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/ ========================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Olga OTHER NAME(s): Sandusky (renamed in 1904) OFFICIAL NO: 115141 DATE OF LOSS: After 1912 CAUSE OF LOSS: ? LOCATION: Lake Erie? RIG TYPE: Schooner-barge, 3 masts HULL TYPE: Wood BUILDER: Linn & Craig, Gibralter, MI. - 1873 OWNER(S): Cleveland & Erie Machinery Co. MASTER: - TONNAGE: 593 gt DIMENSIONS: 178.4 x 33.3 x 12.6 CASUALTIES: Rebuilt at Tonawanda, N.Y., on the burned out wreck of the schooner-barge SANDUSKY. As SANDUSKY Aug 4, 1903 - Laden with 5,000,000 feet of lumber, and tied up at A. A. Bellinger's dock at Tonawanda, when a dummy engine ignited a fire that quickly swept through the entire craft. After fighting the fire for 10 hours her water plug was pulled and she sank to the bottom with only her upper works above water. One life lost - 24 year old John Kent. Burned wreck sold to Capt. Edward Prill, of Tonawanda, who rebuilt and renamed her. As OLGA Sep 21, 1904 - In tow of the steamer EDWARD HINES when she became overbalanced after losing part of her deckload of lumber in a storm. The crew spent the night atop the remaining lumber as the OLGA's starboard bulwarks were under water. She sprang a leak and became waterlogged. The remainder of the deckload was washed overboard. Finally spotted by the carferry GRAND HAVEN 20 miles off Fox Point and was towed into Milwaukee by the tugs WELCOME and STARKE. May 23, 1905 - Lumber laden and in tow of the steamer SACHEM on the St. Clair river when she was nearly crushed between the Gilchrist steamer SAUNDERS and the Anchor Liner CLARION. Oct 19, 1905 - Bound Duluth to Tonawanda with lumber in tow of the steamer MEYER with a heavy sea running when the towline snapped. Her anchors grabbed bottom just in time to keep her from smashing against the Pictured Rocks. Dismasted and missing her rudder she was repaired and returned to service. Nov 26, 1905 - Broke loose from her towing steamer, MEYER, in Lake Huron during a storm. Abandoned by her crew the OLGA wandered around the lake for several days before going ashore about three miles above Goderich minus her bowsprit, foresails and part of her deckload. Crew was picked up by the MEYER and the steamer MAUNALOA. Released and repaired at Port Huron. May, 1906 - Libeled by her crew for back wages and seized at Tonawanda, the OLGA was sold at auction for $2,275 to Edward Smith, an agent for the Great Lakes Towing Company, and towed to Buffalo to fit her as a wrecker. Quite an irony considering the amount of work she had provided to wreckers in 1905. Her first job as a lighter was to remove the ore cargo from the steamer SATURN which had sunk in the Blackwell Canal with a hole stove in her forward compartment. 1910/1911 - Sold to Hand & Johonson Tug company, of Buffalo. Oct, 1912 - Sold by Hand & Johnson Tug company, of Buffalo, to G. H. Williams, Cleveland & Erie Machinery Co., and towed to Erie, Pa. by the tug YALE. There is no further record of the OLGA after 1912, except that her name does appear in Beeson's Marine Directory, as one of the "current vessels" with name changes, until 1916. Quite possibly stripped and abandoned for age. ======================================================================== Sources: Record of American & Foreign Shipping, 1900 (as Sandusky 115141) Merchant Vessel Lists - 1904, 1905, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912 (noted "formerly schooner Sandusky") Beeson's Marine Directory of the Northwestern Lakes - 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1916 Buffalo Evening News - 4 August 1903 North Tonawanda Evening News - 22 September 1904 Buffalo Courier - 24 May 1905 Oswego Daily Record - 4 December 1905 Buffalo Express - 25 May 1906 Buffalo Courier - 12, 18 & 27 July 1906 Inland Seas, Vol. 18 - 1962 Wolff, Julius F. Jr., "Shipwrecks of Lake Superior" - p. 80