1909 — Dec 8, Coal Car Ferry Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 sinks, Lake Erie storm –30-38

— 38 Calumet News, MI. “59 Lives Lost in Erie Storm.” 12-11-1909, p. 1.
— 38 Mills. Our Inland Seas, 1910, p. 299.
— 36 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 694.
— 36 Swayze. Great Lakes Shipwrecks “M”
— 36 Swayze. Shipwreck!…Directory…Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. 1992, p. 143.
— 34 Alchem Incorporated. Erie-Ashtabula Shipwrecks.
–31-32 Maritime History of the Great Lakes. Marquette & Bessemer.
— 32 Ludington Record-Appeal, MI. “Big Ferry Goes Down.” 12-16-1909, p. 1, col. 1.
— 31 U.S. Bureau of Navigation. Merchant Vessels of the United States…1910, p. 408.
— 30 U.S. Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report 1910, pp. 12-13.

Narrative Information

Alchem: “Marquette & Bessemer No. 2: Steel steam car ferry of 338 ft sank on 12/8/1909 position unknown. This is another of the long sought lost boats of the lakes. The M&B2 carried a cargo of 30 rail cars loaded with coal and steel. It left Conneaut, Ohio late in the morning with a crew of 33 and one passenger on a routine 60 mile run to Port Stanley, Ontario. As the day progressed the temperature dropped from 40 to 10 deg F and the wind rose to 70 knots from the Southwest in the worst blizzard to strike the lake in years! The following night at 1:30 am several people on shore at Conneaut heard the vessels whistle sounding a distress call. Several people also reported hearing the M&B2’s distress signal off Port Stanley at 3:00 and 5:00 am, a six hour trip from Conneaut in good weather! The vessel was never seen again and likely went down in deep water while steaming for shelter on the lee side of Long Point. A life boat was found days later containing the frozen bodies of 10 crewmen. The bodies of other crewmen continued to drift ashore for months afterwards on Long Point, at Buffalo, and as far East as Niagara Falls.” (Alchem Inc.)

Mills: “In December 1909, the big car transport the Marquette and Bessemer No. 2, with thirty cars of coal, and structural iron piled on top, turned over in the mountainous seas of Lake Erie, and went to the bottom with a loss of thirty-eight lives.” (Mills. Our Inland Seas, 1910, p. 299.)

Swayze, Great Lakes Shipwrecks M:
“Marquette & Bessemer No. 2.
“Type at loss: propeller, steel, carferry, 30 car
“Build info: 1905, American Shipbuilding, Cleveland OH hull #428
“Specs: 338x55x20, 2514 t
“Date of loss: 1909, Dec 8
“Place of loss: midlake, exact location unknown
“Lake: Erie
“Type of loss: storm
“Loss of life: 36 (all)
“Carrying: 32 coal hopper cars
“Detail: Bound [out of] Conneaut, OH for Port Stanley, Ont. on her regular route, she foundered in a powerful gale. Her distress whistle was heard and lights seen on both sides of the lake as she vainly searched for hours for a safe port.”

US Bureau of Navigation: None of the reported crew of 31 survived. (U.S. Bureau of Navigation. Merchant Vessels of the United States…1910, p. 408.)

US SIS: “The local inspectors at Cleveland, Ohio, reported on December 18, 1909, that the steamer Marquette and Bessemer No. 2, left Conneaut, Ohio, at 10:25 a.m., on December 7, 1909, for Port Stanley, Ontario. Heavy gales with snow were blowing for several days after she left, and the steamer was never reported. One of the steamer’s lifeboats, with the dead bodies of several of the crew (frozen to death), was picked up by a tug. This is all that was ever known of this steamer, and the owners report that 30 men were lost.” (US SIS. Annual Report 1910, 12-13)

Wright: Home part, Erie, PA. Contained 30 loaded coal cars. (Wright, Richard. Marquette & Bessemer No. 2. Accessed at Maritime History of the Great Lakes.)

Newspapers

Dec 12, Buffalo Evening News: On December 12 “the State Fish Tug Commodore Perry towed the car ferry’s lifeboat No. 4, containing nine dead bodies, into the port at Erie…all frozen…” (Buffalo Evening News, December 13, 1909)

April 7, 1910, Buffalo Evening News: “NIAGARA FALLS, April 7. – Buoyed up by a life preserver, the body of J. McLeod, master of the ill-fated car-ferry steamer MARQUETTE & BESSEMER, which went down on the run from Conneaut, Ohio, to Port Stanley in the gale of December 10 last, was taken from the water in the forebay of Niagara Falls Power Company late yesterday afternoon. The body was in a very good state of preservation and identification was made easy by papers found in the man’s pockets.” (Buffalo Evening News, April 7, 1910)

May 2, 1910, Buffalo Evening News: “Port Colborne, Ont., May 2. – (Special) – Saturday, R. Scott, a farmer living about a mile east of here, on the Lake Shore road, discovered the body of a man floating in the water near the shore. When the body was brought in it was found to be one of the men lost on the ill-fated Bessemer & Marquette car ferry, which foundered in Lake Erie last fall. One of the ferry’s life preservers was still on the body. The man’s watch and several articles were still in the pockets and from these the body was identified as that of Gene Woods of Conneaut, the engineer of the car ferry.” (Buffalo Evening News, May 2, 1910) The Buffalo Evening News articles were accessed at Maritime History of the Great Lakes.

Sources

Alchem Incorporated. Lake Erie Shipwreck Map “C” and Index. Accessed 1-30-2009 at: http://www.alcheminc.com/asht.html

Calumet News, MI. “59 Lives Lost in Erie Storm.” 12-11-1909, p. 1. Accessed 12-7-2020 at: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86086633/1909-12-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Ludington Record-Appeal, MI. “Big Ferry Goes Down.” 12-16-1909, p1, c1. Accessed 12-7-2020: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19091209&id=FndOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mUADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6065,1906441&hl=en

Maritime History of the Great Lakes. “Marquette & Bessemer No. 2, (St. S.), 1909, Official No. U202514.” 11/16/2008 at: http://www.hhpl.on.ca/GreatLakes/Wrecks/details.asp?ID=18137

Mills, James Cooke. Our Inland Seas, Their Shipping and Commerce for Three Centuries. Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910. Digitized by Microsoft. Accessed 12-7-2020 at: http://www.archive.org/details/ourinlandseasthe00milluoft

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.

Swayze, David D. Great Lakes Shipwrecks Beginning with the letter M. Accessed 12-7-2020 at:
http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/m.htm

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

United States Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce and Labor. Forty-Second Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States…For the Year Ended June 30, 1910. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910. Google preview accessed 7-14-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=jcDQrscv2roC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat-Inspection Service to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1910. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910. 391 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JlgpAAAAYAAJ