July 7th, 1913 – The Brooklyn Citizen
YACHT DEATH LIST LIKELY TO BE SIX
Two Wreck Survivors Dangerously Ill.
Four Lost When Boat Sinks in Lake Ontario
Sailing Craft Breaks in Twain in Storm – Three Drown – Another Man Crushed as the Wreckage Floats Ashore
ROCHESTER July 7, – Peter A. Blattner, a plumber of No. 275 Campbell street, and Cornelius W. Coughlin, a finisher, of No. 280 Orchard street, this city, are today hovering between life and death as a result of an experience on the lake yesterday during a storm.
Blattner and Coughlin are the only survivors of a party of six men wrecked near Sodus Point. The men were returning from Oswego when their sailing yacht was broken in two by the waves.
Those drowned were: Frank S. Salzer, vice-president of the Perfection Shoe Company, of No. 147 St. Paul street, owner of the yacht: Alexander T. Lemmon, finisher, of No. 516 Jay street, and Frank A. McCullough, cutter, who resided at No. 235 Saxton street.
Edward J. Keele, a painter, living at No. 128 Wilder street, met his death just as the storm-tossed wreck was carried on to the beach six miles east of Sodus Bay. He Jumped and fell under the heavy timbers.
The account given by the survivors is that the high waves swamped the boat and it went to pieces within a few minutes. Mr. Salzer, who was piloting the craft, and Mr. Lemmon were thrown overboard by the first wave, and after frantic struggles they sank from sight of their four companions.
The other four men clung to the wreckage and were soon carried out of sight of the pier by the wind. The quartet had drifted nearly two miles when the hull broke in the middle, leaving three of the men clinging to one portion and McCullough to the other. The wreck was then a little less than two miles out in the lake.
McCullough is said to have shouted to the other three ment that he would make an effort to swim ashore and get help. He left his support and started for the beach, but soon disappeared from view among the waves.
A sudden shift of the wind washed the remainder of the wreck and its surviving trio toward shore. In his anxiety to get ashore and half-crazed by his long struggle in the water under the hot sun. Keele sprang toward the sandy beach. He landed just as a monster wave caught the derelict and sped high into the air. The heavy wreckage fell on top of Keele, crushing him to instant death.
