Surviving The Death Storm On Lake Erie
From my book Terrifying Steamboat Stories
The story is a paradox. The steamer Wocoken was lost because the gale that blew on the night of October 14, 1893, used the shallow waters of Lake Erie to make waves with enough power to tear the ship apart. Yet the three men who survived the wreck lived because the vessel sank upright in the shallow water, with her masts and rigging suspended above the water.
Thus it was that second mate J. P. Saph of Marine City, Michigan, wheelman J. H. Rice of Cleveland, and seaman Robert Crowding of Delaware were still alive when the storm abated the next day and Ontario lifesavers came from Port Huron to rescue them. Saph said fourteen other shipmates apparently were swept overboard by a large wave while they were trying to launch lifeboats.
The Wocoken was one of an estimated forty vessels left wrecked or stranded after the storm finished its dirty work. At least sixty people were killed. The steamer, commanded by Capt. Albert Meswald of Marine City, was bound from Ashtabula, New York, to Milwaukee, with eighteen hundred tons of coal. She stopped at Erie, Pennsylvania, to pick up the barge Joseph Paige, and the two boats were on their way across Lake Erie, bound for the Detroit River.
The storm developed quickly while the vessels were about in the middle of the lake. It came up so fast and blew with such fury that Meswald decided to steam north and try to reach the lee side of Long Point, a natural projection of land that extends into Lake Erie from the Canadian coast. But the Wocoken did not weather the storm well. The waves pounded her with such force the boat’s windows were smashed, the railings torn away and even the heavy wooden hatches started breaking loose.
Meswald knew his boat was in serious trouble. He ordered the Paige cut free so the steamer could use all its power to battle the storm. The Paige hoisted sail and scampered before the wind to the west end of Long Point, where it anchored and rode out the gale. The Wocoken didn’t make it. Some of the hatches were torn away and after that the seas quickly filled with holds as they swept the deck.
Meswald gave the order to abandon ship about 10:00 PM. The crew was busy launching lifeboats when the boat was hit with a giant wave that swept Meswald, his wife, Sarah, and twelve other sailors overboard. The wave also sank the boat. After the wave passed, only Saph, Rich and Crowding were left alive. They clawed their way to the ship’s rigging and then hung on until help came.
The Wocoken sank about two miles off the tip of Long Point in forty-eight feet of water. The fish tug Bacon later found four lifeboats with the Wocoken’s name on them, plus the bodies of two sailors wearing life preservers. They were strewn amidst “miles of wreckage,” news reports stated. Also killed were David Jones, first mate, of Cleveland; chief engineer Michael Hinkelman, second engineer Matthew Hasler, firemen George Smith and John Hinkelman, steward Charles Minard, watchmen Henry Cranch and Edmund Eldridge, wheelman William Eachl and deck hand Michael Kennedy, all of Marine City.
From my book Terrifying Steamboat Stories
The story is a paradox. The steamer Wocoken was lost because the gale that blew on the night of October 14, 1893, used the shallow waters of Lake Erie to make waves with enough power to tear the ship apart. Yet the three men who survived the wreck lived because the vessel sank upright in the shallow water, with her masts and rigging suspended above the water.
Thus it was that second mate J. P. Saph of Marine City, Michigan, wheelman J. H. Rice of Cleveland, and seaman Robert Crowding of Delaware were still alive when the storm abated the next day and Ontario lifesavers came from Port Huron to rescue them. Saph said fourteen other shipmates apparently were swept overboard by a large wave while they were trying to launch lifeboats.
The Wocoken was one of an estimated forty vessels left wrecked or stranded after the storm finished its dirty work. At least sixty people were killed. The steamer, commanded by Capt. Albert Meswald of Marine City, was bound from Ashtabula, New York, to Milwaukee, with eighteen hundred tons of coal. She stopped at Erie, Pennsylvania, to pick up the barge Joseph Paige, and the two boats were on their way across Lake Erie, bound for the Detroit River.
The storm developed quickly while the vessels were about in the middle of the lake. It came up so fast and blew with such fury that Meswald decided to steam north and try to reach the lee side of Long Point, a natural projection of land that extends into Lake Erie from the Canadian coast. But the Wocoken did not weather the storm well. The waves pounded her with such force the boat’s windows were smashed, the railings torn away and even the heavy wooden hatches started breaking loose.
Meswald knew his boat was in serious trouble. He ordered the Paige cut free so the steamer could use all its power to battle the storm. The Paige hoisted sail and scampered before the wind to the west end of Long Point, where it anchored and rode out the gale. The Wocoken didn’t make it. Some of the hatches were torn away and after that the seas quickly filled with holds as they swept the deck.
Meswald gave the order to abandon ship about 10:00 PM. The crew was busy launching lifeboats when the boat was hit with a giant wave that swept Meswald, his wife, Sarah, and twelve other sailors overboard. The wave also sank the boat. After the wave passed, only Saph, Rich and Crowding were left alive. They clawed their way to the ship’s rigging and then hung on until help came.
The Wocoken sank about two miles off the tip of Long Point in forty-eight feet of water. The fish tug Bacon later found four lifeboats with the Wocoken’s name on them, plus the bodies of two sailors wearing life preservers. They were strewn amidst “miles of wreckage,” news reports stated. Also killed were David Jones, first mate, of Cleveland; chief engineer Michael Hinkelman, second engineer Matthew Hasler, firemen George Smith and John Hinkelman, steward Charles Minard, watchmen Henry Cranch and Edmund Eldridge, wheelman William Eachl and deck hand Michael Kennedy, all of Marine City.