Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Clayton Belle OTHER NAME(s): - OFFICIAL NO: 4282 DATE OF LOSS: 12 April 1882 REASON: Collision LOCATION: Lake Huron, 10 miles n. of Port Huron RIG TYPE: Schooner, 2 masted HULL TYPE: Wooden BUILDER: John Oades, Clayton, N.Y. 1863* OWNER(S): Merrick, Fowler & Co., Detroit MASTER: Capt. Fred A. Colvin, of New Haven, N.Y. TONNAGE: 300 t. LENGTH: ? BEAM: ? DEPTH: ? CASUALTIES: 3 SURVIVORS: 4 Bound St. Ignace for Erie, Pa., with pig iron. Was standing on and off while waiting for a tug when run into by the schooner Thomas Parsons and sunk in very few minutes. Three of the crew had been on deck and jumped aboard the Parsons while the schooners were still wedged together. The captain of the Parsons and 3 crew members attempted to launch the yawl boat which got tangled in the rigging and went down with the Parsons. One of them was rescued by the tug Mocking Bird. ======================================================================== Sources: Donahue, James L. "Schooners In Peril", 1995, p. 46-49 Rattigan, Wm. "Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals, 1977, p. 108 Mansfield, "History of the Great Lakes, Vol. 1, 1899 Oswego Palladium, 8 January 1861 Merchant Vessel list, 1871, p. 23 Bluffton (Indiana) Weekly Chronicle, 20 April 1882, p. 1 Buffalo Morning Express, 13 April 1882 Oswego Palladium, 15 April 1882 *Note: there are various years given for build date. Merchant Vessel list and Mansfield give 1863 but schr. Clayton Belle is included on a list of vessels laid up at Clayton, N.Y. in January, 1861. She was involved in a collision in 1863 which did considerable damage to her stern and was repaired that year. Donahue, "Schooners in Peril" gives the build year as 1868.