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    NAME: Hercules
    OTHER NAME(s): -
    REASON: storm
    DATE:  October 3, 1818
    LOCATION: Lake Michigan, mouth of Calumet River
    TYPE: schooner, 2 mast
    HULL TYPE: wooden
    BUILDER: in 1815 at Sandusky Bay, OH
    OWNER: 
    MASTER: Capt. Church
    TONNAGE: 60
    LENGTH: 54 ft
    BEAM: 18 ft
    DEPTH: 7 ft
    CASUALTIES: 6
    SURVIVORS:  0
    
                        Detroit, Nov 12, 1818.
                         Tremendous gale on Lake Michigan,
                        and wreck of the Hercules.
                         The following letter, containing the
                        melancholy information of the wreck of
                        the schooner Hercules, Capt. Church,
                        was received a few days since, by express
                        through the interior of the territory.
                        
                         Ft. Dearborn, Chicago, Oct. 13, 1818.
                         Sir,
                         I have to communicate the painful in-
                        telligence of the loss of the schooner
                        Hercules, with every person on board.
                        She sailed from this post on the evening
                        of the 2d instant, and was wrecked near
                        the head of the lake, during one of the
                        most dreadful gales of wind within the
                        recollection of the oldest inhabitants
                        of this country. It came on early in the
                        morning of the third, and continued to 
                        rage with unremitting violence until the
                        evening of the fourth, when it in some
                        measure subsided, and the lake became
                        more calm. But no information of the schr.
                        could be obtained until the evening of
                        the ninth, when her untimely fate was
                        communicated by a party of Ottawa Indians
                        from Grand River, and confirmed by the
                        production of several articles they had
                        picked up on their way, known to have be-
                        longed to her, together with a scale, re-
                        collected as the property of Lieut. Eveleth,
                        of the Corps of Engineers, the only passenger
                        on board. On the morning of the 10th I de-
                        tached Lieut. ****, in company with Mr. Dean, 
                        agent for the contractor at this post, in
                        search of dead bodies, and to obtain, if
                        possible, a more circumstantial account of
                        the melancholy event. They returned last
                        evening and report that they found the re-
                        mains of one of the unfortunate sufferers 
                        only, and that in a situation not to be 
                        identified; that the shore was literally
                        strewed with the fragments of the vessel,
                        from twelve to fifteen miles in length;
                        that the main-mast must have been cut
                        away during the gale, and remained entire;
                        and the fore-mast broken in several places.
                        But no information could be gained of the
                        hull, nor could they recover any of the
                        lost property, except an old uniform coat
                        of Lieut. Evelth's, two handkerchief, and
                        a part of his flute, and some articles of
                        no value belonging to the vessel, which 
                        they took from an Indian canoe. The Ottawas,
                        who are the only Indians that have made
                        any report on the subject, state that the
                        Potawatamies, a band of whom reside near
                        the fatal spot, carried off every article
                        of value they could lay their hands upon,
                        that one party, loaded with the spoils, 
                        have gone down the Illinois, and another
                        in the direction of the Wabash.
                          This statement is corroborated by the
                        fact, that the Potowatamies from that 
                        quarter were previously in the habit of
                        visiting us almost daily, and not one of
                        them has since made his appearance at this
                        post.
                        (signed) Daniel Baker
                        Major U.S. Army
                        Major General Macomb
                                 Niagara Patriot
                                   November 24, 1818
                                   
                       The hull of the Hercules drifted to the
                       shore near Chicago in August, 1825.


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Sources: "Shipwrecks of the Lakes", Dana Thomas Bowen
          newspaper article - Niagara Patriot