SS Vernon

Vernon under construction in Chicago[1]

Vernon (Official number 161557) was built in 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, by the shipyard owned by James P. Smith.[1][2][3] Her wooden hull was 158.58 feet (48.3 m) (some sources state 177 feet (53.9 m)[6]) in length, 25.42 feet (7.7 m) wide and 18.66 feet (5.7 m) deep. Vernon had a gross register tonnage of 694.94 tons and a net register tonnage of 560.41 tons.[1][3][5]

Vernon was powered by a two-cylinder 565 hp (421 kW) fore and aft compound engine; the cylinders of the engine had bores of 22 inches (56 cm) and 40 inches (100 cm) and a stroke of 24 inches (61 cm).[1] Steam for the engine was produced by two 16-by-6.6-foot (4.9 m × 2.0 m) 125 psi (860 kPa) Scotch marine boilers.[1] The engine and boilers were manufactured by the Marine Boiler Works in Chicago.[1][5] She was propelled to a top speed of 15 miles per hour (13 kn; 24 km/h) by a single fixed pitch propeller.[5]

Vernon was built to carry passengers and freight from Chicago to Manistique, Michigan/Northern Lake Michigan in as little time as possible.[1] She was regarded as one of the most elegant ships on the Great Lakes.[2] Equipped with extensive brass fittings, eighteen state rooms and one very large cabin lounge, she cost $78,000 (equivalent to $2.12 million in 2021[7]) to build.[6]

Vernon had an abnormally deep draft when compared to her narrow beam, which caused her to become unstable when she was fully loaded.[2][6] At the time of her construction, sailors criticized Vernon's builders for sacrificing her buoyancy and stability in return for speed, predicting that she would "sooner or later meet with disaster".[2][4][8]

Great Lakes shipping expert Steve Harold wrote that:

"From the start, the Vernon was known to have an unusual, perhaps defective, hull design. Even when empty, she had an extreme draft and sat very low in the water. Some people later declared it was even unsafe for her to carry significant amounts of cargo because she was then dangerously low in the water."[9]

Vernon was launched on August 16, 1886, in front of approximately 5000 onlookers. She was named after W. Vernon Booth, one of Alfred Booth's two sons. She was built for Alfred Booth of Chicago, Illinois, and his sons, A. Edeward and W. Vernon Booth, each of whom owned a 1⁄3 share in her.[6] She received her enrollment on September 1/2, 1886 in Chicago, which would also be her home port.[1][2][3] That same year, she replaced the package freighter A. Booth (which sank on August 29, 1886, near Duluth, Minnesota,[10]) in the Duluth–Port Arthur, Ontario, run on Lake Superior.[1][11] For a time in 1887, Vernon was engaged in the iron ore trade, towing schooner barges between Lake Superior ports and Cleveland, Ohio.[1] While towing scow barges owned by John Pridgeon of Detroit, Michigan, when she ran onto a reef in the Straits of Mackinac, causing damage to the barges.[12] She was sold by the United States Marshals Service to Pridgeon on July 22, 1887, as he had libeled her, due to the damage done to his barges.[1][12] On August 6, 1887, she was repurchased by Alfred Booth for $23,350; and was then transferred to Booth's Booth Packing Company.[12] That same month, she was chartered by the Northern Michigan Line, in order to replace their steamer Champlain, which burned down in Charlevoix, Michigan, on June 1 of that same year, with the loss of 21 lives.[1][9][12][13]

Vernon left Chicago, Illinois, for Cheboygan, Michigan, on October 20, 1887, under the command of Captain George Thorpe, making stops along the way at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Suttons Bay, Michigan, and St. Ignace, Michigan. Reports conflict about the number of crewmen on board, with most reports giving estimates of between 23 and 25.[5][12] On her return trip, Vernon was bound from Cheboygan for Chicago, and was once again scheduled to make stops at Mackinac Island and several other northern Lake Michigan ports.[4][8] She left Cheboygan at around 3:00 a.m., accompanied by the package freighter Joseph L. Hurd.[12] The two ships proceeded to Beaver Island, where Vernon boarded passengers and loaded freight, while Joseph L. Hurd headed for Chicago.[12] Vernon departed Beaver Island the following day, and passed Leeland, Michigan, at 1:00 p.m. She made a stop at Glen Haven, Michigan, and later at Frankfort, Michigan.[12] On the evening of October 28, Vernon left Frankfort, and head across Lake Michigan to its Wisconsin shore.[2][12] At around 10:00 p.m., Vernon encountered a northeast gale, which gradually worsened as she headed across the lake.[14] Eventually, the large waves that made headway increasingly difficult, swamped Vernon, extinguishing her boilers. Now powerless, Vernon sank near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. on October 29.[14] When Vernon sank, she was carrying a cargo of 400 boxes of fish, 90 tons of pig iron, apples, 2,000 bushels of potatoes, 90,000 barrel staves and other general merchandise.[9][14]

Late at night, the same day Vernon sank, the schooner Joseph Page arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; she reported encountering copious amounts of wreckage from a "large, white propeller", with several people clinging to it.[14] The steam barge Superior reported encountering several life rafts and a yawl, which contained survivors who were signalling for assistance. Superior also encountered people floating in the water, wearing life jackets.[14] Captain Moran of Superior identified the wreckage as Vernon's, based upon the gold scrollwork unique to Vernon. The schooners Blazing Star, Horace A. Badger, William Home and the tug Anderson passed through a wreckage field, encountering several corpses.[14][15] None of the ships that passed through the wreckage stopped to assist the survivors. Eventually, only 19 bodies were recovered; they were laid out in the Two Rivers fire station, which served as a temporary morgue.[16][17] Initially, it was assumed that fifty people died onboard Vernon. This number was later revised to 36–41 lives, as several passengers embarked and disembarked at the ports where she stopped.[18] The high toll makes Vernon one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever to have occurred in Wisconsin.[19] She was valued at $75,000 (equivalent to $2.04 million in 2021[7]).[20]

Initially, it was believed that no one onboard Vernon survived.[21][22] However, on October 31, the schooner S.B. Pomeroy which was bound from Chicago, Illinois for Green Bay, Wisconsin discovered a life raft with two men on board. One had died from exposure, meanwhile the other one, 23-year-old Swedish fireman Axel Stone had survived.[9][16] S.B. Pomeroy transported him to Green Bay, where he recounted the details of the disaster to the local newspaper.[16] Stone claimed that Vernon was heavily overloaded, to the point that less than 6 inches (15 cm) of freeboard remained above the waterline. He reported that due to the excessive load, Vernon's crew were unable to close the gangways.[23][24]

An inquest held on November 7, 1887, stated that:

The storm of October 29th was not so fierce nor the lake so rough as to prevent the rescue of these bodies. If their perilous condition had been known, the life-saving crew, each and all of the five fishing tugs here, besides many small boats would have gone promptly to their rescue.[21]

Wreck of Vernon

Vernon's name board

Sonar image of the wreck of Vernon, 12 June 2022.

As part of the inquest, the captains of Joseph Page and Superior were reprimanded for not making more of an effort to save the survivors.[25]