THE LAKE HURON CATASTROPHE.
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Alcona and Its People--The Scenes on the "Marine City"--Gallantry of the Crew--Services of the Tug "Vulcan"--Brave Women and Cowardly Men--Death of Dr. Pomeroy--Present Condition of the Wreck--Inefficiency of the Life Saving Service.
Detroit, Mich., Sept. 2.
Alcona, which has suddenly acquired prominence by reason of the "Marine City" disaster, is one of the many little lumbering places that dot the long stretch of inhospitable shore between Saginaw Bay and Mackinac. It is situated in a slight indentation, hardly deep enough to be called a bay, with Sturgeon Point forming one cape, and a nameless projection about three miles to the northwestward the other. At each of these points dangerous reefs project out, that at Sturgeon Point extending two miles and frequent disasters upon these and neighboring reefs give the locality a bad reputation among marines, who accord it a wide berth when the weather is at all threatening. There is a lighthouse and a life-saving station at Sturgeon Point.
The Town owes its existence--of which it has had 10 or 12 years--to its being the seat of operations of the extensive lumbering firm of James Beard & Co., who have there a large saw-mill, a lath mill, and a shingle mill, which are supplied with lumber from the pineries, by a well built railroad--3 feet 6 inches gage and 12 miles in length. The employes of these various institutions and their families make up the 600 population the village possesses. It looks like all other places of its class--puffing mills, piles of odorous pine lumber, laths and shingles, other piles of jagged refuse, acres of saw logs, and sawdust as plentiful as sand in a desert, forming its principal features. The pine forest immediately around the Town has, for some reason, been deadened, instead of being cut off, and the leafless, barkless tree-skeletons form a border of depressing grimness to a place that, far from being inviting in appearance at any time, must look as dreary and desolate as Greenland in Autumn and Winter.
The outlook is upon a boundless waste of rolling waters, that, chafed for hundreds of miles by the chill northwestern winds, sweeping down from bleak Canada, come racing in great hungry waves that lash the stubborn reefs and sullen shore, until they break themselves in clouds of spray.
But, whatever their surroundings, the people of Alcona, one and all, bear that stamp of genuine nobility, which Nature frequently delights in setting upon even the humblest. They have that grandest of nobilities, where
Kind hears are more than coronets
And simple faith than Norman blood.
Certainly there never was a community in which everybody bore the test of a great emergency more admirably, and which had absolutely no one that did not do more than his whole duty. In all the 180 survivors of the disaster there is not one breath of complaint against any man, woman or child in Alcona, but on the other hand enthusiastic laudation of everybody and all they did. I challenge duplication of this anywhere in the world. How Alcona escaped having at least one mean man, anxious to make merchandize of the miseries of others, is a secret I wish she would communicate to other places. If her pine industries bring about this blessed result, then let us all pave our streets with sawdust, and perfume the air with the resiny odors arising from piles of lumber, lath, and piny refuse.
At the first sight of the flames rising from the "Marine City," the only two boats on the beach were hastily manned and rowed as rapidly strong muscles, keyed up with intense excitement, could do it. These did superb service in picking up the people in the water, and as fast as the rescued were landed, either from these boats or the tugs "Vulcan" or "Grayling," the people of the Town took them in hand. Those who had been in the water were undressed, rubbed, and clothed again in dry garments furnished by their benefactors, who in some instances almost stripped themselves to do this. Thousands of dollars were taken from the dripping pockets, dried, and returned without the loss of a cent by any one. Remember that this was done by people who think $30 a month good wages, and $40 almost affluence, and from whom gifts of clothing, etc., meant the donation of weeks of hard toil with the ax or the handspike.
I find the praises of the survivors unanimously accorded to three classes--the people of Alcona, the Captain and crew of the "Marine City" and the Captain of the "Vulcan."
CAPTAIN COMER
of the "Marine City," was asleep when the first alarm of fire was given.
The First Mate made the discovery, and instantly tearing down the fire hose, which was secured to the deck above water by strips of canvas and tacks, he attached it to the donkey engine, and ordering the Second Engineer, who was on watch, to start the engine, he left two deck hands with directions to play upon the flames, and ran up to awake the Captain. As the latter rushed out of his state room, he comprehended the whole magnitude of the danger, and made his dispositions with wonderful coolness and clearness to meet it. His crew stood at their posts, waited for his orders, and obeyed them implicitly. Not a man failed him at any time. The flames rose up amidships so speedily as to cut off communication between the two parts of the vessel, but twice the Captain walkt aft on the arches, and returned to his post forward. He and those with him exerted themselves to calm the panic-stricken passengers to keep them upon the boat to the last moment, and to provide them with something to float with. They tore off the outside doors, wherever possible, and handed them to the women and weakly men. Once when a frightened man had opened one of the cabin doors and let in a draft of air which fanned the flames more fiercely, Capt. Comer put his arm through the hottest fire, and though is was blistered, he caught the door and held it to until a deck hand could rig a fastening for it. He was admirably seconded by several of the passengers, but by none so well as by Mr. Frank Beard--one of the Alcona firm, whose coolness and forethought were beyond praise.
On the rear part of the boat Second Mate Luke Done did all that courage and good seamanship could do. He--with the assistance of his watch, lowered one of the boats, and put 28 people--all it would hold--in it, and sent it off under charge of one of the "Look-outs." There was a defect in the lowering apparatus of the other boat, but he finally got it down. By this time the panic among the passengers had gotten beyond control, and they sprang into it with such violence as to almost swamp it, but he finally got it away with 17 persons, and a Look-out in charge.
He next attempted to launch the life raft, but by this time the supports to the deck upon which it lay had burned away until when he walkt across it sagged beneath his feet like a bit of rotten ice, and he was compelled to abandon the attempt.
This was the spirit manifested by every man of the boat's crew. The only insinuations of failure by any one to do his whole duty are against the Second Engineer, who, it is claimed, was not quite up to the mark set for him by his associates.
CAPTAIN HACKETT,
of the tug "Vulcan," is a hero who deserves recognition by the whole Nation. At the first sight of the flames on the other vessel, he cast loose his tows and came to the relief with such swiftness that his boat's bow was hidden by the sheet of spray that curled up before it. And when he came what a noble work he did! It was always just the right thing at just the right instant. He is such a man and such a sailor as has made the American flag the proudest bit of bunting that floats on salt water. Give him a first-class frigate--and a cause to fight for, and he would not be long in placing his name alongside of Porter's, and Decatur's, and Farragut's.
FEMININE COURAGE.
The gentler sex may take it as a laurel gathered in a new field, that everybody admits that the women on the boat showed much more composure and courage than the men. At first some of them screamed a little, but that was speedily husht, and some of them tried though ineffectually, to shame into silence several great hulking fellows, who added much to the panic by their cowardly bellowings. Quite a number of women exhibited address in caring for themselves and their children, and escaped unharmed. One lady, whose 70th birthday occurred the following day, staid on the boat until the fire blistered her temples, and then sprang overboard. Though insensible when picked up she was restored by the vigorous efforts of the Good Samaritans on shore, and when brought away yesterday, showed as few signs of detriment as any of the rescued.
THE OTHER SEX.
A few instances occurred that make one blush for his sex. One stalwart Detroiter, whose name the officers refuse to give out of consideration for him, was especially conspicuous for his cowardly clamor. There was absolutely no way of quieting him. When the "Vulcan" came up he was the very first to jump on board, and after securing his own safety, he turned around and called out to his family--
"Now, you come on."
Another man--weighing 200 pounds if an ounce--took away from a delicate woman a door which Capt. Comer had torn from the wash room, and give her, first breaking out the glass with his hands, that she might put her arms through, and get a firm hold. Capt. Comer came upon him, as he was sitting on the side of the boat, with the door, and, with a few energetic observations, compelled him to restore the door to this woman. Still another came up to Mrs. Clough, who had secured a life preserver, and was trying to put it on.
"Let me help you,"
he said, with assumed kindness. She handed him the life preserver, when he coolly walked away and put it on himself.
Dr. Pomeroy, who was quite old and feeble, had secured a life preserver, and insisted upon his daughter taking it. As it had no string she could not put it on but stood, holding it in her hands, and while doing s a fellow came up and tried to take it away.
"You coward," said Dr. Pomeroy, "you shall not take that away from my child," and the fellow slunk away, but the fear that others might repeat the attempt kept Dr. Pomeroy from going to hunt for another life preserver.
I regret to say that all these fellows still live; I regret it both because of the moral effect of such cravenness going unpunisht, and that they will have opportunities for propagating and extending the breed of cowards. There is a wonderful sight of good lightning wasted every year on much better men.
Dr. Pomeroy finally put Mrs. McElroy in the water, and securing a small green sofa, and sprang overboard with it and his grandson. After they had been in the water about an hour a boat picked up Mrs. McElroy after she had become insensible, and as she was sinking for the last time. The men in the boat saw Dr. Pomeroy at a little distance, and pushed for him, but he went down before they reached him and did not come up again.
Thus died one whose life was rich to continual overflow in unselfish kindness to all around him. Gentle as a woman, untiring in self sacrifice for others, generous as the sweet sunshine, he was one loved and admired by every one of the thousands who had come to know him and his infinite opulence of lovable qualities. He came to Ottawa, Putnam County, O., nearly 50 years ago, a young physician, seeking a location in that new country. He was very successful in practice and in business and accumulated considerable property. At the outbreak of the war his only son, Guy Pomeroy, a brilliant young lawyer, to whom he was devotedly attached, entered the army as a Lieutenant in the 21st O.V.I., and was one of the first, if not the very first commissioned officer to fall on the Union side of the War, being killed while leading his company to charge a Rebel battery at Scary Creek, West Virginia. This nearly broke his father's heart, and infused a melancholy into his life that tinged it to the last. The grandson lost with him was a namesake of the unfortunate young Lieutenant, and beloved above others on that account.
RECOVERING THE BODIES.
The prospect of recovering the bodies is very uncertain. Lake Huron is by far the deepest of the great Lakes, having an average depth exceeding 1,000 feet. Its waters are very cold, which makes the time of the decomposition that brings bodies to the surface quite indefinite. Add to this the varying currents, the great expanse of the Lake, the continual shifting of the winds, and the almost interminable stretches of sparsely inhabited coast, and the chances that the bodies will come ashore where they will be found and recognized, become dishearteningly small. The winds have been blowing for several days directly inshore at Alcona, and the main hope is that this will continue, and that the two reefs projecting out on either side of the scene of the disaster, will form a sort of a pocket that will retain the bodies there until they are cast ashore.
THE WRECK
now lies some two miles below Alcona in about a fathom of water, and within 200 feet of the shore. Part of the bat is burned almost to the keel, as she rose in the water as fast as the upper works and freight were burned off. The rusty chimney and boiler stand up erect and high, as a monument to mark the closing scene of the catastrophe. For a mile or more above and below the shore is strewn with debris, driven ashore by the waves--pieces of the vessel's sides and timbers, three or four cots, hundreds of cedar ties and posts, copper wash boilers, and tin vessels from the kitchen. But the waves seem to have rejected everything of any value, to devote themselves to the trash that they could accumulate. One small trunk, the hat of a little girl who had gone on the boat at Alcona to go to Harrisville, and Guy McElroy's little blue cap comprised all the personal belongings of the passengers that drifted in. Besides these and the cedar ties the whole value of the drift would not reach $5.
The Life Saving Station was nearly an utter failure. At the time the Captain of the Station--a man named Silverthorn--was at his farm two miles away, where report says he remains too much for the good of the service, and two of the remaining six men were out gathering berries. The Captain claims to have had four men on duty, but no one saw more than two at work, and these were not of any conspicuous service. Though from a mile to a mile and a half nearer the burning steamer than the boats at Alcona, the latter reached the vessel much the sooner, and did vastly greater service. There is very general complaint against Capt. Silverthorn, and no doubt is expressed that he and his crew are quite a useless expense to the Government. He has none of the qualities which fit him for the position. He is a slow motioned, farmer-like man, whit no special sailor training, and no qualities that fit him for action in any emergency. He does not train his crew, and, in short, it is claimed, does little beyond drawing his salary. The keeper of the light at Sturgeon Point is regarded by the mariners and citizens of the "shore" as a vastly more fit man for the place. One thing seems to be certain--not only of this station, but of all others, and that is, that the Life Saving Service needs remodeling on a different basis. Now the crews are made up of men hired by the month for the season of navigation. In the Winter they work in lumber camps and wherever else they can find employment. The proper way would seem to be to place the service in the hands of the Navy, enlist sailors regularly into it, and train them as the members of the Signal Service are trained.
McElroy.