shipwrecks

[Janet]

Passing along to Merry and any other potentially interested parties the answer I got from my friend who has an interest in shipwrecks. This is in response to the conversation that opened up on Merry's This Day in History post:
http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=360971#post360971

Here is what little information I could find, which isn’t much I’m afraid. I found a number of ships named “SS Canada” but all were more recent than 1850.

The following site:
http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/

should open up to :
The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 – 1999.

Under “C” I found multiple listings for “Canada”, but I don’t know if that’s the same as “SS Canada”; may not be. I couldn’t find anything under “SS”.


The following site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_1850

provides a “List of shipwrecks in 1850” by month but, of course, we probably don’t know which month to check.


Unfortunately, the site, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_the_Great_Lakes did not yield anything.
There is another associated list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_October_1850 which lists wrecks for each day of October 1850; I didn’t go through that in detail.
And another site for January 1850:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_January_1850


I don’t know anything about the following site, but it claims to be able to help find wrecked ships::
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/ships-wrecked-sunk/


It might be worth contacting the Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Shipwreck_Museum.
I think they focus on the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, but they might be a source for more information.

If I find anything else I’ll send it on. Let me know how you make out.

Merry, your best bet might in fact be her last entry here, about the Shipwreck Museum. Good luck!

[Merry]

Thank you Janet and Janet's friend! I will see what I can find out. Perhaps the name of the ship is incorrect, but David's sister seems to know quite a bit about what happened!

Here's what I've posted about David Maynard on various other posts on this forum and others, jus so I can find it again!

David Maynard jr

b Whittlesford Cambs 1827

d Sept 1850, Lake Michigan USA (only source is below)

Info from Ann's letters:

David worked on a farm, but was to die in a storm on Lake Michigan in Sept 1850 whilst working as a waiter on board the steamer "SS Canada". He was attempting to save furniture from the galley after the floor planks had been ripped away by the storm. Standing on a bench, he tried to retrieve articles from the wall when the ship was hit by a wave and he was thrown into the lake and disappeared.

His sister, Ann, lamented the fact that he drank heavily, but there is no suggestion in the letters that he was drunk at the time of the accident.

[Merry]

I did find this....


Liverpool Mercury 24 September 1850 (Tuesday)

On Friday night, a terrific gale sprang up on lake Michigan, which continued during Saturday, causing great damage to the shipping. It was accompanied by heavy rain, which nearly flooded the whole country of northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

Several other papers have the date of the storm as Friday 6th Sept 1850. One says there were fatalities, but that seems to be on Lake Erie where the storm was on Sunday 8th Sept.

The London Evening Standard 21 September 1850 has more detail:

The brig, Flora is ashore a mile south of Chicago
Schooners George C Crew and George Watson ashore near Calumet
Brig C Blein ashore near Michigan city
Schooners N C Walton and General Thornton ashore near Calumet, the latter bottom up, the crew presumed perished
Brig Mohegan ashore
Schooner Charles Howard sunk
Brig T W Maurice capsized but crew saved
John C Spencer lumber vessel ashore, all hands lost
Schooner James McKay ashore at New Buffalo
Steamer J D Morton towed in two unnamed vessels

Then in the same paragraph the article switches to ships lost at Milwaukie - isn't that in Oregon? The way the piece is written you would think it was the same area as the rest of the list and continues referring to 'the lake' at the end of the paragraph.

In any case, there seems to have been a huge amount of damage. I wonder if my David Maynard had switched to a different ship and that's why there is no mention of SS Canada as he was employed on a different vessel?

[kiterunner]

Milwaukee is in Wisconsin and is on the shore of Lake Michigan.

[Merry]

Milwaukee is in Wisconsin and is on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Oh, OK, I didn't realise there was another one! (Different spelling!) Thanks.