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The Gales of NovemberErik Jensen While I was looking for information on the wreck of the Metropolis (the schooner wreck between Old Mission and the lighthouse, which sank November 24 th , 1886) I ran across many announcements and stories of other shipwrecks in the area. Here is a story I found in the Grand Traverse Herald of November 25 th , 1886 and the incidents described happened only one week before the Metropolis wreck.. To preface, this listing is from the Elk Rapids Progress dated November 25, 1886: “During the storm last week Wednesday and Thursday thirty vessels were wrecked on the lakes. 37 lives lost and $724,100 of property destroyed”. Such notices were not rare in the fall papers in this area. I believe this story provides a good picture of how harsh the sailing life could be. As over 7,000 sailing ships have been wrecked on the great lakes since the first ship sailed in about 1640, I imagine there were many stories similar to this. There are several spelling and grammatical errors in the text of the original article. I leave them as I found them. — Erik Wreck and Disaster at Frankfort. (from the Grand Traverse Herald, Nov 25, 1886) As darkness set in it was concluded that she was doomed. A telegram was sent to the life saving station at Manistee for a tug. The reply was that it was impossible for a tug to live in such a sea. Efforts were then made to get teams to go to the Point Betsy life saving station six miles north of here, but none could be had for love or money. At last, driven to desperation, two volunteers, Albert Vorce and Chas Burmeister, took a span of ponies by force and started to go through the blinding storm to the life saving station at Point Betsy, reaching there a few hours later. Keeper Matthews at once sent surfman No.1 to a farmer living near by for a team, but he heartlessly refused to the request. The little ponies and a horse belonging to the light keeper and surfman dragged the wrecking apparatus over steep hills, and through ravines, reaching Frankfort at midnight. The horses were exhausted and ready to drop. Keeper Matthews and his surfman and the volunteers started for the scene of the wreck with a fresh team, while another was sent back to the station for the historical life car that saved the schooner Hartzell’s crew. They arrived at the scene of the disaster at Herring Creek at 4 o’clock a.m. Capt. Matthews says the scene that met his eyes beggars description. The vessel was broken up and with the cargo was piled up on the beach, a complete wreck. Broken masts, shrouds, lumber are heaped together in a chaotic mass. He thinks she must have had her anchor down and pounded to pieces on the outer bar. A body, that of a man about 30 years old, with black hair, sandy mustache and wearing rubber boots and oilskin clothes, was found. In the pocket of his cardigan jacket a letter bearing the address “Wm. Laury, 131 Madison street, Chicago,” was found. His arm was badly jammed and his hands lacerated. A large dog was found beside the body still alive. The faithful animal moaned as he caught sight of the new comers and died soon after. The vessel’s yawl, with her name, “Menekaunee,” painted on her stern, was found uninjured nearby. It is thought she had a crew of nine men. She broke up as soon as she struck. Information came that another wreck had been discovered about two miles south. Arriving there the same scenes of chaotic wreckage was discovered. The stern and part of the vessel’s bows, painted red and bearing the name “Marinette, of Racine,” showed that she also was a victim of the great gale. Her cargo consisted of bill stuff, car-sills 11 and timber. The relief party went to the house of A. Mortenson, a farmer, where a bruised and battered sailor, from whose hands the flesh hung in strips, lay on a cot. His feet were badly swollen and he is the sole survivor of the wreck. He is C.W. Annis, of Port Huron, and he shipped before the mast, this being his first trip. He says: “We loaded at Oscoda with lumber for Geo. H. Loud, the owner of the lost vessel and left for Chicago Sunday, the tow consisting of the steam barge Manistique and the schooners Marinette and Menekaunee. We met with heavy weather on Lake Huron and were driven to Presque isle for shelter. “We then left and made a fair passage of Lake Michigan, passing Frankfort Wednesday noon, with the wind northeast, blowing a gale, accompanied by rain and snow. At midnight, while abreast of Ludington and about six miles out, the gale increased to almost a hurricane. The barge reached for the Wisconsin shore, and made Two Rivers Light, but could fetch nothing. “At daylight the Manistique squared away for the Manitou Islands to escape the fury of the storm. The tow broke up at 2:30 a.m. about twenty miles off Manistique and the steamer left us to our fate. We signaled to her to stay by us, but she steamed away and was soon lost to sight in a snow squall which came on them. The Marinette pitched and rolled terribly, so that we could scarcely remain standing. She unshipped her rudder, becoming unmanageable, and then sprung a leak and waterlogged. She rolled her deck load off, both rails and bulwarks being carried away with it…” At daylight the Manistique squared away for the Manitou Islands to escape the fury of the storm. The tow broke up at 2:30 a.m. about twenty miles off Manistique and the steamer left us to our fate. We signaled to her to stay by us, but she steamed away and was soon lost to sight in a snow squall which came on them. The Marinette pitched and rolled terribly, so that we could scarcely remain standing. She unshipped her rudder, becoming unmanageable, and then sprung a leak and waterlogged. She rolled her deck load off, both rails and bulwarks being carried away with it. Then she rolled her mainmast out, and in falling it took the foremast and mizzenhead. “We saw the Menekaunce drifting apparently near us all day. She displayed no signals of distress, while we tied our colors to the mast. We sighted land during the afternoon, which the mate said was Frankfort. We were huddled in the cabin, where we built a temporary floor over the water. The captain, a Chicago man – I do not know his name, but he was about fifty years old was washed overboard and drowned at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We lowered the yawl at 5 o’clock and attempted to reach land, but in lowering we sprang a leak, rendering the craft useless, and we cast her adrift. “At 10:30 the Marinette struck the beach broadside and swung head to. We rushed out of the cabin and the crew, eight in all, huddled under the lee of the cabin, clinging to timber heads. I took to the mizzen rigging, the stewardess, Mary, clinging to me and crying pietously,”Save me, oh save me!” I helped her up into the shrouds and clung to her while I sought to fasten her to the rigging. She could not stand the cold and suddenly let go her hold and fell down across me, nearly carrying me with her, and fell into the boiling sea beneath us. Her daughter Minnie, or pet, never left the cabin, and was drowned there. She was 13 years old. “Clinging to the rigging with me were ‘French John,’ and Wm. Cumfrey. Soon the mast fell across the cabin. We then clung to the davits on her stern, the seas dashing over us. The others of the crew I think washed overboard one after the other.. At 1 o’clock Cumfrey and ‘French John’ said they would try to reach the shore. The schooner’s deck had broken off and the lumber in her hold was washing out at every wave. They each took a plank and I watched them as they neared the shore. I shouted, ‘how do you get along?’ The answer came, ‘all right.’ Then all was silent. A heavy sea swept over the wreck, carrying me along. I grappled a small piece of deck plank, and after a terrible experience, was flung upon the shore. I crawled to this house and its occupants took care of me. Our crew consisted of the captain, William Cumfrey, ‘French John’ of Alpena, C.W. Annis, a Norwegian from Capetown, Norway, the cook Mary and her daughter Minnie, from Port Huron, and a man named John. “I think the Menekaunee was waterlogged, as we did not see her after it grew dark. She had a crew of seven, Capt. Cox, the mate Dan Wheeler, two other young men, the cook John, and John Cotton and Mike Johnson, of Port Huron. I think the body is that of John Cotton, a married man, who lives at Port Huron.” Grand Traverse Herald: Dec 2 Edition Frankfort, November 21. The shore near Herring lake was crowded today with a force of men engaged in overhauling the wreckage in search of bodies. Thus far only one has been found. It is supposed to be that of Wm. Conners, of Sand Beach, leaving thirteen yet to be recovered. Survivor Chas. Annis and Mrs. Martinson insist that they saw a small steam barge founder. The tug Rawson has been cruising along the beach during the day with grappling hooks, but found nothing to verify the statement. Grand Traverse Herald: Dec 9, Edition. Sullivan and Comfrey, after making further search of the beach, went to the house of Axtell with a team for the bodies, that they might ship them to the relatives in Port Huron. The old man said he had held the inquest, and that the bodies were in his corncrib. On going to his corncrib the old man threw open the door, when a sickening and frightful sight met the gaze of Sullivan and Comfrey. There, frozen stiff and without a thread of clothing, lay the body of John Davidson, while the body of Waters was clad only in an old pair of pants and a jacket. The bodies had been robbed again, this time of the garments the brave fellows perished in on the eventful night of Nov. 18. On arriving at Frankfort Sullivan swore out a warrant for the arrest of Axtell, for robbing the dead, and he was arrested this week. Several warrants are out for the arrest of other parties who have made it a business to scour the shores in the vicinity of the wreck and steal everything valuable that came ashore. Information about the ships mentioned above, from a website that details great lakes shipwrecks. Menekaunee Marinette Hattie B. Pereue (Probably not the wreck mentioned in the article) |