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The disappearance of the W.W. Arnold

Schooners are shown in the Marquette Harbor circa 1865. (Photo courtesy of the John M. Longyear Research Library at the Marquette Regional History Center)

MARQUETTE — November 1869 was a bad month for shipwrecks on Lake Superior. The schooner Jura sank at Copper Harbor after hitting a rock; the schooner Bermuda* went ashore at Shot Point, just east of Marquette; the schooner Eveline Bates broke free of her moorings and drifted onto the beach at Munising; and the bark Desota dragged her anchors in Marquette’s harbor, raising havoc with the other anchored ships for a time before going ashore on the beach with a full load of ore.

Then there was the disappearance of the schooner W.W. Arnold. Just six years old, the Arnold was considered to be “strongly constructed and possessed of the most perfect sea going qualities.” But an examination of the records shows a history of damage and repairs. In October 1863 (the year she was built), she ran aground on the St. Clair Flats near Detroit causing a chain reaction collision with four other ships. The crash broke the Arnold’s stern, which had to be replaced, in addition to breaking two deck beams and breaking off the wheel. The damage sustained by the five ships was about $5,000.

The ship was involved in another collision on the St. Clair Flats in July 1866 requiring $500 in repairs to the hull. In November 1867, the Arnold went aground on the breakwater at Buffalo but was able to get off without much damage. Finally, in May 1869, the schooner was damaged by ice at Escanaba, breaking the rudder.

At around 4 o’clock on the afternoon of November 4, 1869, just six months after the Escanaba damage, the Arnold left Marquette. She was loaded with a cargo of 550 tons of ore bound for Cleveland, along with her captain, a crew of eight or nine men, and two passengers.

A few hours after the Arnold’s departure from Marquette, a November gale set in. The storm raged for twenty-four hours and a lighthouse keeper from Whitefish Point stated “that the storm…was the most terrific of all others in his recollection.” At the start of the gale, the Arnold was in the company of the brig Racer but they became separated during the storm. The Racer was badly damaged but safely reached Grand Island: the Arnold did not.

As the days passed without word from the Arnold, hope began to fade. On November 20, the Mining Journal reported “An intense anxiety coupled with the most painful apprehensions are entertained for the safety of this vessel and the fate of her crew … All of the steamers and vessels that have passed up through the canal since that date, report that she has not made her appearance at that point and being now twelve days since she took her departure from here, causes the most fearful apprehensions to be entertained.”

As late as November 27 it was reported, “the total loss of the Arnold is discredited in Cleveland, where she is owned, on account of the ability and experience of her master, Captain Beardsley, as well as the superior sea-going qualities of the vessel; but at this late day there is no foundation for any hope that she will ever be seen or heard of again.”

Finally on December 7, more than a month after she departed Marquette, word reached Marquette of a wreck suspected to be the Arnold. An overland mail carrier from Sault Ste. Marie arrived at Grand Island and reported the hull of a large dark colored vessel at the mouth of the Two Hearted River, 76 miles east of Munising. He was unable to approach the wreck due to the presence of a large pack of wolves, leaving the vessel’s identity uncertain.

A search party quickly departed from Munising and finally reached the wreck on December 11. They found the shattered wreckage of the ship scattered over three miles along the shoreline. The party reported “We reached the scene of the wreck at 11 o’clock on Saturday morning, Dec. 11th, and here we would say that the scene that presented itself was so entirely different from what we expected that we almost doubted the possibility of its being the wreck of the Arnold.

“We had heard so much of her staunch and sea-going qualities, that we expected to find her hull still holding together, but on the contrary, we could see nothing but a mass of splinters. She was literally torn to atoms and cast high and dry upon the beach…The vessel evidently went to pieces as soon as she struck the [sand] bar, which is not a great way out…It is impossible for us fully to describe the state in which we found the wreck, there was not a single piece of her cabin left, large enough to make a decent sized bench.”

The December search party confirmed the identity of the wreckage but was unable to locate any bodies due to the ice and snow. As the weather deteriorated, the searchers returned home for the winter. A second search party went out in the spring, locating at least two of the bodies who were then buried on the site. Captain Beardsley was identified by his clothing and personal effects, the second body was unidentified. It is unclear how many died in the wreck, various accounts list between 10 and 12 victims and the identities of several of the sailors were unknown.

The owner of the schooner “abandoned her to the underwriters.” There are differing accounts of the insurance payout on the vessel. The Milwaukee Sentinel said she was valued at $19,500 and insured for $14,000, while the Great Lakes Marine Casualties lists the vessel’s value at $25,000 with the cargo’s value at $30,000, with insurance at $18,000 and $25,000 respectively. In July 1870, a salvage vessel was sent to the wreck where they recovered the anchors, chains and other equipment. A U.S. Life-Saving Station was subsequently built at the mouth of the Two Hearted River in 1876.

*Side Note: After sinking in November 1869, the Bermuda was salvaged in the summer of 1870. After undergoing extensive repairs she was sold and put back into service in September 1870. She sank again in October 1870. Thirteen years after the second wreck, a salvage attempt brought the Bermuda into the northeast corner of Murray Bay of Grand Island, where it sank for a final time. The vessel lies in about 30 feet of water where it can be seen from the surface and is popular with divers.

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