Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 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 USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Charlotte Raab OTHER NAME(s): - OFFICIAL NO: 5988 DATE OF LOSS: 1894 CAUSE OF LOSS: Abandoned due to age and condition LOCATION: Chicago river RIG TYPE: Schooner, 3 mast HULL TYPE: Wood BUILDER: at Sheboygan, WI - 1870 OWNER(S): J. W. Melchert, Chicago - 1894 MASTER: - TONNAGE: 191.62 gt DIMENSIONS: 127.1 x 25.4 x 9.4 CASUALTIES: 0 June 5, 1894, the CHARLOTTE RAAB, was run on the breakwater at Chicago and pounded for three hours before being pulled off by the tug PROTECTION. Capt. Jacob Melchert claimed he was unable to see the harbor light until he was nearly upon the breakwater. She was taken up the Chicago river to end her days with dozens of other rotting hulks abandoned there. By August, 1898, the Chicago Tribune described her as being mastless, with two spars lying on the river bank overgrown with moss. Her bulwarks had rotted away and bowsprit had long since fallen into the river. White scars on her sides were caused by the chafing of ratlines which had long ago disappeared. The reporter stated that she was "altogether as satisfactorily ruined a hulk as could be found." ======================================================================== Sources: Buffalo Courier, 6 July 1894 Beeson's - 1891, 1892 Blue Book of American Shipping, 1897 Chicago Tribune, 14 August 1898 Merchant Vessel List - 1897 District Court, E.D. Michigan, Case NO. 2622, July 1873