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Death of the Lady Elgin - part two
This is a continuation of Death of the Lady Elgin and it describes what happened after the initial collision of the two ships. ‘The Augusta soon freed itself from the Lady Elgin. Captain Malott, mistakenly thinking his ship had dealt the Elgin only a glancing blow and fearful that his own ship might founder, immediately turned toward Chicago. All was pandemonium on the Lady Elgin. In a desperate attempt to lighten the load the crew drove overboard 50 head of cattle that had been in pens below deck. Cargo, including iron stoves, was moved to the starboard side in order to raise the hole in the port side out of water. Efforts to launch lifeboats failed. The Lady Elgin began to disintegrate, cutting off most passengers from life preservers. Within 20 minutes most of the ship was headed to the bottom. When dawn broke, about 500 passengers were still
floating on debris and broken decking. Though aided by relatively warm water, the churning surf tore infants from would-be rescuers’ arms and stymied efforts of many to maintain secure grips on improvised rafts. Only 160 of the approximately 400 survivors who reached the shallows were able to make it to shore. Of the 430 or so confirmed lost, less than half were ever found. Acts of heroism were the stuff of legend. Captain Wilson, trying to save two women from the waves, was killed when he was dashed on the rocks just off the shore. Edward Spencer, a Northwestern University student, repeatedly charged back into the waves to save, it is said, as many as 18 people. Afterward he became delirious, repeatedly asking, “Did I do my best?” His heroism later became the impetus for the
Evanston, Illinois, United States Lifesaving Station. When the crippled Augusta reached harbor she was leaking badly, Captain Malott was horrified to learn that the Lady Elgin had gone down. The public and the press soon began to attack him as an agent of the Confederacy as well as an agent of pro-Confederacy Britain, where he had spent some time. Many felt that the ramming was deliberately planned to get rid of the Milwaukee Irish militia on board. The Augusta’s name was quietly changed to the Captain Cook, after which she had a long career on the Lakes until she was
wrecked near Cleveland in 1894. Captain Malott and his crew eventually found work on the bark Mojave. Four years almost to the day after the Lady Elgin disaster, the Mojave disappeared without a trace, possibly in the waters of northern Lake Michigan. Speculation was rife that the crew, all but one of whom had been aboard the Augusta, had been lynched in response to the Lady Elgin disaster. Republican Governor Randall of Wisconsin, who had disarmed the Irish Union Guards, was regarded a villain. The incident further increased tensions
between Democrats and Republicans over issues of states rights and slavery. Written shortly after the disaster, Henry C. Work’s song, Lost on the Lady Elgin, rose in popularity to become one of the nation’s best-known songs. It is fitting that this early Hyde Parker used his talents to commemorate a tragedy that, had there not been political tensions over states’ rights and slavery, probably would not have happened at all.“ Safe in the Harbor. Lee Murdock, Depot Recordings, 123
South Hough Street, Barrington, IL 60010. Contact: Artists of Note, P. O. Box 11, Kaneville, IL 60144-0011. (708) 557-2742. Excerpted from The Wreck of the Steamer Lady Elgin, by
Brendon Baillod for the Hyde Park Historical Newsletter, Winter 2006.
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Contributor's Note
This disaster on the Great Lakes mirrors, in a small scale, the sinking of the Titanic.
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http://www.julierichman.com
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