Shipwrecks

Human folly, misfortune or deadly force?

"There is a quiet horror about the Great Lakes which grows as one revisits them," said Rudyard Kipling. People find the power of the storms on the Great Lakes astouding. More people have lost their lives off Chicago than anywhere else on the Great Lakes. This is due to the large amount of shipping combined with winter gales at the southern most tip of the lake where ships have little room to run in front of storms that gain power over the 300 mile length of the lake. The most frequent shipwrecks were of sailing ships that were blown aground on a lee shore, from an abrupt summer thunderstorm or a winter storm.

Built in 1803 beside the Chicago River, Ft. Dearborn was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of Ft. Dearborn in 1812, and a new fort was constructed on the same site in 1816. The fort was de-commissioned by 1837, the last vestiges being destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The site of the fort at Wacker and Michigan Ave. is now a Chicago Landmark.
Since 1832, Chicago’s harbor has seen a succession of lighthouses that have helped ships, laden with cargo and passengers, safely access one of the great port cities of the United States.

The oldest Chicago lighthouse was built in 1832 near the site of the Michigan Avenue bridge and stood 50 feet high. The masonry tower was equipped with a birdcage-style lantern room. In 1852, with the completion of an extension to the north pier, a new lighthouse was constructed at the pier’s end, and the old 1832 structure, standing by Fort Dearborn, was decommissioned.

The most recent lighthouse is the current Chicago Harbor Light originally constructed in 1893 at the end of the harbor pier. In 1910, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began major improvements on the Chicago harbor. As part of this effort, the light was moved in 1917 to the end of the outer harbor breakwater where it stands today. The Chicago Harbor Light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and later was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 9, 2003.

The historic Grosse Point Light is located in Evanston, Illinois. Following several shipping disasters because of the dangerous shoals nearby, Evanston residents successfully lobbied the federal government for a lighthouse. Construction was completed in 1873. The Grosse Point Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 1976. On January 20, 1999, the lighthouse was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Beginning in the 1930s, the lighthouses of the Chicago area were gradually automated, making it unnecessary for the light keepers to reside in the buildings. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service became part of the Coast Guard.

The Chicago area lighthouses serve as are examples of how the U.S. Government played a vital role in developing the Great Lakes for use by the people and businesses. It was the lighthouse tower that helped to turn untamed inland seas into inland waterways.
The Lady Elgin was known as the “Queen of the Lakes” because of her speed, reliability and gracious appointments. For nine years she sailed the lakes in safety, usually operating out of Chicago. The collision between the Lady Elgin and the lumber schooner Augusta on September 8, 1860 was one of the worst disasters in Chicago history.

The helmsman of both the Lady Elgin and the schooner failed to adjust their course enough to avoid the accident, in part due to heavy seas that reduced each vessel’s maneuverability. After the ships struck, they drifted apart. The crew of Augusta thought they had done little damage to the larger steamship and tried to nurse their damaged ship into Chicago. As it turned out, they were only slightly damaged while the Lady Elgin had ruptured below the waterline.

Captain Jack Wilson, a veteran mariner, turned the rapidly sinking steamer toward the Illinois shore. He had hesitated to embark that night due to the prospect of a storm but yielded his better judgment to pressure from passengers anxious to get home.

Between 350 and 380 passengers died when the Lady Elgin sunk several miles from shore. The panicked passengers tried to save themselves by clinging to pieces of the wreckage. The lifeboats had been swept away only partially full and the life preservers were stored in the flooded holds.

The storm drove the survivors toward the Evanston shore. As they neared the land, breakers claimed many lives, dashing them against rocks amid heavy surf, just a few feet from safety. Captain Wilson died there. After bringing several passengers through the surf, he was smashed against a rock.
In addition to lighthouses, the government operated life-saving stations along the shores of Lake Michigan. The United States Life-Saving Service dated from 1871, and once operated stations at Evanston, Chicago, Jackson Park and South Chicago.

The Life-Saving Service compiled an impressive record during its brief history. The Evanston station, for example, rescued all of the people in distress within its district during its 38 years of operation. The Chicago Harbor station serviced 359 ships during its tenure. In 1915, the Life-Saving Service was brought under the control of the U.S. Coast Guard.