Yukon (Schooner), collision, 1 Jul 1895

TUG COLLIDES WITH SCHOONER.
      Lake Captain And Watchman Killed In St. Clair Flats - Wheelsman Missing.
Marine City, Mich. July 18. - While coming through the canal at the Flats last night the tug TORRENT collided with an unknown schooner. The captain of the TORRENT, Ralph Hackett of Detroit, one of the best known captain on the Lakes, and the watchman, David Canary of Port Huron, were killed, and a young wheelsman from this city, John Cattanach, is missing.
      Capt. Hackett was killed instantly, by having a large hole smashed in his head. His left ear was cut off also. Canary lived two hours after the accident and bled to death.
      Buffalo Evening News
      Thursday, July 18, 1895

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      An echo of the disastrous YUKON - TORRENT collision in the St. Clair canal in the summer of 1896 came up in the U.S. District Court yesterday. It will be remembered that the large schooner YUKON, in tow of the propeller SITKA, took a sheer while in the canal and her towline scraped the upper part of the tug TORRENT, bound in the opposite direction. Capt. Ralph Hackett, of the TORRENT, was killed outright, and two others of the crew, one of them David Kiniri swept overboard and drowned. His widow, Bertha N. Kiniri, brought suit in the District Court against the Wilson Transit Co., of Cleveland, owners of the SITKA and YUKON, and in March of 1887, she received a verdict for $5,000. The company later filed a motion to have the verdict set aside and a new trial ordered. Judge Swan yesterday denied the motion.
      Milwaukee Scrapbook
      August 20, 1898

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