The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

11. Ship of the Month - cont'd. victims of the 'abrupt turn'. "Riley Judson was the first to come out of the darkness and carry off his friends. Basil Burgess went to the scene of the ossified OSSIFRAGE with 'ex­ press' speed and carried a glad message of good cheer to the waiting ones, and without money and without price returned many to the bosom of their fa­ milies. Although most of the passengers went over the side in the ship's boat, there was (sic) a few more daring and were one bath to the good by jumping and getting wet to their waist line. This refreshing experience took the place of a good night's sleep. The trio who had no use for the life boat and jumped over the side into the blue current was Gordon Wellman, Herb Seeds and Will Heath. "From 3 o'clock on the pedestrians took to the woods and the fields to get home, and the agility of the fair sex as fence climbers surprised even them­ selves. The grass was so wet that it made the wading good, but as there was plenty of company, the tramp was not lonesome. There were a number lost their bearings and sought the help of George Sheron and wife, who became a board of directors for the pilgrims. The first home arrived about 3: 30 and the last to wander in was in time for a late breakfast. Livery rigs made special trips over land to bring the passengers back... "The tug ENERGY was sent for by the OSSIFRAGE officials and by noon the OS­ SIFRAGE was back in its proper element and on it way to Chatham without showing up at Wallaceburg. The sugar (plant) employees on the night shift thought something unusual had happened to the boat when they saw the lights of the boat through the trees and looked for it again at the next clearing where a boat can be seen in coming to town, but when on this occasion the boat did not show up again, they concluded that something had gone astray. They also derived a good deal of amusement in watching the stragglers grimly making for home in the early morn. "Thrilling experience of some young ladies - 'We don't know how we ever sur­ vived such an exciting experience. The only thing that buoyed us up was the happy thought that the C. O. F. was making a good thing out of the affair. When we reached the dock at Algonac to return home, we had a premonition of coming danger, for as we were being ardently helped on the boat by one of the boat's crew, the atmosphere in his immediate vicinity was greatly dis­ turbed with (40 rod) lightning, but not being tasters in atmospheric effects it may have been Kentucky moonshine from another direction. Having heard that on different occasions the turn at Scagel's was difficult for naviga­ tors, especially in the dark, we feared that just as we reached this point there would be a flash of lightning and our fears were well grounded, so was the boat. ' "The C. O. F. cleared about $75. 00 on this trip and the only loss was a few hours' sleep which was partly made up next night. The boats and rigs that charged all the way from 10 cents up to as high as 50 cents, also were a few dollars ahead through the accident. "Our reporter, guiding some fair damsels home, pretended to get lost, so as not to be in a hurry to part company from such an attraction. He has a war map of the entire territory with the name of every resident between here and the Snye, so there was no excuse for his straying into the by ways to see the company climb the fences. " There must have been very little for the paper to write about that day, to make such an incident out of the relatively harmless grounding of the stea­ mer only four miles from her intended dock at Wallaceburg. However, OSSI­ FRAGE was well known for her Wallaceburg excursions during this period, of­ ten bound for Belle Isle, and her trips were much enjoyed by local resi­ dents. Particularly popular during the period 1910 through 1916 were Sunday School cruises for local churches, although it does not appear that OSSI­ FRAGE ever ran any scheduled service out of Wallaceburg, remaining mostly in the trade between Chatham and Detroit.