PS Lady Elgin

1860

Great Lakes, the schooner Augusta Location: Lake Michigan, off Winnetka, Illinois · Coordinates: 42.11°N 87.76°W · Casualties: ~300 · Survivors: ~155 · Depth: 18 m · Cause: collision — Struck by the lumber schooner Augusta in a Lake Michigan squall at 02:30 on 8 September 1860 while carrying an Irish-American militia excursion back from Chicago. The Augusta's bow holed her port paddle box. She broke in half and sank within twenty minutes. · Fate: located 1989 · artifacts recovered · Type: sidewheel paddle steamer · Tonnage: 1,037 tons · Crew: 38 · Flag: United States · Launched: 1851 Great Lakes paddle steamer, Milwaukee to Chicago with an excursion of Irish-American militia and their families. Struck by the lumber schooner Augusta in a Lake Michigan squall at 02:30 on 8 September 1860, she broke in half and went down in twenty minutes. About 300 died, the deadliest open-water disaster in Great Lakes history. The loss led directly to the requirement that Great Lakes passenger vessels carry life preservers for every person aboard. The Vessel The SS Lady Elgin was a Great Lakes paddle steamer of the Gurdon S. Hubbard Line, commissioned at the Bidwell and Banta yard at Buffalo, New York, in 1851. She was 74 metres long, 1,039 gross tons, with side-wheel paddle propulsion driven by twin beam engines. She was designed specifically for the Chicago-Superior-Buffalo Great Lakes passenger and cargo trade, one of the principal commercial transportation axes of the pre-railroad Upper Midwest. Her commercial role through the 1850s had been the carriage of passengers, mail, and commercial cargo between Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, and Buffalo. The Great Lakes steamer trade of the 1850s was one of the most competitive commercial sectors in the United States: approximately 150 passenger steamers were operating across the lakes at any time, competing intensely for the passenger and mail contracts that represented the principal revenue sources of the trade. Her master in September 1860 was Captain Jack Wilson, 35, a career Great Lakes mariner. The Disaster The Augusta's reinforced oak bow penetrated Lady Elgin's port paddle-wheel housing and the paddle-wheel shaft structure behind it. The damage was substantial: Lady Elgin's port paddle was destroyed; her port hull structure between the paddle and the main cargo deck was breached; her boiler room was flooded within five minutes of the collision. The Augusta, believing her own ship to be more seriously damaged than the Lady Elgin (her bow had been crushed by the impact), proceeded immediately to Chicago for emergency repairs without rendering assistance to the sinking steamer. The Augusta's specific decision to continue to Chicago rather than to stand by and rescue survivors has been the subject of continuing historical criticism. Lady Elgin listed heavily to port and began to settle within 10 minutes of the collision. Captain Wilson ordered abandon-ship at approximately 02:45 on 8 September 1860. The ship's lifeboats were inadequate for her 555 complement (she carried only two small yawls with total capacity of approximately 30 people), and the evacuation proceeded chaotically as passengers attempted to use furniture, cargo doors, and pieces of the ship's superstructure as flotation devices. The Lady Elgin broke in half at approximately 03:00 on 8 September 1860 at approximately 42°16′N 87°45′W, in approximately 18 metres of water, about 40 kilometres north-northeast of Chicago. Of the approximately 555 aboard, at least 300 died; the exact casualty count has never been determin