People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — THE ILL-FATED DEAN RICHMOND. [ARTICLE]

THE ILL-FATED DEAN RICHMOND.

Twenty-Four Person* Were Drowned— The Sole Survivor’* Story. Dunkirk, N. Y., Oct. 18.—Twentyfour persons were drowned on the Dean Richmond. One man survived the terrible disaster. He is C. L. Clark, who was a wheelman on the Richmond and shipped at Toledo. He says there were nineteen on board besides Capt Stoddard, his wife and three children. Eleven bodies have been recovered. Clark tells a vivid tale. Says he: “The gale struck us during Friday night but we made good progress against it for a long time. It only increased In violence as the night wore on and Saturday morning Capt. Stoddard headed for Erie. The sea was too high to attempt it The gale became a hurricane in the morning and at 2 o’clock in th* afternoon the smokestacks went over the side. An hour later a huge wave came over our bows and washed the pilot house off. The rudder broke and the Richmond drifted helplessly in the sea. The engines were kept moving and it was tried to run the boat ashore, but this plan failed also. The seas were following each other in quick succession and the cabins were nearly all gone. “At 11 o'clock I was caught by a wave which landed me some distance from the boat It was then 2 miles from shore. 1 turned on my back as a blinding flash of lightning revealed the steamer. I saw the hatch covers fly up and the boat roll to one side and take in much water. Then in seemed to stand on end and go down. The light faded and I never saw it again. “How I got ashore is a mystery to me. I had nothing to cling to, and as the waves broke over me I was rendered unconscious by the force of their weight When I came to I was on the beach, surrounded by wreckage, and about 4 miles from the town. Slowly my strength came back, and in two or three hours I managed to get on my feet and make ray way to a house, where I was given food. I then made my way to town. The captain had his wife and three children with him on this trip. They must have gone down with the boat” Three More Drowned. While a party of men was searching for bodies from the Richmond Monday afternoon their boat capsized and George I. Thurber, Frank Cahoon and George Mann were drowned. The bodies have not been recovered.