"Squall Causes Lake Disaster"

On June 11, 1911, the steamship J.D. Marshall, originally designed to haul lumber and later converted into a sand barge, sank 300 yards offshore from the Beach Pavilion after a squall blew in from the west. Anchored just offshore on the night of June 10, the vessel had already sprung a leak that was patched after several hours, but at about 1:45 a.m. the patch failed and the ship capsized. Three men below deck mending the teak drowned, and the remaining seven were swept overboard. Five clung to the overturned hull until they were rescued two hours later, Captain Rand held onto wreckage and drifted to shore, and Mate Donahue was found dead floating in his life jacket, believed to have been knocked unconscious and drowned when the ship capsized. The disaster reflected the dangerous power of Lake Michigan storms, which are intensified by the lake’s shape and orientation, its limited natural harbors, and the comparative shallowness of the Great Lakes, where waves crest more easily than on the ocean.

Indiana · United States