WOCOKEN U80778

The steamer WOCOKEN met a tragic fate off Long Point in Lake Erie on October 14, 1893. The search for the bodies of the victims continued for three days, and on the third day, the bodies of Captain Meswald, the master of the vessel, and Wilhelm Pocek, a seaman from Ashtabula, were recovered. They were found 10 miles off Long Point, wearing their life preservers. The search efforts, led by Captain Mitchell, aimed to find the body of Captain Meswald’s wife (Captain Mitchell’s sister) and the other 10 victims of the WOCOKEN’s sinking.

Nearly a month later, on November 24, 1893, the body of another victim of the ill-fated WOCOKEN was found at the foot of Austin Street. The body, badly decomposed, was identified as Edmund C. Eldridge, a crew member of the WOCOKEN, based on papers found in his pockets. Coroner Tucker sent the papers to Cleveland in an attempt to identify the victim and notify the WOCOKEN’s owners. A telegram from John Mitchell, the owner of the ship, confirmed the identity of the body as Edward C. Eldridge. The body was prepared for shipment in a sealed casket.

According to the Merchant Vessel List of 1891, the WOCOKEN was a steam screw vessel with a US number of 80778. It had a gross tonnage of 1,400.37 tons and a net tonnage of 1,179.10 tons. The ship was built in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1870 and had its home port in Cleveland. It measured 251.6 feet in length, 37.2 feet in width, and 18.5 feet in depth. The WOCOKEN had a nominal horsepower of 1,261.

Over the years, the WOCOKEN experienced various incidents and required repairs. In 1881, it received an interior iron arch at Cleveland. In May 1883, the ship was damaged in a gale on Lake Michigan. In July of the same year, it broke its crank pin and suffered engine damage on Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron. In 1884, the WOCOKEN incurred $8,000 worth of damage in a Lake Superior gale. In April 1887, the bow of the ship was crushed by ice, and it needed assistance to reach Beaver Island Harbor for repairs. In May 1890, the WOCOKEN encountered a severe gale in Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay, resulting in the rolling out of its mizzenmast and the loss of the main mast head. Extensive repairs were carried out at the Cleveland Dry Dock Company in 1891.

Unfortunately, the ship’s final entry in the Merchant Vessel List indicates its tragic end. The WOCOKEN foundered in Lake Erie on October 14, 1893. The enrollment of the vessel was surrendered in Cleveland on November 11, 1893, and by September 1, 1894, the engines and boilers had been removed from the ship.