... and collecting stories of survival (updated)
Recently, I read of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum's success in finding lost wrecks. An article explained the museum is seeking contact with descendants of those who perished. However, no listing of names was provided and there is no cemetery for these shipwrecks on FindAGrave, so the society is relying on the local news piece to get the word out to people who already know about their connection to the wreck. While they might connect with some people in the area, realistically, most of those directly linked to these hundred-year old tragedies are living further away. A significant portion of descendants won't even know their ancestors were involved.
There are over six thousand known shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, starting with the Griffon of 1697. The most famous is the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank with twenty-nine crew in 1975 and was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot the following year. Over the decades, I've discovered several people I could not trace in vital registrations appeared in newspaper searches, having drowned in the lakes or nearby waters. Anyone researching family in the provinces and states surrounding the lakes is probably going to find a maritime tragedy somewhere on their tree.
Here are the ten most deadly Great Lakes shipwrecks and following the list, some observations on what can be done to commemorate these tragedies and connect people to their stories:
1. SS Eastland, 844 passengers and four crew lost on 24 July 1915
Not always considered a Great Lakes shipwreck as this disaster occurred while the ship was docked in the mouth of the Chicago river. Nevertheless it was chartered to travel across Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Indiana, for a corporate picnic and, without question, constitutes the largest loss of life in any maritime disaster associated with the Great Lakes. About as many passengers died on the Eastland as the RMS Titanic (the later also losing almost seven hundred crew). In a cruel twist of fate, the ship rolled when lifeboats were added in the wake of the Titanic disaster and the extra weight exacerbated its top-heavy design. User DM47 has done excellent work to create a virtual cemetery on FindAGrave of over 800 who lost their lives. (See Wikipedia)
2. PS Lady Elgin, about 300 lives lost on 8 September 1860
A sidewheel palace steamship rammed by a schooner in Lake Michigan, this maritime disaster led to rules requiring running lights. The passenger manifest was lost with the ship, but Elgin is considered the greatest loss of life on open water, in a single-ship disaster, on the lakes. There are a couple of people attempting to compile virtual cemeteries for this disaster on FindAGrave. (See Wikipedia)
3. SS G.P. Griffith, at least 241, and perhaps 289, lives lost on 17 June 1850
Carrying over three-hundred people, mostly immigrants from England, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia, in the early morning a fire started in the smoke stacks and was fanned by the momentum of the ship as the captain attempted to reach shore. Unfortunately, she struck a sandbar and the ensuing panic as the fire progressed caused many to drown in the attempt to get to land. Not a woman or child was saved except for the wife of the ship's barber. The ship's records were destroyed in the fire and only about twenty-five dead could be identified at the time. The recovered unidentified were buried in a mass grave on the beach near Willowick, Ohio, which has since been reclaimed by Lake Erie. The wrecksite.eu website has identified 123 people who were aboard, including the twenty-five known deceased. (See also Wikipedia)
4. SS Phoenix, 190-247 lives lost on 21 November 1847
Carrying mostly Dutch immigrants, Phoenix departed Buffalo for Chicago with about 275 passengers and 25 crew, and shortly afterwards the captain fell, injuring a knee. The first mate took over command of the ship in bad weather. A fireman reported boiler pumps were not working properly but his concerns were ignored by the adjusted chain of command. In the early morning hours a fire started in the engine room and it quickly spread out of control. With only two lifeboats, a near-maximum capacity of thirty-nine people were evacuated, rowing five miles to shore. Exhausted, the boats could not return in time to rescue more, and as the ship burned, people died from the fire or from hypothermia in the frigid November water. Rescue ships moved towards the fire but only arrived in time to find three survivors. Wisconsin Maritime Museum reportedly has a 1693 Dutch Bible which washed ashore shortly after the disaster. The ship owners claimed no more than 190 died but the ship's clerk put the number closer to 250. (See Wikipedia)
5. SS Noronic, at least 119 lives lost on 14 September 1949
The SS Noronic was a 600-passenger cruise ship unfortunately fated for yet another Great Lakes dockside disaster. This time it happened in Toronto harbor on Lake Ontario, where the Noronic burst into flames in the early morning while passengers slept and much of the crew was off the ship visiting friends and relatives in the city. Most died from smoke inhalation, burning, falling, or crushing injuries as they tried to escape the ship while only four people actually drowned after jumping overboard in desperation. This disaster saw the first use of forensic dentistry to identify victims. It also marked the end of the cruise ship industry on the lakes for more than seventy years. (See Wikipedia)
Inspired by DM47's work creating a virtual cemetery for the Eastland, and considering this year is the 75th anniversary of the disaster, I created a virtual cemetery for SS Noronic on FindAGrave. (Given the excellent day-specific search available on Ancestry, running a search for everyone who died on 17 September 1949 (exact to year) in Toronto was not difficult, and all but 16 already had a memorial on FindAGrave).
6. HMS Ontario, approximately 80 people lost on 31 October 1780
Built in 1780 on Carleton Island in the St. Lawrence, she sank in a storm while underway from Fort Niagara to Oswego in Lake Ontario. "Approximately 80 men perished with the ship, comprising an estimated 31 sailors (two of whom were officers), three members of the Royal Artillery (one being an officer), three privates and one officer of the 8th (King's) Regiment of Foot, 30 men of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot (one being an officer, two serjeants, one corporal, one drummer and 30 privates), two rangers, one passenger and four Native Americans" (Wikipedia). The fully-intact and well-preserved wreck was discovered in 2008 and is the oldest wreck in the lakes found to date.
7. PS Alpena, 60-80 people lost on 15 October 1880
Unfortunately, after a promising start to the voyage, the Alpena sailed into the “worst gale in Lake Michigan recorded history,” a storm also known to history as "The Big Blow." Carrying passengers and cargo, it went down with the loss of everyone aboard and a debris field stretching twenty miles. The main wreck has not been located. The only passenger list was aboard the vessel. (See Wikipedia and michiganshipwrecks.org where enthusiasts and descendants are actively investigating who was aboard.)
8. Niagara, more than 60 lost on September 23, 1856
Niagara, another palace steamer, caught fire and sank in Lake Michigan in 1856, taking the lives of more than sixty, including a former congressman. However, nearby boats were able to effect a rescue of many aboard and it is likely many families have stories of surviving this disaster. No online commemoration appears to exist. (See Wikipedia)
9. Northern Indiana, 56 lives lost on 17 July 1856
Transiting Lake Erie from Buffalo to Toledo, she caught fire mid-morning while under the charge of the first mate. Many were able to survive by jumping into the summer waters and waiting for rescue ships. The passenger list was lost with the boat but bodies were recovered from the lake for several weeks (unlike the cold deep of Lake Superior, shallow Lake Erie usually gives up its dead). Northern Indiana is the shipwreck on this list with the least amount of online content and commemoration.
10. SS Algoma, 48 lives lost on 7 November 1885
The worst loss of life on Lake Superior, Algoma was designed to accommodate 240 first class passengers and 500 in steerage and was built in 1883 for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to run between Thunder Bay on Lake Superior and Owen Sound on Lake Huron. Built in Glasgow, it was too big to go through the Welland Canal in Niagara and had to be cut in two, sent through the canal on pontoons and then reassembled in Buffalo. By some miracle, when it departed Owen Sound on November 5th a year later, only 37 passengers were aboard, the fewest ever (it was late in the season and a rail route around Lake Superior had just opened). On November 7th, it ran aground in a snowstorm and pounding waves split the ship in two. The bow section drifted away and many of the passengers and crew were swept into the frigid breakwater. Three people made it to shore and eleven survived by staying in the stern section until making shore on Isle Royale the next day after the storm abated. Only two of the survivors were passengers. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and I have created a work-in-progress cemetery at FindAGrave, using 2009 research posted on rootsweb by Barbara Lewellen.
My experience with Ontario death registrations of this period is that they are unlikely to offer a complete and easy-to-access register of victims of Algoma, unlike the situation with Noronic in 1949. Additionally, some of the bodies may have been recovered on the American side. (See Wikipedia.)
Notable mention: Great Lakes Storm of 1913, loss of about 250 lives from 7-9 November
Also known in local lore as the "Big Blow," the "Freshwater Fury," and the "White Hurricane" this storm wreaked havoc for three days and ultimately sank ships on four of the five lakes on November 9th, leading to the loss of approximately 250 lives. While there do not appear to be any FindAGrave virtual cemeteries for this event, several who lost their lives have memorials mentioning it, which come up in Google searches. Those who lost their lives were on: Isaac M. Scott, Charles S. Price, John A. McGean, Argus, Hydrus, Henry B. Smith, James Carruthers, Regina, Wexford, Leafield, Plymouth, LV-82 Buffalo. (See Wikipedia)
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Domestic shipwrecks like these are less documented than international events accompanied by customs and immigration paperwork. In the list above, the three 20th-century events are much better recorded than those in the century before, exactly in parallel with generally improved government recordkeeping. Of the other seven, much less is currently known of the earlier events. However, it would be a mistake to assume it is impossible to reconstruct near-complete lists of the dead or identify many survivors, for two reasons:
Firstly, we now have advanced newspaper searching of huge tranches of publications around the world. Many local historical societies and maritime enthusiasts previously scoured newspapers in the vicinity of these disasters, collecting what information they could. However, enhanced global search capabilities offer more. These disasters involve travelers, and names and details of victims were often reported in local press in their home communities. Using the ship name and date of wreck, and perhaps a partial name if available, obituaries, burial notices and other content can often be found, further developing the story.
Secondly, we now have the means, via FindAGrave and online trees, to permanently record family lore about relatives involved in historical disasters. If you were told of such an ancestor -- even if you don't have good details -- add the information you know to as many online trees as you can. Eventually, you could link up with a maritime enthusiast who can use their knowledge and expertise to help you fill in the details, while you are helping them investigate and commemorate what happened. I was impressed by those working on the PS Alpena at michiganshipwrecks.org, as they are successfully doing just that.
