Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Albany OTHER NAME(s): - OFFICIAL NO: 106306 DATE OF LOSS: 6 November 1893 CAUSE OF LOSS: Collision LOCATION: Lake Huron, 7 mi off Point Aux Barques RIG TYPE: Propeller HULL TYPE: Steel BUILDER: Detroit Dry Dock, Wyandotte, MI - 1884 OWNER(S): Western Transportation Co., Buffalo MASTER: Capt. Angus J. McDonald TONNAGE: 1,917.79 gt DIMENSIONS: 267 x 38.5 x 13.8 CASUALTIES: 8 Downbound from Chicago to Buffalo with 250 barrels of flour, 17,000 bushels of corn and 75,000 bushels of oats when, at about 2 a.m., she was struck head on forward of No. 2 gangway by the PHILADELPHIA in a dense fog 10 miles northeast of the Point Aux Barques lifesaving station. The ALBANY's crew was transferred to the PHILADELPHIA which took the ALBANY in tow. The ALBANY was filling rapidly and, about 30 minutes later, the towline was cut and she went down stern first in 200 feet of water. Within an hour the PHILADELPHIA was also settling and the order to abandon ship was given. Both crews took to two small boats. Fourteen men, including both captains and twelve of the PHILADEPHIA's crew, went into the smaller boat. The second boat held the remaining 24 combined crew of both vessels. The smaller boat made shore at Point Aux Barques the next morning. The larger was found by the Point Aux Barques lifesaving crew capsized with a hole stove in her port side. It was speculated that it had drifted astern under the screw of the sinking PHILADELPHIA as the hole appeared to have been made from a blow to the inside of the boat. Casualty list: S. B. Muirhead, chief engineer James Malloy, oiler Thomas Pierce, second mate Job Price, watchman S. McMurty, second cook William Sturrah, porter Frank Keitchen, deckhand Albert Holm, deckhand Capt. Angus J. McDonald survived the sinking of the ALBANY only to be lost with his entire crew of 24 when the HUDSON was lost in a Lake Superior gale on September 16, 1901. ======================================================================== Sources: R. L. Polk's Marine Directory - 1891 Buffalo Enquirer, 7 November 1893 The Milwaukee Journal, 7 November 1893 Aurora (Ill.) Daily Express, 8 November 1893 Marine Review, 28 December 1893 Annual Report of the U.S.L.S.S. - 1894 Ludington Daily News, 6 November 1993 Great Lakes Maritime Database - University of Michigan Swayze, David D. "SHIPWRECK!!" - 1992 Mansfield, J. B. "History of the Great Lakes" vol. 2 - 1899 biography of Capt. Angus J. McDonald http://us-data.org/ny/erie/bio/mcdonald-angus-j.txt Last updated 19 November 2015