Barge is lost in Lake Storm

Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.--The Barge Miztec was lost in the storm which swept Lake Superior last Saturday morning. The Steamer Zillah, towing the Miztec, was almost a wreck herself during the fearful storm.

No trace has yet [been] found of the Miztec and it is believed that all of its crew of six men and one woman were lost. The name of the crew follow:

Captain K. Pederson, Buffalo; Florence Pederson, a cook; Mate Robert Campbell, Tonawanda, N.Y.; Seamen Erick Johnson and Louis Florence, of Bay City; John Drecker, of Titusville, Pa., and an unknown sailor who shipped from Port Huron.

This is a fragment from the eye-witness story of the wreck as told here by L. E. Harris, a government employe [sic], on the arrival of the steamer Zillah, of the Blodgett line, with the Peshtigo in tow. Harris was on board the Peshtigo. He was given temporary leave of absence from his duties at the locks to go to Munising to scale a cargo of lumber which the Peshtigo was to take aboard.

"The Zillah came near being lost as well as the Miztec," said Harris. "She was barely able to make shelter under the lee of Whitefish Point with her boiler rooms knee deep in water and firemen working under great difficulties to keep the fires going.

"When we were within less than an hours run of safety behind Whitefish point," said Harris, "the lights of Miztec suddenly vanished into the sea; it appeared that she simply went to pieces, our line to her was snapped and we were adrift in the inky darkness and with the snow so dense that there was no knowing our location."

"Captain Campbell, whose brother perished on the Miztec, rigged up a sail and tried to head into the wind. Our rudder was smashed, however, and when it began to get a bit light we discovered breakers less than a quarter mile ahead. we let go two anchors and rode there for more than 24 hours, just out of reach of the coast guards, who worked two boats in vain efforts to reach us."

Nothing of the wreckage of the Miztec was seen by the Peshtigo or the Zillah. Sunday morning the Zillah went out from behind Whitefish and picked up the Peshtigo, bringing it to the Son for repairs to its rudder.