Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 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/ ========================================================================= NOTICE TO USERS - These files are protected by the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Information contained herein is provided for research purposes and may be freely linked to. Copying for redistribution or presentation by any person, persons or organization is not allowed without the written permission of the author/submitter. Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: George Nester OTHER NAME(s): - OFFICIAL NO: 85976 DATE OF LOSS: 30 April 1909 CAUSE OF LOSS: Storm LOCATION: Lake Superior, Huron Islands RIG TYPE: Schooner-barge HULL TYPE: Wood BUILDER: Samuel Gibson, at Baraga. MI - 1887 OWNER(S): Nester estate, Detroit MASTER: Capt. George Debeau TONNAGE: 790 gt DIMENSIONS: 208 x 39 x ? CASUALTIES: 7 [All] The GEORGE NESTER was bound up Lake Superior in tow of the steamer SCHOOLCRAFT, both light, when they encountered a raging sixty-mile-an-hour northeast gale. The NESTER'S tow line broke and she was viciously driven against the cliffs at Huron Island and her bow crushed to splinters. Keeper Frank Wittie, of the Huron Island light, tried in vain to lower a line to the men in the water but fierce winds blew it back against the cliff face. So savage was the storm that a beam from the NESTER was flung at Keeper Wittie, standing fifty feet above the lake, striking him and dislocating his shoulder. Had the NESTER drifted 100 feet further south she would have missed the rocks She was the first vessel built on the upper penin- sula, and was built entirely of local timber. After her loss Joseph Connolly, surface foreman of the Champion mine, would recall that he had skidded and hauled the largest portion of the timber used under direction that only the very choicest should be taken. On launch day all business in Baraga was suspended. ======================================================================== Sources: Marine Record, 18 August 1887 Marquette Mining Journal, 3 May 1909 L'Anse Sentinel, 15 May 1909 Buffalo Sunday Morning News, 2 May 1909 Merchant Vessel List - 1909