Wreck of the Milwaukee
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 24-27, 1929
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 24-27, 1929
The Milwaukee Is Missing
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 24, 1929
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 24, 1929
With 50 men and 20 rail cars aboard, the ferry steamship Milwaukee was reported missing Wednesday night on storm-tossed Lake Michigan. The 3,000-ton ship was twenty-four hours past due at Grand Haven, Mich.
Coast-guard crews on both sides of the lake were asked to keep a watch for the ship, while Capt. William Kincaide and six men of the Milwaukee coast-guard station braved the storm in a thirty-foot power boat, searching for the missing vessel. No word was received as of early Thursday. Despite his assertion that he was not worried over the absence the Milwaukee, Capt. Charles McLaren, commander of the Grand Trunk Fleet, said he has broadcast appeals for help to all coast-guard stations along the lake, even to Upper Michigan. The Milwaukee, under command of Capt. Robert McKay, left Milwaukee at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. She was due at Grand Haven at midnight. A few hours after she left, the storm broke in all its fury. The lake was lashed into a sea of mountainous waves that pounded the shoreline Tuesday night and Wednesday. The storm has caused millions of dollars of damage around the lake. McLaren said that Capt. McKay, a veteran skipper of the lakes, probably headed the ship into a sheltering bay on the Michigan side. “He knows more tricks in handling a boat in a storm than most lake captains. With him in charge I’m not greatly worried. He is familiar with every nook and cove on Lake Michigan, and he likely has found one in which to ride out the storm.” Capt. McLaren’s confidence was somewhat shaken, however, when it was learned that the carferry Grand Rapids arrived in Grand Haven Wednesday morning, several hours late, after being buffeted for twenty-one hours by the raging water. It was pointed out that if the storm had abated sufficiently to permit the Grand Rapids to make its way to port, the Milwaukee could have done so as well. The Milwaukee, although 22 years old, was in excellent condition, Capt. McLaren said. She was rechristened and overhauled last June. Tuesday’s storm did almost $300,000 worth of damage to a stretch of the government breakwater just completed. The storm tipped over huge concrete caissons used in breakwater construction. Each caisson weighs 1,300 tons, yet they were rolled over like toy building blocks. |
Bodies and Wreckage Found
Milwaukee Sentinel - October 25, 1929 Five bodies – one of them that of Capt. Robert “Bad Weather” McKay, the skipper who “never ran from a storm” – were taken from the still turbulent waters of Lake Michigan Thursday night, as darkness and a heavy mist veiled the spot where the Grand Trunk car ferry Milwaukee plunged to the bottom. A mass of broken wreckage was being tossed and whirled on the surface of the lake, sixteen miles southeast of Kenosha, when rescuers were forced into port for the night.
At dawn today, coast guardsmen from Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee were to resume their mournful task of combing the lake for the other forty-five sailors, who had followed a doughty old captain down to the sea, and met death in the grip of a vicious gale. All the remaining facts that may ever be known about the sinking of the Milwaukee may be forthcoming during this early morning expedition. Coast guardsmen expect that most of the bodies will dot the immediate area, and that the recovery work will be quickly completed. But the dramatic story of the actual events leading up to the sinking – the courage of stout-hearted old "bad-weather McKay," the brave battle of the crew against overpowering odds, the frantic efforts to launch lifeboats – seems destined to remain locked in the bosom of Lake Michigan. The bodies of Capt. McKay and his purser, A. Richard Sadon, Grand Haven, were identified at Kenosha late Thursday night by Sadon’s brother, Frank, also a seafarer, who had safely made the voyage to Milwaukee on the railcar ferry Grand Haven on Tuesday – the day on which the Milwaukee went down. Of his brother’s identity Sadon was certain, and he furnished proof that the other body was that of skipper McKay. “I’ve known that grand old sea dog for years,” he said. “Take a look inside his mouth – he’s got a gold tooth.” The gold tooth was found, and it was determined beyond a doubt the Capt. McKay had gone down with his ship. Two more bodies, recovered earlier in the day by the Steel Chemist, were taken to Chicago. A fifth, the last to be picked up Thursday, was brought to Milwaukee by the Albert Gary. Capt. S.O. Christiansen, master of the Gary, sighted the body floating fourteen miles south of Kenosha at 7:30 p. m. Like the others, it was encased in a life belt. He picked up the body, and delivered it onto the tug Welcome at the Milwaukee harbor entrance. The body was dressed only in blue overalls and underwear, indicating the man had been a stoker, or otherwise employed where the heat was oppressive. Exhausted from directing a frantic all-day search, Capt. Kristofferson told a thrilling story of his efforts when he put into Kenosha Thursday night. He and his crew, in a 35-foot boat, sixteen miles south of Kenosha, came upon the Cetus, a Steel Trust Company ship. The captain of the Cetus informed him that his ship had passed a body in a life belt only a short distance away. The coast-guard boat, following his directions, soon came upon this body and another. Mist and a rough sea made the task difficult, but after much maneuvering, the bodies were taken aboard. Meanwhile, other forms were dimly seen dotting the surface of the lake. “All about us they were hovering,” said the captain with a shudder. “Like tombstones in an ocean graveyard they were. And far away we could see bigger objects that must have been wreckage of the Milwaukee. Yet the night was coming on, and it was next to impossible to recover more of the bodies. We had to put into port.” Kristofferson said the bodies probably would remain near the area, because the water, while rough, was not showing a definite trend in any direction, and the wind was slight. Capt. Kincaide, reporting to his post here, said he had found nothing to indicate the fate of the ship. He said he planned to leave Muskegon early Friday and return by a circuitous route that will take in territory that the Milwaukee might have traversed had it been blown out of its course. Meanwhile, preparations were under way in Milwaukee for an investigation into the cause of the disaster. Capt. Charles E. McLaren, marine superintendent for the Grand Trunk Fleet, said his company welcomed any investigation. “My company would not knowingly take any risks with the lives of its employees or with its property.” It was said by marine men that the Grand Trunk’s policy is to permit the captain of each ship to determine whether conditions make a scheduled voyage advisable. Capt. McKay had sailed the lakes for fifty years. The Milwaukee, built in Cleveland in 1903, had recently been overhauled and was generally considered seaworthy. The steel-built ship, which carried twenty-seven freight cars on four tracks on its main deck, was of 2,933 gross tons, 338 feet long and 56 feet beam. It formerly was known as the Manistique, Marquette and Northern No. 1. The name was changed when the Grand Trunk Railroad acquired the vessel. Vessel May Have Turned Back Although the Milwaukee was thirty-six hours overdue at midnight Wednesday, Capt. McLaren refused to concede that the ship had gone down, until Capt. Hayward of the steamer Colonel reported that his vessel had plowed through a mass of wreckage off the Wind Point Lighthouse, north of Racine. Even then all hope was not abandoned until shortly after 1 p.m., when Steel Chemist radioed the following dispatch: "Picked up two bodies of seamen, eleven miles off Kenosha. Both wore life belts from the Milwaukee. The watch on one body had stopped at 9:35. Sailing east.” The time on the seaman’s watch indicated that the doughty captain, known among marine men as the “bad-weather skipper,” had taken his ship through the terrific gale for about seven hours. This gave rise to the belief that Capt. McKay may have given up the struggle and decided to turn back, and that his ship was probably caught in the trough of the waves. Airplanes played a part in the nerve-wracking search for the Milwaukee. Most were sent out by newspapers. |