched the boat for an hour, and it seemed to be standing still. Part of the foresail and a jib were hoisted. Captain Peterson of the Wind Point Lighthouse said he did not witness the foundering of the vessel, but it might easily occur and he not know it. The Racine life-saving crew said they were ready to go out yesterday, but the sea was too great and the wind too fierce for a lone boat to reach the vicinity of the reported wreck. Edward Gillen, owner of the tug Gillen, ordered that the tug go out with the life-saving crew, but the tug captain asked him if he was willing to risk his boat, for in leaving the harbor he said she would certainly pound upon the bottom, possibly bending the shoe, and in such an event be at the mercy of the storm. The boat would be wrecked, he said, and all on board would drown. As another farmer had just arrived and reported that the schooner had gone to the bottom, it was deemed advisable not to attempt to send the tug out in such a gale. As of press time not a particle of wreckage had been found of the ill-fated craft. Powerful glasses were brought into use, and while some claimed to see wreckage at a distance in the lake, their claims have not been verified. Members of the life-saving crew have patrolled the beach nearly to South Milwaukee, but have discovered no semblance of a wreck. This morning Captain Breckenfeld and his crew manned the lifeboat and set sail, with the hope of finding wreckage that would lead to the identity of the foundered craft. They cruised about for nearly three hours, and scanned the waters with powerful glasses, but were unable to detect anything that would lead them to believe that a vessel had foundered. After returning to the harbor, Captain Breckenfeld told a Journal reporter that he believed the whole story was a hoax or a delusion on the part of the farmers. In his opinion, the supposed ill-fated craft was the Coral, a two-masted schooner that now lies safely in the harbor. Between 11 and 12 o’clock yesterday, about the time the accident is said to have occurred, the Coral was off Wind Point and headed for port. Her captain states that he did not see a sail before or after him, and as the wind was blowing a lively gale, he had only two jibs hoisted. The farmers reported that the capsized boat had two jibs up, a fact that leads Captain Breckenfeld to believe that the Coral was the craft they saw. As a snow storm prevailed at the time, and the Coral was plodding along at a ten-mile rate, she probably got out of their sight in a very few minutes. It is hoped that the report of a craft capsizing is unfounded, and this appears to be the case, in the minds of old lake navigators. Farmers Were Right All Along Racine Daily Journal - May 15, 1895 The Caledonia farmers who reported a schooner going down off Wind Point were right after all. In patrolling the beach this morning, John Bittorf, of the Racine life-saving crew, reported seeing wreckage two miles off the point. Captain Breckenfeld and his crew then manned the surf-boat, and two miles due east of the point found large quantities of wreckage, including two large gaffs, two large booms, a broken spar and a top-mast sticking up out of the water. The booms and gaff were painted white. The reefed foresail was new, and the mainsail was old. The capsized ship was in ten fathoms of water. Efforts were made to pull up some portion of the wreck, by which it could be identified, but without success. Captain Breckenfeld said he was confident that the ship was not a Racine vessel. If he is told to remove the wreckage, the name of the ill-fated boat can then be ascertained. Late today a telegram was received from the Vessel Owners Towing Company of Chicago, stating that the wreckage of a vessel been found off Kenosha, and that they had every reason to believe that the schooner Kate Kelly had foundered. The Kenosha fishing tug Alice, while about five miles from shore, had passed through a lot of floating hemlock ties and a side-board upon which were painted the words Kate Kelly. This information was immediately communicated to Chicago, where it created great excitement among seafaring men. The tug Dunham started for the scene of the wreckage, heading into a stiff north wind. Was It the Kate Kelly? Racine Daily Journal - May 16, 1895 Was it the Kate Kelly that foundered off North Point? This is a question that has agitated the minds of hundreds of people today. Capt. Nyaad, commander of the J.B. Newland, today said he was positive that the ill-fated craft and the Kate Kelly are one and the same. He said the wind at the time was blowing west by northwest, and that no wreckage would float toward shore with a heavy gale blowing in that direction. The current caused by the gale, he said, would carry the wreckage on a southerly course with an inclination toward seaward. The fact that the debris off Kenosha was found about twenty-four hours after the schooner foundered off Wind Point strengthened his belief that the Kelly was the unknown craft. The Kate Kelly carried a crew of six: Capt. Hartley J. Hatch, Mate Thomas Long, a cook and three sailors, whose names are not known. The vessel cleared from Sheboygan on May 8 with a load of 5,500 railway ties, consigned to Ed Ayres of Chicago, to be delivered at the docks of the Rock Island Railroad. The Kate Kelly was one of the old class of vessels, fast going out of service. She was of 246 tons, rigged fore and aft, and was built in 1867 in Toledo. |
Wreck of the E.M. Peck
Explosion Shakes City
Racine Journal News - June 11, 1913
Racine Journal News - June 11, 1913
With a report that shook the entire city, resembling an earthquake, the twin boilers of the steamer E.M. Peck exploded about 10:30 this morning, just after the ship had left the Pugh coal docks, and was steaming up river to the docks above the State Street bridge.
Out of a crew of eighteen, four are known to be dead and at least five injured, one fatally. One man is missing. The awful blast blew to atoms the entire rear part of the steamer, ripping her decks to pieces, and opening big holes in her steel sides. An immense boiler was lifted from the hold, thrown a hundred feet in the air, and carried two hundred feet to the west. It fell with a crash on the east end of the coal-hoisting apparatus of the Baumann & Murphy coal yards, smashing huge timbers as though they were pipe stems. Wreckage and pieces of boiler were strewn about for three blocks, and the river was filled with debris. The large brace of a boiler was carried to the S. Freeman & Sons Manufacturing plant, crashing through the roof and barely missing some of the employees. Just before the Peck cast off lines and moved upstream this morning, twenty-five local stevedores, who had been unloading coal, left the vessel and went ashore, preferring to walk to the upper coal yard rather than ride. Had they been on board, the list of the dead would have been considerably longer. The ship was ripped open from amidships almost to the stern. Cabins were carried away when the boilers were forced through the decks of heavy steel plate, and thrown high in the air. Captain Gus Lofberg and the Racine life-saving crew were on the scene within a few moments after the blast. Fire fighters assisted them in rescuing the injured and removing the dead, and they poured streams of water on flames in the hold. The Peck was a shattered wreck, but she did not sink, as the hull apparently was not damaged below the water line. Greatest confusion prevailed. The vessel’s master, Captain J.A. Logan, was not on the steamer at the time of the explosion. When he arrived, he refused to give out any information, and harshly ordered members of the crew not to talk to newspaper men. Members of the crew did not have the least warning of the fearful blast. Some were thrown into the air, and dropped into the hold, which was seething with steam, smoke and fire. All the men in the engine and boiler rooms were killed. Several men amidships leaped into the river, where they were rescued by the life-saving crew. They were seriously hurt, but will probably recover. Men in the forward cabins and on the forward deck were hurled to the floor. A boiler weighing hundreds of tons soared above them, and crashed through the right side of the wheel house and the captain’s cabin, but did not strike anyone. Those members of the crew who escaped the blast were panic stricken. They did not know which way to turn. In front of them were flames rising from the hold. From the boiler room arose a sheet of steam. First mate A.C. Morton called to the injured men to aid in the work of rescue. They crawled along the deck in search of the dead and injured, but were almost powerless to help. They soon were aided by firemen, police officers and rescuers, who boarded the boat from the docks. Among the injured was the wife of the steward. She was lowered to the life-saving boat with a rope. Edward Young, oiler, was burned, cut and bruised, perhaps fatally. He was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital. Peter Ralm, deck hand, was blown thirty feet in the air. His head and face were bruised, but he was able to stay around the wrecked ship. Merrill Felker, wheelman, was in the wheelhouse at the time of the explosion. He was blown against the cabin. His back was hurt and his ribs were fractured. George Drage, wheelman, was pulled out of the wreck unconscious. He was taken to the hospital in a dying condition. Large buildings and homes for many blocks were shaken by the explosion, and hundreds rushed into the street to learn the cause. They soon learned that the Peck’s boilers had blown up. The news spread like wild fire. Thousands rushed to the docks and gazed upon the wrecked vessel, floating helplessly on the waters, the decks stripped, and fire leaping out of the hold. Every available policeman was sent to the scene to keep the crowds back. After Capt. Logan called the roll of his crew, and visited the city’s morgues and hospitals, he reported that Second Engineer Bernard Schwensen was missing. Capt. Lofberg of the life-saving service ordered that the river be dragged in an effort to find the missing body. Government boiler inspectors arrived in the city this afternoon from Chicago and Milwaukee, to begin their investigation. They called on Capt. Logan and the surviving members of the crew, but not one of them could give any information as to the cause of the disaster. The investigators will have expert boiler builders examine what’s left of the boilers. The Peck will be towed to a coal-yard dock, and the remaining coal will be unloaded. The vessel then will be turned over to marine insurance companies. The 232-foot E.M. Peck was built in 1888 at Detroit, Mich. Her home port was Duluth, Minn. |