During the light of the next day the weather began to abate, and ships began leaving their protective anchorages for their ports of destination. Farmyard fences and barns all around Leelanau County were laid flat by the fearsome winds. The audience attending a political rally at the Traverse City Opera House could not hear the brass band performing over the din of the storm outside. As the rocks gored the sailing vessels hull, its cargo of 2,300 barrels of oat spilled out onto the beaches along the Glen Arbor coastline. On a rocky shoal near what is now The Homestead resort the schooner Flying Cloud lay stricken.
At Glen Haven, barrels of cranberries sitting on the big dock washed into the bay. The intensity of the storm peaked in the late afternoon and early evening. Somewhere in the ragged, black expanse Gilcher, with its crew of 22 men plowed on. South Manitou Harbor was crowded with storm-beaten vessels weathering at anchor or aground. Other ships were seeking shelter as the intensity of the storm increased. The Gilcher was the finest vessel lake’s technology could produce, and she was loaded ideally for heavy weather, unlike her lost sister, which had been devoid of cargo and was carrying water ballast only. Weeks, veteran master of the Gilcher, had no doubts as to the integrity of his vessel. Fully laden with coal and making headway for Milwaukee, Capt. Gilcher passed through the Straits of Mackinaw on to a storm- swept Lake Michigan. However, no flaws were to be found in the design or construction of the ship.Īt 2:20 p.m., October 28, while public debate on the Western Reserves sinking continued, W.H. Harsh and bitter criticism was soon directed to the owners and builders of the Western Reserve, and investigations were begun into the safety of steel ship and lifeboat construction. Bodies from the lost ship began to wash ashore, the Deer Point Lifesaving men burying them above the wilderness beach in” lone graves with a simple prayer. The lone survivor struggled ten miles along the desolate and uninhabited Lake Superior coast to reach the Deer Park Lifesaving Station, and there, news of the tragedy was learned. The 19 occupants of the lifeboat bailed and drifted before the blackened sea for 10 hours, when within a mile of shore, a wave suddenly capsized the boat and all but one man drowned. When the yawl capsized the lifeboat picked up two survivors. Two lifeboats cleared, a wooden boat with the owner, his family and some crew, and a metallic yawl with the others. Forward of the spar, there appeared a break in the deck, groaning and widening with the passing of each wave. that evening a sudden jolt shuddered through the hull and the mainmast crashed to the deck. In addition to her regular crew, the owner, his family, guests and the captain’s sons were aboard. The Gilcher almost at once captured the grain-carrying record by transporting 1 13,885 bushels of wheat from Chicago to Buffalo.Īugust 30 of 1892 found the Western Reserve upbound, bucking a summer gale on Lake Superior. They met their owners’ fondest expectations for speed and efficiency. The two vessels had different owners and slightly different construction details, but were considered sister ships. Longer than a football field, they were among the largest ships of their time. These ships’ 300-foot hulls were of steel, not iron. 1890 saw the construction of the Western Reserve and W.H. Despite doubts and grim predictions, the first iron- hulled carrier, the Onoko of 1882, proved a great success. One advent greeted with great skepticism was the use of iron and steel as hull materials.
The 1880s and 1890s saw many revolutions in ship design and construction on the Great Lakes. The ship lies still undiscovered in the cold dark waters and the mysteries of its loss remain unresolved.
#EDMUND FITZGERALD LIFEBOAT CRACK#
How could one of the largest vessels, using modern technology, simply vanish with all on board? Leelanau County experienced its own version of the Edmund Fitzgerald story in the 1890s, when the largest and most technologically advanced ship of its time “sailed through a crack in the lake” off the Leelanau coast. The loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald shocked the entire Great Lakes Community. Ship lost with all hands near the Manitou Islands