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    VESSEL NAME:   Mendota
    OTHER NAME(s): -
    OFFICIAL NO:   16323
    DATE OF LOSS:  10 September 1875
    CAUSE OF LOSS: Storm
    LOCATION:      Lake Michigan, off Big Point Sable
    RIG TYPE:      Propeller
    HULL TYPE:     Wood
    BUILDER:       L. Moses, Cleveland - 1857
    OWNER(S):      Wm. Crossthwaite, Buffalo
    MASTER:        Capt. Albert Fairbanks
    TONNAGE:       785 t.
    DIMENSIONS:    192x30x11
    CASUALTIES:    11 or 12 of 20

                   Upbound from Buffalo to Chicago with the barges
                 MORNING STAR and EVENING STAR in tow, all coal laden,
                 when they encountered a fall gale off Big Point Sable.
                 The MORNING STAR broke adrift and, shortly after her
                 arches broke away, the EVENING STAR was cut loose.
                 Seven of the crew made it to one of the lifeboats
                 as the MENDOTA went down. An 8th, Wm. Crossthwaite,
                 son of the owner, clung to a piece of the hurricane deck
                 for nearly 50 hours before he was picked up by the bark
                 NAIAD. *Early accounts list him among the lost however
                 he telegraphed his family from Chicago later.

                 Reported lost:
                 *Wm Crossthwaite
                 F. (or John) Fairbanks (Captain's father)
                 Eliza Fairbanks (Captain's wife)
                 Charles Dean & wife, steward, of Bay City, MI
                 Edward Hughes, 2nd engineer, age 30, of Buffalo
                 Patrick Ryan, 1st Wheelsman, Bay City, MI
                 Wm. Frankford, watchman, Bay City, MI
                 Edward Moynahan, Edward Durow, Edward Mulligan,
                   and John Carsel, deckhands.



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Sources: Merchant Vessel List - 1869, 1871
         Mansfield, J. B. "History of the Great Lakes"
         Buffalo Express, 15 September 1875
         Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 September 1875