Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== NAME: Thomas Hume OTHER NAME(s): built as H. C. Albrecht REASON: foundered in storm DATE: 22 May 1891 LOCATION: Lake Michigan TYPE: schooner, originally 2 masts, third added while under ownership of Hackley & Hume. HULL TYPE: wooden BUILDER: Capt. Harry C. Albrect at Manitowoc, WI, 1870 OWNER: H. C. Albrecht (1870-1876) Captain Welch, of Chicago (1876) Charles Hackley & Thomas Hume, of Muskegon MASTER: Capt. Henry Albrightson TONNAGE: 209.79 gross, 199.31 net LENGTH: 131.6 ft BEAM: 26.3 ft DEPTH: 8.4 ft CASUALTIES: 6 - 7 (reports vary) SURVIVORS: 0 One of the biggest mysteries on the Great Lakes for many years was the disappearance of the schooner Thomas Hume. On Thursday, May 21, 1891, the schooner Thomas Hume, in company with the Rouse Simmons (aka the Christmas Tree Ship) cleared from Chicago en route to their home port, Muskegon, MI, and was never heard from again. Having delivered their cargo of lumber in Chicago both vessels were empty and light as they began their voyage. A spring squall blew up and the Rouse Simmons was driven back, surviving one storm only to be lost to another twelve years later. After two days of waiting in Chicago the Rouse Simmons set sail for Muskegon. It wasn't until the arrival of the Simmons that anyone realized the Hume was missing. Despite rewards being offered for information as to her fate no wreckage from the Hume was ever reported to be found. Not being insured it was a total loss to Hackley & Hume. Speculations and theories ran wild. Did she founder? Was she run down by another vessel? Or, was she stolen by her crew, only to be repainted and was still sailing under another name? The mystery of the Thomas Hume was finally solved in 2005 when Taras Lysenko, a diver with A & T Recovery, discovered the sunken remains of the vessel under more than 150 feet of water in the southern portion of Lake Michigan where she had been laying in cold solitude for 114 years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: Buffalo Enquirer, June 2, 1891 THE FATE OF THE HUME Capt. Lee, who went out with the Steysill to search for the missing schooner Hume, when asked what he thought her fate was, is reported as exclaiming: "Collision-run down, of course, just as the W. C. Kimball was run down. If she capsized she wouldn't sink, and I don't believe that staunch, stiff vessel ever capsized. Some steamer ran her down. People say no captain would be heartless enough to leave a crew after running their vessel down. Eshaw! I have sailed these lakes 40 years, and I know of several such cases. The fine schooner Magellan was one of them. If the officers of some steamers see a big loss to pay for you bet they keep mum." In regard to Jesse Martin's report of seeing the spar of a sunken vessel west of Holland, Capt. Lee said: "The captain of the Martin says he didn't go to that spar because he didn't know then that the Hume was missing. All nonsense. The Martin knew all about the Hume disaster. But if there is any spar there it isn't the Hume's. If she was afloat and in good shape she couldn't get as far north as that the way the wind was." It seems to be impossible to learn the names of the Hume's crew, though they all shipped at Chicago. The Hume, like all other vessels, kept a book on board. That book is lost with her, and no list of the crew was left ashore. Hackley & Hume, the owners of the Hume, can give only the name of the master - Capt. Albrightson - and Mr. Deming, the agent in Chicago, is also uninformed. Even the Seaman's Union has no list of the crew. Names have been published but the owners of those names have all turned up ashore. It was ascertained last evening to a certainty that the mate was Olaf Johnson, but he names of the other five seamen have not been learned. Johnson was 25 years old and a single man. His brother and sister live in Chicago and his parents in the old country. Capt. Henry Albrightson, as already announced, leaves a widow and six children, who reside in Ayers Court, Chicago. ======================================================================== **NOTE: Sources give her departure date from Chicago as May 20, 21st and 22nd. Sources: Buffalo Enquirer, May 29, 1891 Port Huron Daily Times, May 29, 1891 Muskegon Chronicle, September 6, 2008