- Schooner
- 60ffw 20m
- 152ft Length
- North Bay Village, Lake Erie
- 41 33.855 81 55.281
ning News
August 12, 1890 #
On an early morning in July 1891, two schooners were lost near Cleveland Harbor in Lake Erie. The first schooner, named Two Fannies, encountered a leak and sank at daybreak. The crew members, including Captain Miller, Mate Losier, Second Mate Bull, Alexander Last, Harry Anderson, Claud Merchant, and James McDonald, managed to escape safely in a yawl. The Two Fannies was carrying stone and was fully insured.
The second schooner, Fannie L. Jones, was swamped by heavy seas just outside Cleveland. Unfortunately, Captain E. C. Cummings of Milan drowned in the incident. However, the Cleveland life-saving crew was able to rescue the rest of the Jones’ crew from the rigging.
In an earlier incident, the schooner Fayette Brown had sunk near the dummy in a collision with one of the Northern Steamship Company’s steel boats. It was located in the channel of boats passing to and from Buffalo. Additionally, the spars of the schooner Two Fannies, which had foundered in a gale the previous season, were submerged just a few feet below the water’s surface outside Cleveland.
The owner of Fayette Brown, Mr. M.A. Bradley, considered the vessel not worth raising, and the sunken hull of the Two Fannies was considered a total loss with no one claiming ownership.
Further historical information reveals that the Two Fannies was owned by Mary Eldred of Chicago in 1865. It underwent various ownership changes and repairs over the years, including large repairs in 1876 and changes in ownership in subsequent years. The schooner eventually foundered in Lake Erie on August 10, 1890.
These incidents serve as reminders of the dangers faced by vessels navigating Lake Erie and the challenges posed by sunken wrecks as obstructions to navigation.
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