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Re: Sand Merchant

Posted: October 18, 2021, 1:47 am
by Jared
Guest wrote:Captain of the Sand Merchant made it off the ship. A good summary of the loss in a past issue of the Scanner newsletter.

https://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatla ... sp?ID=s008
Boyer's book Ships and Men of the Great Lakes also devotes a chapter on the Sand Merchant. Boyer interviewed several witnesses of the event as they were still alive. Dwight Boyer and Dana Thomas Bowen are excellent second hand sources for what they write about. When they were writing, most the events were still in living memory.

Re: Sand Merchant

Posted: October 17, 2021, 3:32 pm
by Guest
Captain of the Sand Merchant made it off the ship. A good summary of the loss in a past issue of the Scanner newsletter.

https://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatla ... sp?ID=s008

Re: Sand Merchant

Posted: October 17, 2021, 3:06 pm
by Guest
The woman was the First Mates wife.

The caltain was not trapped on the vessel. He made it to a lifeboat and it overturned. He hung on but lost grip and died.

BTW, when you read the story of the sinking, they make it sound like the First Mates wife caused the whole sinking. Very misogynistic attitudes back then.

- Brian

Re: Sand Merchant

Posted: October 17, 2021, 2:19 pm
by Jared
The female passenger would have been a guest of the captain, mate, or engineer. They could have also served in a temporary stewardess or cook role. As for the captain being stuck in the pilothouse door, I'm not sure where that information comes from. If my memory serves me correctly, Captain McKellond was the last person on the bridge when the Sand Merchant began her death roll. He jumped off the bridge and climbed into a raft moments later setting mattresses and stuff on fire for people on shore to see. Getting stuck in the door is news to me as he was on trial for a week after the sinking.

Sand Merchant

Posted: October 17, 2021, 12:45 pm
by Rob
In today's "Today in Great Lakes History" it stated that the Sand Merchant rolled over and sank in a gale in Lake Erie and took eighteen crew members and one female passenger down with it. The Sand Merchant was a sandsucker. Why would there be a passenger onboard? I also read elsewhere that the captain was found wedged in the pilothouse door due to his large girth. Can anyone enlighten me?