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Thread: The Marquette & Bessemer No.2

  1. #1
    jay Guest

    The Marquette & Bessemer No.2

    I've always been fascinated with great lakes shipwrecks and i consider this a fascinating tale.

    The Marquette & Bessemer No.2 was a 335ft railway ferry that was only 4 years old when it disappeared in 1909.

    The ship was under the command of Captain Robert Mcleod when it left Conneaut, Ohio on the morning of December 7 1909, headed for Port Stanley,Ontario with a cargo of 33 railroad car's loaded with coal.

    After leaving Conneaut Harbor, she sailed directly into a fierce storm with winds reported in excess of 70 knots, blizzard conditions, and temperatures falling from 40 degrees to a mere 10 degrees above zero.

    Residents of Conneaut reported hearing a ship's whistle blowing a distress call around 1 AM on the morning of December 8th. People in Port Stanley reported hearing a ship's whistle blowing distress calls between 3 and 5AM the morning of December 8th. One account says a customs official saw the ship the Port Stanley coast, headed west. Some believe that, due to the poor navigation lights at Port Stanley, McLeod could not see the harbor and had to head back out to the lake.

    The ship was never heard from again.

    The storm raged on for days and due to the rough sea's no ship's could leave harbour to search for survivors. For weeks after her dissaperanace, pieces of wreckage from the ship washed up on the shores of both the U.S. and Ontario, Canada.

    After the storm abated and rescue ship's were able to search, an object was spotted on the horizon approximately 15 miles offshore of Erie, Pa. Upon approach, a gruesome discovery was made. A lifeboat from the missing ship was found half full of water, containing nine frozen crew members from the ship along with the ice-encrusted clothing of a 10th. All were dressed in work clothing, with none wearing any heavy protective clothing, blankets or coats. Some of the bodies bore deep slash wounds.

    Other bodies continued to wash up onshore for the next few months at Long Point, Buffalo N.Y., and the Niagara River close to the falls. On October 7, 1910, almost a year from the date of the loss, the body of Captain Robert Mcleod was found along the Canadian shoreline also bearing deep slash wounds.

    The ship is considered the holy grail of Lake Erie shipwrecks and to date despite excessive searching by divers has never been found. Adding to the mystery is that the wreck has reportedly been seen from the air on clear days. It has been sighted about eight miles northeast of Conneaut, in about 10 fathoms of water. Yet no one has located it by boat.

    Some residents of Conneaut, Ohio claim that, if you're standing by the lakefront late at night, especially during December, and if you listen carefully, you can still hear the distress whistle from the Marquette & Bessemer No.2 piercing the cool night air.
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  2. #2
    NOVSTORM Guest
    Great post. I love theses stories. It always amzes me that they cannot find these ships.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
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    9,165
    Any theories about what caused the slash wounds?

  4. #4
    tarsier Guest
    ever heard of this one which is odd from this Buckeye I can't imagine how a ship even sunken can't be found in Lake Erie it ain't deep as the Great Lakes go.
    Also I know every lake town from toledo to Cleveland never heard of this port Way up North East?

  5. #5
    tarsier Guest
    don't get any furthewr northeast in this state but haven't their been other "weird stories" from that area Bigfoot sightings and other cryptids. I just associate that area with weird stuff not at all normal like Cleveland or my whitebread town.

  6. #6
    pvezz Guest
    Cool story! Spooky!

    It fascinates me that these ships can't be found.....

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Newark, Delaware
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    4,019
    Fascinating - I have to look this one up. Slash wounds are definintely odd...


  8. #8
    jay Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by duster View Post
    Any theories about what caused the slash wounds?

    The only thing that was presumed at the time was one of the crew used it in the rush to get on the lifeboats. It must have been a struggle with the boat going down and everyone rushing for the lifeboats. In the bottom of the only boat found was a meat cleaver but with the boat half full of water all evidence on it would have been washed away.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
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    sort of like the Edmund Fitzgerald??

  10. #10
    djdeath-hag Guest
    Creepy goodness to be had in these stories....of course the time elapsed between the actual sinkings & us enjoying hearing about them makes it less vulture-esque than when we are drawn to details of current events.
    Thanks for sharing the story of the M & B#2

  11. #11
    Deconservative Guest
    Clive Cussler actually wrote a book using the idea of a railroad ferry boat sinking in a lake. The title is "The Chase", its set in 1906 and also deals with the San Francisco earthquake too.

  12. #12
    RoRo Guest
    what a great story! Thanks for posting this...I am fascinated by shipwrecks and loved reading this!

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    9,165

  14. #14
    jay Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by duster View Post

    Thanks for the link Duster.

    There's still lots of shipwrecks in the great lakes waiting to be found

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