Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Ludington Record Thursday, May 7, 1896 Volume XXIX The D. S. AUSTIN will make her first trip this week. She loaded bulk salt at Ward's salt block Monday. Mitchell and Olney have completed their Cartier dredging contract and are now dredging at the Buttersville docks. The new schooner, LENA NEILSON, launched recently from Grundeman's bark dock, has loaded her first cargo of cargo. The load consists of 100,000 feet of thick hardwood lumber. Her first trip will be made this week. Fresh CHICORA Wreckage Found. Near the shore five miles south of St. Joseph a large amount of CHICORA wreckage has been found. Among this is a piece thirty by eight feet from her middle deck, a gangway, a fire extinguisher with the name CHICORA on it, and considerable other wreckage. There was nothing but a dead sea coming from the southwest and it is thought the wreckage could not have traveled far. Wreckage would come to the top just as soon as it was torn loose, and this is fresh wreckage, as the spikes were freshly torn from the vessel. It may yet transpire that the people who said they heard the CHICORA'S whistle southwest of that city on that terrible night did not draw on their imaginations. F. & P. M. No. 4 is laid up for an extensive repair, at the point left vacant by No. 3 now in full commission. The schooner ALASKA WOLF is unloading 700 tons of coal for Butters & Peters. Schooner GEO. L. WRENN is taking on her first cargo of lumber at the P. M. L. Co. dock today. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ludington Record Thursday, May 14, 1896 Volume XXIX Capt. Thomas Gardner, of the Point Sauble lighthouse was in this city Tuesday ordering a stock of provisions. The steamer SIR HENRY BESSEMER, a duplicate of the steamer CORALIA, was launched Saturday at Cleveland. They are the biggest boats on the lakes; 436 feet over all, 48 feet beam and 28 feet deep. They will carry 6000 tons on a twenty foot draft. Mr. Whitney, mother of Mrs. G. Williams, the keeper of the Harbor Point light house, died Tuesday evening from old age and injuries re- ceived about ten days ago when she dislocated her shoulder. Had she lived until next September she would have been 100 years old. - Ex. The F. & P. M. boats are again in commission to carry the U. S. mail across the lake between Ludington and Milwaukee. Letters mailed here at any hour in the evening up to 8 o'clock will be delivered at the Milwaukee postoffice by 8 o'clock the following morning. The ser- vice will be continued till about the close of regular navigation. The Grand Haven Tribune gives the width of entrance to the follow- ing list of harbors: Pentwater, 150 feet; South Haven, 175 feet; Manistee, 175 feet; White River, 200 feet; Frankfort, 200 feet; Holland, 225 feet; Saugatuck, 225 feet; Ludington, 237 1/2 feet; Muskegon, 312 1/2 feet; Grand Haven, 420 feet. Manitowoc is preparing to co-operate with Ludington on a grand commercial scale. With an appropriation of nearly $50,000 by the United States government the south pier of the Manitowoc harbor will be extended out into the lake on a line with the government break- water, and that part of the harbor dredged to a depth of 20 feet. The city council was not slow in following the wake of the government ap- propriation, and last council meeting ordered the entire inner harbor dredged to a uniform depth of 15 feet, the work to be completed by July 1. About $10,000 will be expended by the city for this purpose. A tow of unusually large vessels came to anchor off the harbor this morning. The barge CITY OF TOLEDO cleared with a load of salt in bulk this morning. It was from ex-Mayor Percy's docks at the North mill. A DETROIT VESSELMAN TALKS THROUGH HIS OLD HAT ------------------------- The Detroit Evening News of May 11th, '96 contains the following item of interest to Ludington: - "If you hear of some fine steel steamer sinking in Lake Michigan from an unknown cause, said a Detroit vesselman, you will know she has struck the derelict DOLPHIN which is drifting around the lake. The wreck has been floating around Luding- ton harbor for some time and they recently towed it out into the lake and cast it adrift. If any accidents occur from a collision with that wreck, the authorities at Ludington should be held responsible. They have no business to wantonly place such obstructions right in the track of passing steamers." It may seem to the ordinary Detroit vesselman that Ludington is perfectly reckless of the lives of seamen, and the welfare of the fine steel steamers built on the banks of the Detroit river, but the fol- lowing interesting item taken from Manitowoc County Chronicle, pub- lished at Two Rivers, Wis., dated May 12, 1896, the day after the News voiced the fears of the "vesselman," will explain the cause of all this fear for the steel steamers. The Two Rivers paper says: - "Herman Kuehl picked up on the beach a little toy craft, rudely made, upon which was written: 'Set adrift at Ludington, April 10, 1896, by J. Jacobson.' The tiny waif was found just 26 days after it was committed to the waves. Just how many days it took it to cross the lake, of course, cannot be told, but it could not have been the sport of the winds and waves more than 26 days." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ludington Record Thursday, May 21, 1896 Volume XXIX The demand for dockwallopers is not nearly so great as in former years, and many have gone elsewhere to look for employment. The schooner WANEETEE, of Milwaukee, loaded the first cargo of bark shipped from here this week. The new boat, BUFFALO, makes her run between Buffalo and Cleveland at a rate rather over 20 miles an hour. A final search is being made this week for the lost steamer, CHICORA. After lying idle for the past two years the schooner CONNEAUT has gone into commission in peculiar fashion. With nothing in the hold and a good deck load of dry shingles from the old Aubery shingle mill, she will be towed to Chicago by the barge CARTER. In order to let the CONNEAUT through, the Fourth ward draw bridge was opened; the first time for over a year. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ludington Record Thursday, May 28, 1896 Volume XXIX The schooner AVERY took a load of basket bottoms to South Haven this week. The little hooker LENA HALL took a cargo of salt in barrels to the Manitou islands this week. Butters & Peters filled the hold of F. & P. M. No. 3 with bulk salt Monday. The schooner ABBIE took Rasmussen & Loppenthein's first cargo of bark to Milwaukee a few days ago. The tug MARTEL, of Saugatuck, ran up to Ludington for a load of basket bottoms a day or two ago to supply the Saugatuck people. The LENA NELSON, the new schooner launched recently from the bark dock near the Canning building, is making regular trips just like an old liner. (Transcriber's Note: This should be the LENA M. NIELSON) Congressman Bishop has suceeded in securing a further appropriation of $15,000 for Manistee harbor, and the Manistee papers declare that he will be remembered when the next convention undertakes to nominate a candidate. Mr. Bishop is booked to succeed himself. Last Thursday the schooner SUNRISE with a crew of eight men was coming down the lake with a free wind and foggy weather. They heard a steamboat's signals and passed safely by but collided with whaleback No. 33 which the steamer had in tow. A boat was launched from the whaleback and the crew of the SUNRISE were rescued just before the schooner sank. (Transcriber's Note: Should be whaleback No. 133) The collision of the fine new steamer L. C. WALDO with the CHOCTOW at Saulte Ste. Marie was an unfortunate affair entailing great loss to the owners. Capt. Duddleson made his report of the affair was requir- ed by law stating that the cause of the collision was the breaking of the whistle cord making it impossible for him to give his signal in time for the CHOCTOW to get out of the way. The CHOCTOW is sunk with her nose resting on the bank, while the stem of the L. C. WALDO is broken with several plates warped badly. The WALDO is owned by our late fellowtownsmen Dr. G. W. ROBY, L. C. Waldo and Capt. Duddleson. The basket factory being desirous of getting rid of the large pile of shingles stored on their docks, applied to Mr. Woodruff for ways and means of doing so. The schooner CONNEAUT, which has been idle and uncared for the past two years, was towed to the bayou and given a full deck-load, the intention being to tow her to Chicago and get what could be realized out of the shingles. Being in a leaky condition not suspected by her owners, next morning found her fast on the ground and the hold full of water. Scows have been sent there to lighten the load and place it on the South mill dock. By the time the shingles reach the market very little will be realized on them. PERISH IN THE LAKE FIVE OF A SCHOONER'S CREW DIE IN THE WAVES. ------------------------- The MARY D. AYER Sinks as the Result of a Collision with the Steamer ONOKO - Vessel Floats Help- lessly for Hours a Prey to the Gale. COLLISION OFF RACINE. The schooner MARY D. AYER collided with the steamer ONOKO, in Lake Michigan, off Grosse Point. Eleven hours later, while the steamer CITY OF DULUTH was trying to tow it ashore near Racine, the schooner sank, and five of the crew were drowned and the remaining two were saved and taken to Chicago. From the time of the collision until she was picked up, the AYER drifted a distance of forty-five miles. The spot where she was taken hold of by the CITY OF DULUTH was about fifteen miles from shore. There was a dense fog on the lake at the time, and with but an instant's warning the schooner loomed up directly ahead of the steamer. The long jib-boom of the AYER ran into the pilot house of the ONOKO, barely missing the wheelman, and then tore its way out through the end. The rail from bow to quarter was torn from its fastenings by the jib-boom, and at last that spar gave way. The bows of the schooner were broken in by the impact of the collision, and her master immediately ordered her anchor overboard. The ONOKO, which is one of the few iron boats on the lake and be- longs to the Minch fleet of Cleveland, was coming up Lake Michigan loaded with iron for the Illinois Steel Company at South Chicago. The MARY D. AYER, one of Ed E. Ayer's fleet of cedar vessels, was bound down the lake light from Chicago to Alpena. Rain had been falling heavily all the evening, making it impossible to see any distance. The F. & P. M. R'y managers are taking steps to build new docks and dredge out a deep channel for the carferry boats which are to run be- tween Manitowoc and this city the coming fall and winter. The pro- posed improvements will be made just north of the elevator and will give employment to a considerable number of men. ===========================================================================