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MAY JUNE, Page 64 1972 THE WRECK OF THE BARGE St.CLAIR by CHARLES FERRIS as told to OLIVER RAYMOND Author's note: This is a true story down to the last detarl. A letter written by Charles Ferris, one of the surfmen, dee scribes every bit of the rescue and what took place during the night. A]Jso the Tecords of the Port Sanilac lighthouse keeper; the October 3, 1888 issue of the POE hit PiMes, the wee@rd fm Bases History of the Great Lakes and records of the Port Sanilac cemetery were used, along with conversations I have had during years past with witnesses to the affair. All of these together make up a true story. My name is Charles Ferris and I was born on a farm in southern Michigan and until taking a job with the Coast Guard I had never seen Lake Huron, or any other large body of water. I was twenty years of age, when, in June of 1888 I signed their Papers and was assigned to the Sand Beach (now Harbor Beach) Coast Guard Station. The station was and still is located sixty miles above the lower end of Lake Huron, on the western, or Michigan shore. At that time lumbering was big business and the Saginaw, Au Sable and Thunder Bay Rivers carried hun- dreds of thousands of pine logs annually to the saw mill towns on the lake. Bay City, Saginaw, Tawas, Oscoda and Alpena were thriving lumber towns where they sawed and shipped millions of feet of lumber annually to the lower lakes. Detroit Toledo and Cleveland were important ports receiving these shipments. The barge St. Clair was engaged in that business. Owned and operated by Captain C. H. Jones of Bay City, she carried five sailors and a woman, or a total of seven including the Capt- ain. The woman was cook for the crew. The tale which I am about to re- late began on the morning of Monday, October 1, 1888. The wind had gone to the northeast and by noon had become a gale. By mid-afternoon the storm had increased tremendously and huge seas were battering the harbor walls. Several ships had already sought shelter in the harbor. That afternoon I was standing watch in the lookout. I spotted a ship a mile or two to the southeast apparently in trouble. She later proved to be the barge St. Clair, northbound and without a load. * Un- able to reach the harbor, the capt- ain had ordered both anchors to be dropped and they were attempting to ride out the storm. She was being badly punished by the seas and she * The United States Life Saving Service Annual Report, 1889, Says the Sit. Cllaur was in fact loaded with 350 tons of coal for Bay City. It should also be noted that the writer refers to the Coast Guard, but it was actually the old Life Saving Service to which he was attached (Ed. )