The G. P. Griffith, a steamer, met a tragic fate on June 17, 1850, when it caught fire on Lake Erie, approximately twenty miles below Cleveland. The fire broke out at around three o’clock in the morning while the passengers were still asleep in their berths. The boat was within sight of the shore, and initially, there was not much alarm among the passengers, assuming they could reach safety quickly. However, their hopes were dashed when the steamer struck a sandbar about half a mile from the shore, leaving it stranded and unable to move.
As the situation escalated, panic and chaos ensued among the passengers. Some jumped into the lake in a desperate attempt to escape the flames, but tragically, only a few could swim ashore and survive. The accounts of the survivors reveal a heart-wrenching scene of terror and desperation as people struggled for their lives. Many women and children, as well as almost all the passengers, perished in the tragedy.
The exact number of casualties remains uncertain since the ship’s records were lost in the disaster. Around 154 dead bodies were recovered, and it was estimated that an additional 30 to 50 bodies remained at the bottom of the lake. The books of the boat were lost, making it challenging to identify many of the victims. The shore was filled with sadness and despair, with 150 dead bodies laid out along the beach and eventually buried in a long trench, unshrouded and uncoffined.
Among the victims were Captain C. C. Roby, his wife, mother, and two children, as well as Mrs. Wilkinson, Horace Palmer, Richard Palmer, Charles Brown, Theodore Gilman, Richard Mann, and many others, including several unidentified individuals and a significant number of English, Irish, and German emigrants. Only a few individuals managed to swim ashore, and even among them, several lost their family members in the tragedy.
The loss of life in the G. P. Griffith disaster was one of the most significant tragedies on Lake Erie, second only to the sinking of the steamer Erie. The incident left a lasting impact on those who survived and witnessed the horrifying scene, and it remains as one of the darkest moments in the history of Lake Erie’s maritime disasters.
