Sand Merchant

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Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Sand Merchant

Unread post 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.
Guest

Re: Sand Merchant

Unread post 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
Guest

Re: Sand Merchant

Unread post 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
Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Sand Merchant

Unread post 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.
Rob

Sand Merchant

Unread post 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?
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