Lake Pepin, MN Disaster

Steamer Hit by Tornado

July 1890

As the barge also floated again into deep water those on the barge saw the steamer as it was carried helplessly out into the middle of the lake and as they were being tossed about on the raging waters they were horrified a moment later to observer the steamer capsize and its cargo of a hundred and fifty people precipitated into the lake. Those on the barge remained there until they drifted nearer the shore and they were all rescued or swam ashore.

The events that transpired on the steamer after it separated from the barge are clearly related by those who were rescued from it. As soon as the storm had begun to affect the progress of the boat, Captain WEATHERN gave instructions to run the boat into the Wisconsin shore, but it was too late.

In five minutes more the waves began to wash into the boat and fill its lower decks, while the hailstones as large as hen's eggs came down on the heads of the poor and helpless creatures which were huddled together on the boat. A huge wave struck the craft on the side at the same moment a terrific blast of wind more forcible than the others came up and carried the boat over.

All of the people on board, 150 or more, were thrown into the water, some being caught underneath and others thrown into the waves. The boat turned bottom upwards and only about twenty-five people were observed to be floating on the surface. These caught hold of the boat and climbed up on the upturned bottom, those first securing a position assisting the others. In ten minutes more the twenty-five or so who had obtained momentary safety on the boat could observe no others of the boat's crew or passengers floating on the surface of the high sea.

Afterwards, however, as a flash of lightning lighted up the surface of the lake the sight of an occasional white dress of a drowning woman or child was observable, but it was impossible for those who witnessed the horrible sight to lend any aid. Those remaining began calling for help from the shore as soon as the storm began to abate and in half an hour lights were observed flitting about on the pier at Lake City, opposite which point the upturned steamer had now been driven. Before help could reach them, however, the poor creatures who yet remained, to add to the horrors of the night, were again submitted to another battle with the elements.

THE HORROR GROWS

Details of the Frightful Disasters in Minnesota.

Only Add to the Awful Story of Lives Lost and Homes Made Desolate.

Believed That 115 Persons found Watery Graves in Lake Pepin – Work of Recoving [sic] Bodies Goes on Steadily – Calamities at Other Points.

LAKE CITY, Minn., July 15. -- The work of pulling in the wreck of the steamer Sea Wing was commenced yesterday morning as soon as it was light enough to see. A steamer was brought into service, and the wreck pulled around near the shore and a barge ran alongside to permit the working forces to use it in the work of tearing away the timbers and getting other bodies out of the cabin. An army of men was employed and with the aid of exes and picks a large portion of the cabin top was knocked away at an early hour. At eleven o'clock six more bodies were taken from the cabin and there were still more deeper down under the water.

The body of a woman as yet unidentified was picked up on the shore of the lake near here. The lake is filled with debris from the wreck – chairs, boards and life preservers strewn on the beach for a mile up the lake shore. Hundreds of citizens of Lake City flock the shore, among them many friends and relatives of the missing ones whose bodies are still beneath the water. As I finish this telegram a rope has been attached to the leg of the body of a woman and it is being hauled up from the black water, making the sixtieth body recovered. The general opinion is that the estimate of the loss of 125 lives will be verified. The sixtieth body proved to be that of MISS ALICE PALMER. Another body, that of a young girl, is just being removed, making sixty-one.

The body of FRED SEVER, of Red Wing, was taken out of the wreck at 10:45. The work of cutting away the cabin progressed slowly, owing to the fact that the sawing and chopping had to be done underneath the surface of the water. At eleven o'clock two guns of the battery of the First Artillery were brought to the lakeside and since that time they have been fired at intervals of every five minutes in the hope of bringing other bodies to the surface. The name of BOZE ADAMS, of Lake City, was sent out early Monday morning as one of those that had gone down with the wreck. ADAMS, however, is alive and well, having floated in the lake nearly all night, finally landing about five miles above Lake City and walking down home after daylight.
ADAMS had a life preserver on, and in addition secured a huge plank on which he floated throughout the night. He states that as he was floating away from the wreck he noticed a woman and child clinging together, each with a life preserver on. He observed the woman finally leave the child and sink out of sight a few moments later the child disappeared. There is a great deal of adverse comment in regard to the life preservers used. When cut open only a few of them were found to be composed of cork, a majority of them being filled with a seaweed that would not hold itself afloat after it became saturated with water.

The latest report from the scene of the disaster shows that remarkable work is being done in recovering bodies. Doubtless there are many who will never be found, as it is almost impossible to get into the cabin of the sunken boat. That is where many of the unfortunates took refuge, and it necessitates considerable cutting and tearing of timbers to obtain even an entrance to the cabin. The work of the boys of the First regiment, who came down from their camping grounds, is a marvel. There are two steamers working at the wreck trying to draw it asunder, in hopes that the bodies confined may be released. The nearest report that can be gathered is that there were 174 on board the fated steamer when she went down. Captain WITHEREN, in command of the steamer when she went down, appeared yesterday morning and the report that he fled, owing to his indiscreet conduct, is of little worth. It seems that the officer was overcome completely with fear and when he turned the steamer about she sunk.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. July 15. -- The storm which burst over Eastern Minnesota Sunday evening was in many respects unique in the annals of cyclones. Seldom has the same storm caused havoc and loss of life in so widely separated localities as Lake Gervais and Lake Pepin. The first named is a small body of water five miles north of St. Paul, while Lake Pepin is simply a broadening of the Mississippi river, between Minnesota and Wisconsin, many miles further south. The storm at Gervais was a veritable funnel-shaped cyclone, terrific in its force, but limited in its sphere of action. For some miles in either direction considerable havoc was wrought to farm houses, barns and trees, while some people were injured.

At Lake Pepin the bluffs of the Mississippi rose hundreds of feet high on either side, forming a gorge or canyon down which the hurricane swept with resistless force. At the point where the boat loaded down with excursionists capsized, carrying fully four-score down to death, a long sand bar runs out into the lake. Here, even in comparatively mild storms, the waves run very high. When the storm-beaten boat was driven up near this bar the fury of the wind was at its height, and it was blown over by the wind and engulfed by the monstrous waves as if it had been a fragile egg shell. The little town of Red Wing where so many of the excursionists lived, is in the midst of deepest mourning, all business being abandoned and the stores closed. In the homes of many families like the silent dead, while others wait in dreadful suspense for the latest tidings of the missing...

Since Monday morning the rescuing parties succeeded in taking seventeen more bodies from the wrecked steamer, which, in addition to the fifty-two taken to Red Wing, one picked up on the shore of the lake near this city and another a mile above the wreck yesterday afternoon, brings the total number of bodies recovered up to seventy-one.

It is now reported that the officers of the ill-fated steamer were more or less under the influence of liquor Sunday night when the boat started from Lake City on the home journey. The number known to have been saved is now estimated at about seventy-five, which leaves about 115 people thought to have perished in the wreck. This number will undoubtedly be diminished as full returns come in from those who escaped.

From all that can be learned, the storm did not seriously affect any other locality than the vicinity of Lake City. Some of the crops on the farms near by which were in the path of the hurricane were more or less damaged by wind and hail. The damage to buildings in Lake City will probably exceed $100,000, and may fall considerably below that. The bodies taken out yesterday were taken to Red Wing, where they will be identified as fast as possible.

The Ohio Democrat New Philadelphia Ohio 1890-07-17

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

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