Erie Horror Story
By James Donahue
Chief engineer A. Welch’s story of survival aboard the burning freighter Clarion was enough to send a cold chill down the spine of the most hardened Great Lakes sailor. Welch and five other men found themselves trapped aboard the burning boat, in the night, with a serious winter gale blowing, in the middle of Lake Erie, and without a lifeboat.
It happened the night of December 8, 1909. Welch told of leading his small band of men in a four-hour fight for their lives, and successfully holding back the flames until the steamer L. C Hanna came alongside. “The intense heat had driven us to about the limit of endurance when we were rescued,” he said. The other men, identified as second engineer John Graham, firemen Harry Murray, Theodore Larson and Joseph Baker, and cook Michael Toomey, praised Welch for his leadership during the crisis.
Cap. Thomas Bell and another fourteen members of the boat’s crew perished. First mate James Thompson died when he went below to investigate the fire and was asphyxiated by the thick smoke. Another crew member, identified only as McAuley, fell overboard and drowned while trying to launch the aft lifeboat. The boat was swamped and sunk by a large wave. Thirteen other men got away in the steamer’s forward lifeboat, but then drowned when the boat capsized in the stormy seas.
The fire broke out somewhere below deck, on the seventeen-hundred-ton iron steamer when it was off Point Pelee, not far from the mouth of the Detroit River. The vessel was making what was to have been its last trip of the season, from Chicago to Buffalo, with a cargo of flour, corn and other goods. Plans were to lay up at Erie for the winter.
Welch said the cause and the source of the fire were never known. He said he saw Thompson run below moments after the fire alarm was sounded, but never returned. “He must have been overcome by the smoke, which soon began to roll out of the hatchways in dense volumes. The fire spread so quickly that there was no time to affect a rescue. In an incredibly short time, the hold was a seething mass of flames and the boat, owing to the loss of her steering, was completely out of hand.
“We saw Captain Bell and the forward crew launching the big metallic lifeboat and we turned to the light wooden boat in the davits aft. Her lines were coated with ice, and long before we got them clear Captain Bell and the other members of the crew succeeded in getting away.” After the unsuccessful launch of the aft lifeboat and McAuley’s fatal plunge, Welch said the men still on the burning vessel found themselves in a desperate situation. “There we were, with a roaring furnace beneath our feet and without a boat, even if one could live in such a sea,” he said.
The six survivors huddled at the stern of the blazing boat, believing that they were about to perish. But the light from the fire attracted the Hanna, which arrived in the nick of time. The Clarion burned until it sank somewhere off Southeast Shoal.
By James Donahue
Chief engineer A. Welch’s story of survival aboard the burning freighter Clarion was enough to send a cold chill down the spine of the most hardened Great Lakes sailor. Welch and five other men found themselves trapped aboard the burning boat, in the night, with a serious winter gale blowing, in the middle of Lake Erie, and without a lifeboat.
It happened the night of December 8, 1909. Welch told of leading his small band of men in a four-hour fight for their lives, and successfully holding back the flames until the steamer L. C Hanna came alongside. “The intense heat had driven us to about the limit of endurance when we were rescued,” he said. The other men, identified as second engineer John Graham, firemen Harry Murray, Theodore Larson and Joseph Baker, and cook Michael Toomey, praised Welch for his leadership during the crisis.
Cap. Thomas Bell and another fourteen members of the boat’s crew perished. First mate James Thompson died when he went below to investigate the fire and was asphyxiated by the thick smoke. Another crew member, identified only as McAuley, fell overboard and drowned while trying to launch the aft lifeboat. The boat was swamped and sunk by a large wave. Thirteen other men got away in the steamer’s forward lifeboat, but then drowned when the boat capsized in the stormy seas.
The fire broke out somewhere below deck, on the seventeen-hundred-ton iron steamer when it was off Point Pelee, not far from the mouth of the Detroit River. The vessel was making what was to have been its last trip of the season, from Chicago to Buffalo, with a cargo of flour, corn and other goods. Plans were to lay up at Erie for the winter.
Welch said the cause and the source of the fire were never known. He said he saw Thompson run below moments after the fire alarm was sounded, but never returned. “He must have been overcome by the smoke, which soon began to roll out of the hatchways in dense volumes. The fire spread so quickly that there was no time to affect a rescue. In an incredibly short time, the hold was a seething mass of flames and the boat, owing to the loss of her steering, was completely out of hand.
“We saw Captain Bell and the forward crew launching the big metallic lifeboat and we turned to the light wooden boat in the davits aft. Her lines were coated with ice, and long before we got them clear Captain Bell and the other members of the crew succeeded in getting away.” After the unsuccessful launch of the aft lifeboat and McAuley’s fatal plunge, Welch said the men still on the burning vessel found themselves in a desperate situation. “There we were, with a roaring furnace beneath our feet and without a boat, even if one could live in such a sea,” he said.
The six survivors huddled at the stern of the blazing boat, believing that they were about to perish. But the light from the fire attracted the Hanna, which arrived in the nick of time. The Clarion burned until it sank somewhere off Southeast Shoal.