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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 Appeal Thursday, November 17, 1898 Twenty Years Ago Items copied from The APPEAL of Nov. 13, 1878. Corn washed ashore from the barge RUTTER is selling at a shilling a bushel on the beach. A wrecking tug from Buffalo has arrived at this harbor with three steam pumps and intends pumping the water out of the barge J. H. RUTTER, wrecked north of the piers last week. It is intended to raise and get her into port. MARINE MATTERS The boilers for the new F. & P. M. power house arrived Monday morning and are being placed this week. The schooner WREN has just received a fine new mainmast and is now ready to go to sea again. Capt. Shomer expects to get out this week. The carferry is now carrying about 20 passengers a day. She makes her regular trips without interruption, not the slightest accident having befallen her since Capt. Kilty became her master. Capt. Kilty is one of the most genial and popular men in the service, having both the respect and confidence of his crew and the admiration of his pas- sengers. Winter freight traffic at the F. & P. M. sheds has hardly commenced yet. The number of men employed has been slightly increased and indi- cations are that as soon as navigation closes the activity at this point will be as great, if not greater, than last year. Grain move- ments, however, will be slow until the big grain carriers make their last trip from Duluth. This week will see the Ludington docks cleared of all hardwood except perhaps a half million which is scattered about as follows: A. Vogel, 150,000; Butters & Peters company, 200,000; J. S. Stearns, 200,000. If the weather is not too severe, next week should see every foot of hardwood owned by local manufacturers placed on the market. This is clearing up a season's work pretty close. Along the docks it is quite a prevalent impression that the schooner MARS will be the next storm victim. The vessel is now old in service and not regarded as sufficiently staunch to buffet the fierce storms which rage almost constantly on the lake this fall. However, under the careful and skilled guidance of Capt. Billy Young she keeps afloat year after year, and manages to keep out of the toils. Vesselmen all agree that lake disasters and loss of life have been more numerous this fall than in any such period of time before in years. There has been a heavy sea on the lake constantly, the wind no sooner dying out in one direction than it blew up a gale from another. Many of the smaller sailing craft have been compelled to remain in port very closely for the past four weeks. But it is said to the credit of the F. & P. M. line of steamships that not a single trip has been missed on the run between here and Milwaukee since the opening of navigation last spring. Even during the severe storms of the past month the boats have made their trips almost without interruption. On a few occasions they have been obliged to delay starting for several hours but they have not yet failed to make at least one trip a day. Emory Weimer finds himself growing enthusiastic over the yacht question. He thinks that another season he will provide himself with a fine sailing yacht which will be large enough and safe enough to convey a party of 25 people for a trip around the lakes. Warren Cartier is another businessman who has also evinced some interest in yachting. But Mr. Cartier favors the steam yacht, and next spring may conclude to gratify his taste in that direction. The continued rough weather has created serious apprehensions in the minds of many vesselmen and it is more than likely that the season will be marked by an exceptionally early closing of navigation. Sailors too are scarce and timid, it having been difficult for owners of old craft to secure men to ship before the mast this fall. Several of the local schooners are making their last trip. Big rates don't count for very much when lives and vessels are placed in extreme jeo- pardy. The keeper's dwelling at the Point Sauble lighthouse is being re- paired and put in shape for winter service. Numerous other minor re- pairs are being made about the lighthouse, but the tower will not be repointed this fall. A short time ago it was announced that this would be done and a new coat of cement put all around the tower. It was found, however, upon examination that the tower was too old to warrant any such expense. It is likely that a new tower will be built in the course of a few years. The repairs now being made will amount to about $300. Old residents say that the recent wrecking of the schooner AUSTIN recalls vividly to their minds the much more serious calamity that befell the big four masted RUTTER, beached here at this time in 1878. At that time the lives of the RUTTER'S crew as well as 40 of our own citizens hung in the balance for 24 hours, during which time the whole town gathered on the beach but found themselves powerless to render assistance. A brief mention of this event was given last week in the "Twenty Years Ago" department of the APPEAL. We should be pleased to reproduce further particulars concerning this memorable disaster in a subsequent issue should any considerable number of our readers express a desire to hear them. The steamer A. B. TAYLOR took a load of wet barley this week from the stranded barge ABERDEEN at Grand Haven to Milwaukee. Last week members of the life saving crew found an upturned schooner's yawl boat on the beach near the station. There was no name on the boat but it is supposed to have come from the large schooner ALOHA, of Marquette, which is reported lost in this vicinity. At Muskegon spars and other wreckage came ashore. The steamer JOB which belongs to the water works company, is haul- ing Bruske's lumber from Hamlin to this city. The JOB makes trips as often as the weather will permit, carrying 30,000 feet at a time, which is unloaded at the old Taylor mill dock. The little scow steam- er can run up to Hamlin in an hour and a quarter. A late Muskegon dispatch to the Evening Wisconsin says: "A local railroad man whose high position precludes his allowing himself to be quoted, says positively another carferry will be put on the lines be- tween Muskegon and Milwaukee in addition to the Detroit, Grand Rapids & Western carferry SHENANGO NO. 2. He would not say how soon this would come, but stated it was a certainty. The line is now having all the business it can handle, carrying full loads both ways every trip." The beach pickers are having a soft thing this fall in picking up lumber, lath, shingles and other wreckage which comes ashore from ves- sels that have been disabled in the heavy weather. Many a schooner has lost her deckload and lake captains say that for a time their vessels were sailing through floating lumber and timber every day. The bulk of this has not yet come ashore and may not until next spring. Even at this point men with teams may be seen on the beach al- most any morning at daybreak picking up fine timbers, boards and planks and carrying them away. It is a fact not generally known among the people of neighboring states nor indeed by many of the people of our own state, that Lake Michigan, unlike the other great lakes, is open for navigation the whole year round. It is well known that Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and Lake Ontario are frequently frozen clear across, and that the other two lakes are not passable during a portion of the winter months. Hence it is that people often affect great surprise upon learning that Lake Michigan is navigated during the closed season by several steam- ship lines operating in all about 15 boats. In accorance with the usual custom, the local life saving crew will probably go out of commission about the 10th of December. For several years past, in fact every since the F. & P. M. compane have been op- erating their steamboats at this point through the winter months, there has been talk each fall of petitioning the government to retain the life saving crew on duty all winter. There are but few ports along this shore that would need the services of the life savers dur- ing the winter months. But here at Ludington where the boats run so regularly there is great danger of serious accidents which might be averted by the timely presence of the life saving crew. We understand there is some talk of an effort being made to keep the Ludington sta- tion open this winter. The steamer PETOSKEY came in on her regular run from Chicago Tues- day morning, having had a fair wind but somewhat tempestuous sea fol- lowing her all the way over. At this time of the year these summer boats take every precaution against danger. Before leaving Ludington the captain of the PETOSKEY was careful to communicate with Captain Hanson of the Manistee live saving station and ascertain how much sea there was at that point. The PETOSKEY had but three passengers aboard which is perhaps the smallest number she has taken this season. There is enough freight traffic, however, between this shore and Chicago, to keep the Seymour boats busy until the middle of December when they will be obliged to lay up for the winter. As evidence of the assertion that has often been made that the car- ferry is the most seaworthy boat which sails the lakes, it is noted that the big craft has a run which keeps her constantly in the trough of the sea. In spite of this fact, however, there seldom comes a time when the boat fails to make her regular trips, while on numerous occa- sions other steam craft weather in port in preference to running be- fore the seas, which the carferry easily rides in the trough. One morning last week about 1 o'clock, as the carferry was pulling out of Manitowoc in the face of a gale from the north, she encountered a big liner much larger than herself but heavily laden with ore, which was running into Manitowoc to weather the storm. Every sea washed entire- ly over the big ore-carrier, while the carferry rode the waves like a cork. ===========================================================================