Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1899 — LOST IN SHIPWRECK. [ARTICLE]

LOST IN SHIPWRECK.

Steamer Margaret Olwill Go** Down in Lake Erie. In a northeast gale the steamer Margaret Olwill, laden with stone from Kelley’s Island to Cleveland, foundered in Lake Erie off Lorain, Ohio. Nine persons were drowned. Four members of the crew have been picked up by passing steamers and taken into Cleveland. From the reports of the survivors the Olwill’s cargo of stone shifted while the vessel was laboring in the trough of the sea. Shortly before it went down the rudder chains parted, allowing it to fall off into the trough. As the helpless craft rose on top of a heavy sea the stone slid to leeward, the steamer listed heavily, and sank to the botoni. The rescued members of the crew were found floating on the surface of Lake Erie, clinging to bits of wreckage. Their rescue was attended by exhibitions of great heroism, for a heavy sea was still running when they were picked up. The Olwill lies in fifty feet of water, eight miles off Lorain. It belonged to L. P. and J. A. Smith of Cleveland and had been carrying stone from the quarries at Kelley’s Island to Cleveland for the breakwater now being built. The Olwill was launched in* 1887 and was 175 feet long and 34 feet beam. It measured 554 gross tons.