The J.D. Marshall

The J.D. Marshall was a 154-foot steamship built in 1891 that hauled lumber for twenty years before being sold in 1911 and converted into a sand sucker, used to pull wet sand from the lake bottom into its cargo hold. Its four-blade propeller weighs over 4,000 pounds. No one knows for certain what it was carrying on its final voyage, though some records say sand and others say coal and pig iron. On the night of June 10, 1911, the vessel was anchored near where the Beach Pavilion now stands when its hull began to leak. The crew patched the leak and remained anchored overnight, but in the early morning of June 11 a strong storm blew in, the patched area failed again, and as crewmen went below to repair it, storm waves pounded the ship until it capsized. Ten men were aboard: three were trapped below deck and died, seven jumped or were thrown into the water, five later climbed onto the overturned vessel and waited for rescue, the captain reached shore, and the first mate did not. The remains of the J.D. Marshall now rest just north of the swimming beach at Indiana Dunes State Park in about 30 feet of water.

Indiana · United States