1887 — Oct 29, loaded steamer Vernon sinks, Lake Michigan storm, off Two Rivers, WI–41-49

–41-49 Blanchard estimated death-toll range.*

— 50 Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events, October, 1887,” p. 95.
–40-50 NYT. “The Vernon Disaster…Survivor Picked Up…Clinging to a Raft,” 11-2-1887, p.1.
— 49 Eau Claire Daily Free Press, WI. “All Lost But One,” 11-3-1887, p. 1.
— 49 McNeil. “Vernon (Propeller), sunk, 29 Oct 1887.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes.
— 44 Wakefield Bulletin, MI. “Gives Up Its Dead…Bodies from…Vernon…,” 11-10-1887, 7.
— 41 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 266.
— 41 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 689.
— 41 Steamboat Inspection Service. Report of the Supervising Inspector-General… 1888, 18.
–25 crew
–16 passengers
–36-41 Shelak, Benjamin J. Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan. 2003, pp. 61-62.
–36-41 Swayze. Shipwreck! A…Directory of …Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. 1992, p. 238.
— 41 US Life-Saving Service. Annual Report…Ending FY June 30, 1888. 1889, p. 431.
— 40 Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. “Monthly Record…Events,” V76/N452, 1888, 322.
–30-40 Logansport Pharos (IN). “Wreck…Vernon…Thirty…Forty Lives,” 31 Oct 1887, 1.
— 36 Mansfield. History of the Great Lakes, Vol. I. 1899, pp. 747-748.
— 36 New York Times. “The Wreck of the Vernon,” Nov 1, 1887, p. 1.
— 30 Syracuse Daily Standard, NY. “Loss of the Vernon,” Oct 31, 1887, p. 1, col. 3.

*Blanchard estimated death-toll range. We cite sources which report a range of 30 to 50 deaths. Given that there was no roster, that passengers came onboard at several stops, and that there was only one survivor to try to guestimate the number of people onboard, we feel the need to rely on a range of deaths. For the low-end of our estimated death-toll range, we choose the number 41 reported by the U.S. Life Saving Service as well as the Steamboat Inspection Service (US), as well as by other sources. For the high end of our estimated death toll range we choose to use the number of people thought to have lost their lives (49) by the lone survivor. McNeil, on the Maritime History of the Great Lakes website, also reports 49 deaths. The Philadelphia Record Almanac of 1888 reports fifty deaths, but this strikes us as an approximation or simply using the high end of the range of 40-50 deaths reported by the New York Times on Nov 2.

Narrative Information

Berman: “Vernon. Steamer. Oct 29 1887 [date of loss]. Foundered. Lake Michigan, 41 lives lost.” (Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 266.)

Harper’s Monthly Magazine 1888: “Disasters….October 30th.—Passenger propeller Vernon wrecked in a gale on Lake Michigan. Forty lives lost.” (Harper’s Monthly Magazine. “Monthly Record of Current Events.” Vol 76, No. 452, Jan 1888, p. 322.)

Mansfield: “Greatest Disaster of the Season. – The wreck of the passenger propeller Vernon on Lake Michigan with a crew of 22 and many passengers, October 29, involved a greater loss of life than any previous disaster during the season of 1887. She was at one time one of the finest furnished passenger boats on the lakes, and took the place on the Northern Michigan line of the steamer Champlain, burned early in the season, and was in command of Capt. George Thorpe.

“Captain Moran, of the steamer Superior, imparted the first details of the sad event. He saw three or four rafts with men clinging to them, and also a small boat containing a woman and three men. Though he made effort to rescue them, the high seas running prevented, as the Superior was herself disabled. The wreckage was scattered in all directions. Sections of the pilot house were found 18 miles apart, and a life-raft, without an occupant was picked up 12 miles northeast of Sheboygan. The entire loss of life is placed at thirty-six.

“The month of October showed an aggregate of 285 accidents and disasters on all the lakes, which was 115 more than in the same month in 1886. The loss of life during the month was 135 persons, 126 of whom were drowned from vessels.” (Mansfield. History of Great Lakes. 1899, 747-748.)

McNeil: “Vernon (Propeller), sunk, 29 Oct 1887.”
“Sunk
Lives: 49
Freight: sundries
Date of Original: 1887
….
Geographic Coverage: Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States….
Donor: William R. McNeil.”
(Maritime History of the Great Lakes (webpage).)

Nash: “1887…Oct 29. Vernon. 41 [Deaths]. The steamer foundered on Lake Michigan.” (Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters… 1977, p. 689.)

Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888: “October, 1887. ….29. –The Propeller Vernon lost on Lake Michigan, with fifty persons on board.” (Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events.” 1888, p. 95.)

Swayze: “Vernon. Wooden passenger and package freight steamer of 560 t. [tons], launched in 1886 at Chicago. Lake Michigan: This almost new steamer suffered disaster at the hands of a Lakes gale on October 25, 1887 [sic, Oct 29]. Bound from Glen Haven, Michigan, to Milwaukee with a cargo of general freight and a number of passengers, the little vessel was set upon by the storm and foundered near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Estimates of the number od dead range from 36 to 41.” (Swayze. Shipwreck! A…Directory…Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. 1992, p. 238.).

U.S. House of Representatives: “On October 28, 1887, the steamer Vernon was lost on Lake Michigan. All hands were lost with all on board, with the exception of a fireman by the name of Alfred Stone. He was picked up the next day by a schooner from a life raft.” (U.S. Congress. House Merchant Marine Committee. The Seamen’s Bill Hearings, 1914, p. 302.)

U.S. Life Saving Service. “Oct 29. Vernon…American steamer. 695 [tons]. Port Haven, Mich. [port sailed from]. Milwaukee, Wis. [port bound to]…Merchandise [Nature of cargo]. 41 [Number of lives lost.]. Lake Michigan.”

U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service: “October 29, 1887. – The steamer Vernon foundered off Two Rivers, Lake Michigan, whereby 41 lives were lost, of which 16 were passengers and 25 were officers and crew.” (Office Supervising Inspector-General, Steam-boat Inspection Service, Eighth District. Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels. “Casualties.” 1888, p. 18.)

Newspapers

Oct 30: “Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 30. – The passenger propeller Vernon was wrecked in the terrible gale that swept Lake Michigan yesterday [Oct 29], and her entire crew of twenty-two persons and the passengers, number unknown, are supposed to have been lost….” (Indianapolis Journal, IN. “Lost in a Terrible Gale. The Passenger Steamer Vernon Wrecked on Saturday Night in Lake Michigan.” 10-31-1887, p. 1, cols. 3-4.)

Oct 30: “A Lake Propeller Goes Down in a Storm With all on Board. Disaster on Lake Michigan. Thirty Lives Lost in the Wreck…

“Milwaukee, Oct. 30. – The steamship Superior arriving here last night brought the first news of the total wreck of a. large passenger propeller off Manitowoc, Wis. That the wreck is that of the propeller Vernon of the Northern Michigan line is established almost beyond a doubt. She was due here yesterday, and from a description of the fragments seen by the crew of the Superior her owners here consider her identity fully established. She had on board a crew of twenty-two men and several passengers, the exact number not being known, and it is supposed that all hands perished. Captain Moran of the Superior saw three or four rafts with men clinging to them, and also a small boat containing a woman and three men. Although he made an effort to rescue them, the high sea prevented the rendering of any assistance, the Superior being herself disabled and requiring the crew’s best efforts. It was about 10 o’clock in the morning when the first signs of the wreck, in the shape of floating cargo and furniture, were seen. About an hour later the rafts were sighted. On some the occupants were almost, gone, while others signaled the Superior.” (Syracuse Daily Standard, NY. “Loss of the Vernon,” Oct 31, 1887, p. 1, col. 3.)

Oct 31: “Chicago, Oct. 31.—The steamer Vernon, of Chicago, her entire of twenty-two persons and ten or twelve passengers, were lost in the gale off Manitowoc [WI]; Saturday morning [29th]. She was bound for Chicago with an assorted cargo, and being overloaded, was unable to cope with the terrible seas. There are no survivors, hence the story of the disaster can only be conjectured, except so much of it as came under the observations of the crews of other storm-beaten crafts that passed the spot where the Vernon made her final plunge.

“Capt. Moran, of the steamer Superior, brought the first news of the disaster, when he ran his partly disabled vessel into Milwaukee for shelter from the storm. When he was passing Manitowoc about 11 o’clock Saturday morning the Superior ran into a field of wreckage that extended over the lake for a mile around. There were barrels, fragments of a cabin, bed clothes, life-preservers, boots—everything to indicate that some vessel had gone to the bottom. Next he ran by four rafts to which men were clinging desperately, and then a boat containing three men and a woman was seen tossing helplessly on the waves. One of the castaways stood up and waved his coat as a signal of distress, but the Superior herself was disabled by a broken tiller, and her crew to a man was at work struggling to keep her before the gale, and Captain Moran could not go to the assistance of the unfortunates. On one of the rafts was a man who, despite the heavy sea, was standing and waving his hand to attract the attention of the look-out on board the propeller. When the latter shot by him without answering his signal the poor fellow sank down in despair to perish. A mile farther south was another man half dead from fatigue and exposure. The propeller passed so close to him that he could almost have board her, but he was so far gone that he never once raised his head.

“The schooner Blazing Star, Capt. Cammerford, passed through the wreckage half an hour after the Superior, and she arrived here Saturday night. Capt. Cammerford’s recital of the scenes he witnessed is at once startling and pathetic. It is as follows:

“We passed Two Rivers Point about 11 o’clock Saturday morning, running under the peak of the foresail and a jib. We could not carry any more canvas; we did not need any more, for we wore sailing faster than I ever sailed in my life before. Such a sea! It was simply awful. Great waves would form behind us, rush down and tower over our quarter like great mountains, and then they would break and plunge us ahead with fearful velocity. We were momentarily expecting a change of wind, and were looking quite sharp for the first indication of it, when one of the boys forward sang out, ‘There’s a man ahead.’ We could just hear his voice above the storm, and I ran forward as fast as I could to see what was the matter. The man was standing on the forecastle deck, and his arm was pointed over the weather bow. ‘See there,’ he screamed, and looking in the direction he indicated I saw the body of a man encased in a life-preserver and tossing about on the waves. We flew by it so fast that it would have been almost useless to have attempted to pick it up even if the storm would have permitted us to heave to at all. I was about to turn away and go aft again, when the lookout once more called my attention to the water, and an instant afterward I saw another body, which, like the first one, was encased in a cork life-preserver. Then we saw another body, then another and another, and we held our position until we counted ten in all. Some of them floated so close that I almost thought they would be lifted over our rail by the seas, but they were all carried past and left far astern. As we flew by these silent evidences of shipwreck the sailor, poor fellow, became almost frenzied with excitement, and he would have risked his life, if I had not restrained him, in attempting to rescue them. Once when we were buried clear to the rail and the water was roaring and foaming almost at our feet we saw a body dead ahead less than 100 feet away. In an instant we would be on top of it, and the sailor leaped forward toward the bowsprit to catch it before we raised on the next sea. Divining his intention I seized him, and by sheer force held him where he stood, and it was well I did so, for a huge sea broke over us, and we needed all our strength to hold on to the mainstay and save ourselves from being dragged overboard.

When we were free to act again the body of the unfortunate man was far to leeward and astern, and past all human aid. A short time afterward we saw an upturned boat that was being tossed around like a cork, but there was nothing to show that it had been occupied. There were no bodies nor any sign of life near it, and we gave it only a passing thought What I saw next made my heart almost stand still. I had been looking ahead, watching anxiously for a boat or anything that would show that some of the unfortunate crew had escaped, when my eyes fell on a small object that seemed to be a man standing upright in, the water. The object disappeared as it settled down in the trough of the sea, and would be lost to sight for several seconds, and then it would come up again on the top of a wave and remain poised there just like a buoy or spar. ‘It’s a man, and he’s waving his hand at us, said the sailor at my side, and I looked again more closely than before. Then I saw it was a man, and that he was standing on what seemed to me to be the top of a pilot house or a piece of a hurricane deck. He was holding on to his frail float with one hand by means of a rope net-work, while he was using his unemployed hand in waving his hat as a signal to us. I ran aft and called my mate to see the poor fellow, and when Mitchell got on deck we were nearly abreast, and less than 200 feet away. The man was exerting himself to his utmost, waving first one hand and then another, and shouting all the time like mad to attract our attention. One moment he would be buried in seas and the next he would be riding on the crest of a wave, and at such times we could almost distinguish his features.

‘We were plunging past him with tremendous speed, and I knew it would be only a moment before he would be beyond our aid. I looked at the sea, then at the rag of a foresail and then asked myself, ‘Can I save him?’ While I was still pondering, Mitchell, my mate, rushed up to me and exclaimed, ‘Captain, for heaven’s sake heave to, and if any man of the crew will go with me I’ll lower the boat and save that man.’

‘This aroused me, and I told Mitchell it would be little short of suicide to attempt such a thing, and however much I hated to leave the poor fellow to his fate, I knew it was hopeless. To have attempted to go about in that gale would have been risking the lives of my crew and the safety of my vessel—it would have been more—certain destruction to us all. So I had to leave him, poor fellow. He could not have survived long. The wind was bitter cold and the seas were dashing over him so fast and with such force that he could not have retained his position much longer.’

“Few additional particulars about the disaster are obtainable here. Capt. Burke, the manager of the Northern Michigan line, tried to ascertain whether all the crew had perished, but he was unable to get anything definite either from Milwaukee or Manitowoc, and he was finally forced to abandon the effort. The lost, as far as known, are: Capt. George Thorpe, Ogdensburg; Capt. John Sullivan, mate, Chicago; Capt. Larry Higgins, second mate, Chicago; F. W. Burke, clerk, Chicago; Charles Mureau, engineer, Chicago; Frank M. Hall, assistant engineer, Chicago; Martin Beau, steward; Henry Beau, porter.

“Besides the foregoing there were two firemen, two wheelmen, a lookout-man, two cooks, seven deck-hands, and perhaps half a score passengers. It was rumored around the docks Saturday that among the passengers were George Riggs, his wife, and three children. The woman Capt. Moran, of the Superior, saw in the boat was probably Mrs. Riggs.

“A telegram from Two Rivers, Wis., says: ‘No trace of the bodies of the crew of the steamer Vernon, of the Northern Michigan line, which sank off Two Rivers point Saturday have as yet been found. The forepart of the pilot house of the wrecked steamer, with five life-preservers upon it, was found about six miles from shore Sunday. One of the life-preservers was cut open in a manner which would indicate that it had been worn by one of the sailors and was thrown aside by the wearer after becoming exhausted by the cold, and preferring death to further suffering.” (Logansport Pharos, IN. “Wreck…Vernon…Thirty…Forty Lives,” 31 Oct 1887, p. 1.)

Oct 31: “Chicago, Oct. 31.—No further details concerning the wreck of the propeller Vernon in Lake Michigan last Saturday [29th] were received to-day. It was learned, however, that when the vessel left Glen Haven, the last point she touched at on Friday night, she had ten passengers on board. Including these, there were 36 persons on the Vernon when she was wrecked, the crew, it now being definitely settled, numbering 26. It is known now that the three women included in the list of lost telegraphed last night left the vessel at Beaver Island, consequently they are safe. It is supposed that bodies will begin to float ashore in a day or two, and in that way a more complete list of the lost can be made up.” (NYT. “The Wreck of the Vernon,” Nov 1, 1887, p. 1.)

Nov 1: “Sturgeon Bay, Wis., Nov. 1.—Up to the arrival of the schooner Pomeroy, from Chicago, which passed through the bay to-day, it was supposed that not a single survivor was left of the 40 or 50 people on board the propeller Vernon, which went down off Sheboygan early last Saturday morning. It is now known, however, that at least one man lives to tell the tale of that terrible night on Lake Michigan. The Pomeroy has on board the only survivor, so far as in now known, of that awful disaster. The name of the man who has thus been rescued from death after he had given up all hope of over ever setting his foot upon dry land is Alfred Stone, of Chicago, one of the Vernon’s crew. He had been in the water 60 hours, exposed to a bitter, piercing wind, and without a bite to eat. When the Pomeroy discovered him on a raft last night, about eight miles from Sheboygan, (it was a clear moonlight night.,) Stone was so cold as to be almost helpless, and so weak from hunger that he could scarcely move. Although still very weak from the effects of his awful experience Stone was able to make a brief statement of the disaster.

‘I was awakened in the middle of the night…by the [unclear word – ‘cries”?] of the passengers and crew that the vessel was sinking. I sprang out of the window and found myself on a life raft with six other persons; I cannot say now who my companions were. Part of them were members of the crew and part were passengers. It seemed only a moment before the vessel had gone down, and I believe that all but a few of those on board went down with her. I do not know just how many people were aboard at the time, but the number could not have been far from 50. We passed through an awful night. I think I never saw such a sea as that which tossed our little raft at its mercy. When daylight came we hoisted a signal of distress, using a coat tied to an oar. Two vessels passed so near us on Saturday that they must have seen our signal, yet for some reason they apparently made no effort to reach us. The storm still raged, and it may be that they had all they could do to save themselves. One after another of my companions perished in the cold, or was washed off the raft when they became too numb with the cold to hold on any longer. We never saw any others from the sunken steamer, and I don’t believe that any others survived. The vessel went down so suddenly that the crew hadn’t time to man the boats.’

“When Stone was picked up there was the corpse of one man on the raft with him, the other four having perished several hours before. Stone says this man was one of the crew whose name he does not know.” (NYT. “The Vernon Disaster…Survivor Picked up While Clinging to a Raft,” 11-2-1887, p. 1.)

Nov 3: “Green Bay, Wis., Nov. 3.—The Schooner Pomeroy arrived her from Chicago Tuesday evening having on board Axel Stone, who was a watchman on the propeller Vernon, and is the only known survivor of that wreck. He was found floating on a life buoy from the Vernon about five miles northward of Sheboygan light and five or six miles from the shore….

“The schooner ran into the life-raft about 5 o’clock Monday morning, and the man raised an outcry, which attracted the crew of the Pomeroy. The schooner was sailing at a speed of about six or eight miles an hour. When the helpless sailor was discovered she put about, lowered a boat, and with considerable difficulty, succeeded in getting the unfortunate man safely on board the schooner. It was almost impossible to keep Stone on the raft until the boat reached him. So anxious was he to gain a safe place that he wanted to leap into the water in his haste for aid. Besides Stone there was on the raft the body of one of the firemen, who was known by the name of Bill.

“Stone is a Swede, who has been only one year in this country and speaks the English language very imperfectly. He shipped as watchman on the Vernon from St. Ignace two months ago. His story of the last trip of the Vernon is that the propeller left Sheboygan for Chicago about 7 o’clock last Thursday evening [Oct 27]. She then had besides her crew of twenty-five two or three passengers. The boat stopped at St. Ignace and took on a quantity of pig-iron and fifteen passengers, five or six of whom were women. Two or three passengers at each of the other ports were taken. Frankfort was the last port at which the boat touched. On leaving there, there were twenty-five passengers aboard, all men but six. The boat left that port at 7 o’clock Friday night [Oct 28], the intention being to make Milwaukee her next port. The weather was fine when the Vernon left Frankfort. Between 9 and 10 o’clock that evening, however, a heavy northeast storm struck her when she was about abreast of Manitowoc light. The freight was piled between decks so the gangways could not be closed, and the heavy sea continually washed her decks. In a hour or so there were three feet of water in the hold, but this was siphoned out, and it was for a time thought that the danger was past.

“The storm continued and the boat rolled heavily, but no attempt was made to cart over the freight. At 12 o’clock, when Stone retired from the watch, one fire was already out. He does not know what was done from that time to about 3 o’clock in the morning [Oct 29], when he was aroused by a loud crashing noise and saw everything in confusion on the boat….

“No children were on board. They [passengers] were mostly bound for Chicago….” (Eau Claire Daily Free Press, WI. “All Lost But One,” Nov 3, 1887, p. 1.)

Nov 3: “Manitowoc, Wis., Nov. 3.—The bodies of two of the victims of the Vernon disaster were picked up and brought here Tuesday by the tug George Paukratz which was chartered by Captain Berke, of Chicago, part owner of the Northern Michigan line, to search the lake. No further bodies nor any wreckage was seen and the search was given up at dark. The bodies await identification.” (Eau Claire Daily Free Press, WI. “All Lost But One,” Nov 3, 1887, p. 1.)

Nov 10: “Lake Michigan has given up twenty-two of the bodies of the victims of the Vernon and they are now laid out in the engine house at Two Rivers, where the following have been identified: George Thorpe, captain; John Sullivan, first mate; Larry Higgins, second mate; F. W. Burk, clerk; Martin Le Beau, steward; Henry Le Beau, porter; Roy Hazelton, cabin boy; E. B. Borland, passenger, Milwaukee….

“Axel Stone, the sole survivor of the wreck, passed through Milwaukee on his way to Chicago on the 2d. He appeared quite comfortable, but it will be some time before he fully recovers from the terrible exposure, and will be sent to the marine hospital in Chicago to recuperate. Stone reiterated in every detail the interview with him in Green Bay. Marine men who read his story doubted very much some of his statements, as for instance the assertion that the gangways were left open and that the propeller was as deeply loaded as Stone claimed. When questioned on these points, Stone said:

Yes, it is true that both [of] her forward gang-ways were left open—that is the upper half of them which swing upon hinges. The lower parts were in place, but the upper parts of the two forward gang-ways had been left tied up, and the freight piled clear up to the hurricane deck, beside the open gang-ways.”

“How was it that the gang-ways were left open?” asked the reporter,

“I don’t know, except that the weather was pleasant when she was loading, Friday, there being no sea whatever on the east shore, and the officers probably thought they were going to have a pleasant run across the lake that night, and so neglected to close them.”

“When she encountered the heavy sea the waves commenced to break through the open gang-ways. After, the boat had three feet of water in her hold I went to Capt. Thorpe on deck and suggested that some of the deck load be jettisoned, so that the gang-ways could
be closed down, and he told me to ‘go to hell,’ that he was running the boat.”

“Was the boat as deeply laden as you are reported to have said?”

“Well, she had an inch and a half of freeboard on one side and six inches on the other. It was the biggest load I had ever seen on her.”

“Are you certain that there were twenty passengers aboard ?”

“Well, I am positive that sixteen got on at St. Ignace, thirteen of them deck passengers, or laboring men, none of whom probably belonged there and their identity may never be established.”

“Stone says that it was about 3 o’clock in the morning when he was awakened and that when he jumped out of his berth the water was rushing into his room. He grabbed a life preserver, put it about him and jumped through the window, swimming to the raft on which he floated fifty hours.” (Wakefield Bulletin, MI. “Gives Up Its Dead…Bodies from…Vernon…,” 11-10-1887, p. 7.)

Nov 10: “A coroner’s jury was impaneled at Green Bay and an inquest held on the body of the man found on the raft with Axel Stone, the sole survivor of the propeller Vernon. Testimony was given by Capt. Comstock, of the schooner S. B. Pomeroy, by a physician and by Axel Stone. The latter testified that he knew his dead companion only by-the-name of “Bill,” and that the deceased told him he had come from New Orleans before shipping on the Vernon….

“The jury examined two life-preservers picked up on the raft. One was made of cork and the other was made of sea rushes. A bunch of these being removed and soaked in water filled in 15 minutes and sank. This alleged life-preserver bore the mark ‘Luduc’s Tule Life Preserver, 246 Market Street.’ The verdict was in accordance with the facts already given, and the jury severely censured the inspector who last passed the steamer for negligence regarding the rule requiring cork life-preservers, and recommended that he be held legally accountable.” (Wakefield Bulletin, MI. “A Coroner’s Inquest,” Nov 10, 1887, p. 7.)

Nov 16: “Two Rivers, Wis., Nov. 8.—A verdict was returned yesterday afternoon by the coroner’s jury in the case of the victims of the Vernon disaster. The jury finds that the facts before it are insufficient to warrant censure of the owners of the boat, either for faulty construction or worthlessness of the life preservers, but that the captains of the vessels that passed the wreck are to be severely censored for failing to report at the nearest ports, to enable the dispatching of a relief expedition in time to save some of the persons floating about.” (Waterloo Courier, IA. “The Vernon Disaster,” Nov 16, 1887, p. 2.)

Oct 4, 1888: The wreck of the lost steamer Vernon has been located 7 miles north of Two Rivers and 6 miles out in 30 fathoms of water.” (Port Huron Daily Times, MI. 10-4-1888; transcribed by William McNeil in Maritime History of the Great Lakes, “Vernon (propeller), sunk, 29 Oct 1887.”)

Sources

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Eau Claire Daily Free Press, WI. “All Lost But One” [Steamer Vernon] Nov 3, 1887, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=100698326

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. “Monthly Record of Current Events,” Vol. 76, No. 452, Jan 1888. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1888. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=-y09AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Indianapolis Journal, IN. “Lost in a Terrible Gale. The Passenger Steamer Vernon Wrecked on Saturday Night in Lake Michigan.” 10-31-1887, p. 1, cols. 3-4. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=IJ18871031.1.1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN——-

Logansport Pharos, IN. “Wreck…Vernon…Thirty…Forty Lives,” 31 Oct 1887, 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com

Mansfield, John Brandts (Ed. and Compiler). History of the Great Lakes (Vol. 1). Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1899. Google digitized. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=iHXhAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

McNeil, William R. “Vernon (Propeller), sunk, 29 Oct 1887.” Maritime History of the Great Lakes (webpage). Accessed 1-22-2021 at: https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/51109/data?n=1

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

New York Times. “The Vernon Disaster. One Survivor Picked up While Clinging to a Raft,” 11-2-1887, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=19735186

New York Times. “The Wreck of the Vernon,” 11-1-1887, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=19735179

Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events.” Philadelphia Record, 1888. Accessed 1-22-2021: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxpnn1&view=1up&seq=203&q1=vernon

Shelak, Benjamin J. Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan. Big Earth Publishing, 2003. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=4CBCcye0n6IC

Swayze, David D. Shipwreck! A Comprehensive Directory of Over 3,700 Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Boyne City, MI: Harbor House Publications, Inc., 1992.

Syracuse Daily Standard, NY. “Loss of the Vernon.” 10-31-1887, p. 1, col. 3. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=37628450

United States Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1888 (Treasury Department Document No. 1228). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=I3oDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true

Wakefield Bulletin, MI. “A Coroner’s Inquest,” 11-10-1887, p. 7. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=152691767

Wakefield Bulletin, MI. “Gives Up Its Dead. Bodies from the Sunken Vernon Recovered.” 11-10-1887, p. 7. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=152691767

Waterloo Courier, IA. “The Vernon Disaster,” 11-16-1887, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=88428586