Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: W. H. Gilcher OTHER NAME(S): - OFFICIAL NO: 81326 DATE OF LOSS: 28 October 1892 CAUSE OF LOSS: Storm LOCATION: Lake Michigan, off Manitou Islands RIG TYPE: Propeller, bulk freighter HULL TYPE: Steel BUILDER: Cleveland Shipbuilding Co. - 1891 OWNER(S): Joseph C. Gilchrist, firm of Moore, Barton & Gilchrist MASTER: Capt. Leeds H. Weeks, Vermillion, OH TONNAGE: 2414.64 gt DIMENSIONS: 318 x 41 x 24.4 CASUALTIES: 17 - 22 (all - sources vary on number) For many years the W. H. GILCHER had held the record of having carried the largest cargo of wheat - 113,885 bushels - that had ever been transported by a single vessel between Chicago and Buffalo. The W. H. GILCHER left Buffalo, N.Y. on Wednesday, October 26, loaded with coal to be delivered at Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon. Her passage was reported at the straits during the early afternoon of Friday, October 28, before a fiece gale began its two day blow across the Great Lakes. Concern was raised when the GILCHER did not arrive in Milwaukee over the weekend. Captain Duncan Buchanan of the schooner SEAMAN reported that at about 8 p.m. on Friday he had seen the W. H. GILCHER about 20 miles northeast of North Manitou Island, and 15 miles due west of Fox Island light. At that time the GILCHER had her bow headed west- northwest, directly into the wind. The schooner SEAMAN had passed within 300 feet of the GILCHER so there was no mistaking her identity. Captain George Dennis of the schooner JOHN SHAW, arrived in Chicago on November 1st and reported passing through a large quantity of wreckage near the North Manitou islands. The Captain of the steamer WAUKESHA, upon arrival at Port Huron, November 2, reported that he saw the lights of a big steamer go out suddenly as he was passing Fox Island. Furniture and other wreckage bearing the name W. H. GILCHER began washing ashore at North Manitou Island on November 3, confirming that the freighter had gone down with all hands. The schooner OSTRICH was also wrecked in the same storm and in the same vicinity as the W. H. GILCHER and was cast, almost bottom side up, on the beach. Speculation at the time was that a collision ensued between the OSTRICH and GILCHER. The GILCHER was lost within 60 days of her sister ship, WESTERN RESERVE, which broke in two and sank during a summer gale off Deer Park, MI. Since they were almost identical twins suspicions about substandard steel used in the patented "Bessemer process" arose with the loss of the GILCHER. CREW LIST Captain - Leeds H. Weeks, Vermillion, OH First Mate - Ed Porter, Lorain, OH Second Mate - Harvey Peters, Cleveland, OH Chief Engineer - Sidney B. Jones, Marine City, MI Second Engineer - Peter Sackett, Marine City, MI Wheelmen - Thomas Finley, Buffalo, N.Y. Fred King, Chicago, IL Oilers - Charles Thompson, Vermillion, OH Charles Huntoon, Marine City, MI Firemen - Charles Green, Marine City, MI Albert Green, Marine City, MI Steward - Charles E. Williams Deck hands - Wm. & George Hostler, Marine City, MI - four who were taken aboard at Buffalo on her last trip down. ======================================================================== Sources: Buffalo Enquirer, 2 Nov 1892 Cleveland Leader, 2 Nov 1892 Oswego Palladium, 4 Nov 1892 Cleveland Leader, 4 Nov 1892 Cleveland Leader, 5 Nov 1892 Chicago Tribune, 5 Nov 1892 Merchant Vessel List, 1892 Bowen, Dana Thomas "Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes" - 1952 Swayze, David D. "Shipwreck!" - 1992 Thompson, Mark L., "Graveyard of the Lakes" - 2004 Last updated 17 January 2016