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March, 1914 THE MARINE REVIEW 17 THE WOODEN STEAMER LOUISIANA WHICH STRANDED ON WASHINGTON ISLAND, LAKE MICHIGAN, AND CAUGHT FIRE, BECOMING A TOTAL CONSTRUCTIVE LOSS of those vessels to succumb to the seas, it is idle to speculate as to the reasons which contributed to their failure to ride out the storm. Of- ficial investigations are pending, and information of value may be devel- oped as inquiry proceeds. Your com- mittee can only deplore the regret- table loss of life and property and suggest that the association may well accept and support and well founded recommendations which may be made for safeguards or regulations designed to prevent so far as possible the chance of any repeti- tion of this appalling disaster." any reasonable The hull value of the vessels totally lost amount to $2,332,000; the con- structive total losses, $830,900, making the total value of hulls destroyed $3,- 162,900. The damage to stranded ves- sels, as calculated by the underwriters, amounts to $620,000, while the losses on cargoes will not be far from $1,- 000,000, making the aggregate loss to vessels and cargoes $4,782,900. Capt. A. C. Mosher, Steamer George Stephenson I have to report that on Nov. 7, 3:32 we passed Whitefish Point upbound, light. Wind southeast fresh. At 10:30 P. M. the wind shifted N. W. At 10:55 we were in a big sea and blizzard, the wind blowing a gale from the north- west. We were then about 35 miles east southeast of Manitou Island. We had all tanks full be- fore and we put as much water in cargo hold as we dared, but by midnight we fell in the trough of the sea with the wheel hard aport. I backed for three minutes and she backed in the wind, but the engine raced too much and I had to stop backing. I then put the wheel astarboard and let her go east for an hour, but I knew that we were drifting south as much as we were going east, but I wanted to gain time to approach Keweenaw Point in daylight. I headed west again, figuring that by losing the sea I could tell when we got near the shore. At daylight we.tried to take a sound- ing, but I could see I would lose the men overboard and had to let it go. At 8 A. M. we lost -some of the sea and she started to an- swer the helm. I then headed in the wind and we got a sounding or 42 fathoms, clay. J knew we were somewhere in Keweenaw Bay. I steered N. W.:and kept on sounding and by 10 A. M. we were in smooth water and got a 12-fathom sounding, when we let go anchors. At 5 P. M. it stopped snowing and I saw we were about one mile S. W. of Keweenaw Point. On the morning of the 9th at daylight I saw a steamer ashore at the .N. EB) Point of Manitou Island. She seemed abandoned. There were no lights on her and no smoke coming from her stack. At 7 A. M. we saw a signal of distress go up on her foremast. Her decks were out of water, but big seas breaking over her. We hoisted our flag in answer. We hove up and went to Mendota, where I sent the mate ashore to find a telephone and notify the life savers. By hiring a motor boat from a fisherman to take him across Lake La Belle, and horse and sleigh from there to Dela- ware, the message was sent to the Eagle Harbor Life Saving Station. It blew hard and snowed the fol- lowing night. I felt uneasy about the men on the stranded steamer and I sent the second mate next morning ashore with the boat with orders to get definite news and if the men had not been rescued, to call up Portage: Lake Ship Canal Life'-Savinge Station. "He learned the Eagle Harbor crew had made two attempts to get there, but had to return. He called up the Portage Station and learned they had not been notified, but they would start by loading their boat on a flat car to take her to Lake La Belle and from there go to the wreck. At 2 P. M. he called up again and learned that the Portage crew had started at 1:30 P. M., of the 10th. We had a fierce blizzard all day Nov. 10 un- til 5 P. M., when it stopped snow- ing and the wind went down. I hove up. at 9:20. P.M. came through Gull Rock Passage at 11 P. M. It was moonlight and I saw the steamer lying there with her decks above water and her cabins on her.