Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, 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: Walk-in-the-Water OTHER NAME(s): - REASON: DATE: November 1, 1821 LOCATION: Lake Erie, near Buffalo light TYPE: sidewheel streamer HULL TYPE: wooden BUILDER: in 1818 at Black Rock, N.Y. OWNER: MASTER: Capt. Jedediah Rogers TONNAGE: 338.62 LENGTH: 135 ft BEAM: 32 ft DEPTH: 8.25 ft CASUALTIES: 0 SURVIVORS: The first Steamboat on Lake Erie was built at Black Rock, below Buffalo, in 1818, hav- ing been launched about the 4th of July. She was named "Walk-in-the-Water," as alleged for an Indian Chief; was of about 300 tons burden, and moved in the water at from eight to ten miles per hour. The date of its first trip up the Lake is not definitely settled in history, by some of being given as in September. The Cleveland Register of November 3, 1818, made this mention of what seems to have been her first visit to that port, as follows: The Steamboat Walk-in-the-Water left Buffalo for Detroit on the 10th of October, having on board 100 passengers. The facility with which she moves over our Lake, warrants us in saying that she will be of utility, not only to the proprietors, but also to the public. She offers us a safe, sure and speedy convey- ance for all our surplus produce to distant markets. She works as well in a storm as any vessel on the Lakes, and answers the most sanguine expectations of the proprietors. The following was the first announcement made of a Steamboat excursion to the Upper Lakes: The Steamboat Walks-in-the-Water will sail on the 10th of June next, from Buffalo for Michilimackinac, and call as usual for passengers at the intermediate ports on Lake Erie. Her second trip will be on the 9th of August next. Jedediah Rogers, Master. Cleveland, May 25, 1820 Mr. E. D. Howe, for many years publisher of a newspaper at Painsville, Ohio, in 1859 made a statement of his personal knowledge of this Steamboat, in which he said: On the fourth day of July (or thereabouts), in the year 1818, I saw the said Boat slide from her ways into the Niagara River, two miles below Buffalo, at the Village of Black Rock. She was landed beam foremost, or sideways, and brought up within 20 feet of the shore. She was finished and made three or four trips to Detroit the same season. The next year (1819) I was a passenger on said Boat to Cleveland on her first trip up. She was commanded by Captain Job Fish, and a rough and rickety thing she was. The harbors on Lake Erie at that time could only be entered by small open boats, and in consequence of a heavy wind we lay in the Lake off Cleveland three days and three nights, without effecting a landing. Mr. Howe states the fastest time of the pioneer Steamboat to have been 29 hours from Buffalo to Cleveland (200 miles), or about seven miles per hour. The Steamer was in service three years, and until November, 1821, leaving Black Rock at four P.M. on the 6th of that month, for Detroit and intermediate ports, with 75 passengers and a large quantity of merchandise. The weather was then calm. When out six miles, the wind arose, and Captain Rogers returned to Buffalo Bay. The wind increased in force, accompanied by rain, and the night was intensely dark. Between 10 and 11, she commenced leaking and dragged her anchors before the hurricane. Despite the pumps, the water increased in the hold. She continued to drift, and soon struck, when her cables were cut, and she went ashore on a sandy beach. The passengers and crew got ashore a little before daylight. The goods were wet and seriously damaged. Captain Rogers was said to have done his full duty in the crisis. The keel was broken in two or three places, and the entire hull was so seriously shattered as to have been rendered useless. She had been in service a little over three years. Among the passengers on board the Walk- in-the-Water during her last trip, were Orlando Cutter, George Williams and John S. Strong, of Cleveland. Mr. Cutter stated that being East in the Fall of 1821, he decided on reach- ing Black Rock to take the Steamboat, instead of a Schooner, as had been his practice. In company with about 70 passengers (including the other two persons named) he went aboard. The oxen were hitched to the craft, and in due time took it past the rapids to the open Lake. Owing to the severe gale prevailing, Captain Rogers was compelled to put back, but unable to enter Buffalo Creek, anchored at its mouth. Being very seasick, Mr. Cutter occupied his berth below. Mr. Williams, in 1885 (then probably the only surviving passenger of the Walk-in-the-Water), furnished an account of his experience on the occassion referred to, in which he said: The Walk-in-the-Water on that last voyage left Black Rock in the afternoon of a dull, cloudy day. As she cast off her tow-line and moved unaided into the broad waters of Lake Erie, there was no anticipa- tion of the terrible gale we were soon to encounter. The boat had a full complement of passengers, and a full cargo of goods, mostly for Western merchants, one of whom, Mr. Palmer, of Detroit, was on board with his bride. There was also a company of Mis- sionaries, several of whom were ladies, on their way to some Western Indian tribe. As the winds rose, friends grouped themselves together, and as the storm grew more and more furious, there was great terror among them. The Missionaries sang hymns and de- voted themselves to soothing the terrified. We lay tossed of the tempest, the big seas sweeping over us all the long night. Just as the first gleam of daylight appeared our anchor began to drag. Captain Miller seeing the impossibility of saving the Steamer, or- dered her beached. With skilled seamanship she was sent broadside on. A rope was stretched from boat to beach, and the passengers were ferried to shore in the small boat. They reached it drenched and exhausted, but all saved. ======================================================================== Sources: "History of the city of Toledo and Lucas County, OH" Munsell & Co., 1888 - pgs 452-453