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Submitted by Linda Talbott
for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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    VESSEL NAME:   Clayton Belle
    OTHER NAME(s): -
    OFFICIAL NO:   4282
    DATE OF LOSS:  12 April 1882
    REASON:        Collision
    LOCATION:      Lake Huron, 10 miles n. of Port Huron
    RIG TYPE:      Schooner, 2 masted
    HULL TYPE:     Wooden
    BUILDER:       John Oades, Clayton, N.Y. 1863*
    OWNER(S):      Merrick, Fowler & Co., Detroit
    MASTER:        Capt. Fred A. Colvin, of New Haven, N.Y.
    TONNAGE:       300 t.
    LENGTH:        ?
    BEAM:          ?
    DEPTH:         ?
    CASUALTIES:  3
    SURVIVORS:   4

                 Bound St. Ignace for Erie, Pa., with pig iron.
              Was standing on and off while waiting for a tug when
              run into by the schooner Thomas Parsons and sunk in
              very few minutes.  Three of the crew had been on deck and
              jumped aboard the Parsons while the schooners were still
              wedged together.  The captain of the Parsons and 3 crew
              members attempted to launch the yawl boat which got
              tangled in the rigging and went down with the Parsons.
              One of them was rescued by the tug Mocking Bird.

 ========================================================================
Sources: Donahue, James L. "Schooners In Peril", 1995, p. 46-49
         Rattigan, Wm. "Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, 1977, p. 108
         Mansfield, "History of the Great Lakes, Vol. 1, 1899
         Oswego Palladium, 8 January 1861
         Merchant Vessel list, 1871, p. 23
         Bluffton (Indiana) Weekly Chronicle, 20 April 1882, p. 1
         Buffalo Morning Express, 13 April 1882
         Oswego Palladium, 15 April 1882

         *Note: there are various years given for build date.  Merchant
                Vessel list and Mansfield give 1863 but schr. Clayton
                Belle is included on a list of vessels laid up at Clayton,
                N.Y. in January, 1861. She was involved in a collision in
                1863 which did considerable damage to her stern and was
                repaired that year.
                Donahue, "Schooners in Peril" gives the build year
                as 1868.