Dock Hand. Killed on burning ship.
The funeral of the three unfortunate deckhands of the Naomi was held this morning with short, simple but impressive services at Lake Forest cemetery. Standing beside the graves, with the rain falling during the entire service, was a little gathering of townspeople and of shipmates of the unfortunate men. A few appropriate remarks and a short prayer was rendered by the Rev. Bourns of Spring Lake. Mrs. Pardee and Mrs. Koster saing, "Nearer My God to Thee" and the little assembliage departed. Jackson, Gordon and Minor had been given a decent christian burial and their friends adn relatives, if they had any, will have that consolation, if ever heard from. The pallbearers were C.E. Kelley, Jay Johnson, and E. Challand of the Naomi's crew and G. Heinny, F Keenau and J. Kinney of the Crosby freight house. Present at the services were Phil Rosbach and Barney Hopkins, ship's officers.
In its 48-year history, the thousand-ton propeller Wisconsin was a ship fraught with disaster and strange contrasts.
It was given the name Wisconsin on the day it was launched in 1881, and still had that name on the day it foundered off Kenosha in 1929. Yet the vessel went through six name changes in between. Her names included E. G. Crosby twice. The boat also was named the General Robert M. OReilly for one year, from 1918 to 1919. Its other names were Naomi and Pilgrim.
It was known as the Naomi when the vessel sustained a tragic fire that claimed the lives of five people, four of them trapped below deck, in 1907. Fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. while the Naomi, under the command of Capt. Thomas Traill, was steaming from Grand Haven to Milwaukee with 50 passengers, an estimated 30 crew members and an unknown cargo of freight.
That three other boats were nearby and able to come to the vessel's aid at sea averted what might have been an even worse disaster. The steamers Saxona, Kansas and D. G. Kerr converged on the burning vessel in time to save lives.
A lookout on the Kansas spotted the fire breaking out even before the crew members on the Naomi knew. The Kerr, commanded by a Captain Ballentine, drew alongside the stern of the burning boat to take passengers, while the Saxona, with Capt. George McCollough at the helm, picked up survivors from several lifeboats.
But rescuers discovered, to their horror, that four coal passers were trapped alive below deck in the ship's forecastle with no way of escape. The men's faces appeared at a tiny porthole as they pleaded for help and took turns getting air. But the portholes were too small for the men to climb through.
The ship's hull was steel. Even though two of the assisting boats stood by, with fire hoses turned on the Naomi's hull, they could not save the trapped sailors.
Captain McCollough said of the incident: "There was no possible means of getting those men out from the red hot steel cage in which they were imprisoned. The cries of the imprisoned men ceased and we heard no more."
There was a fifth death. A passenger, J. M. Rhoades, a lumber buyer from Detroit, escaped the burning boat but was so badly burned he died later in a Grand Rapids hospital.
The Naomi's burned hull was towed to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where it was rebuilt and put back into service.
The second and final disaster happened when the Wisconsin developed a serious leak during a northwest gale and sank about seven miles off Kenosha.
The funeral of the three unfortunate deckhands of the Naomi was held this morning with short, simple but impressive services at Lake Forest cemetery. Standing beside the graves, with the rain falling during the entire service, was a little gathering of townspeople and of shipmates of the unfortunate men. A few appropriate remarks and a short prayer was rendered by the Rev. Bourns of Spring Lake. Mrs. Pardee and Mrs. Koster saing, "Nearer My God to Thee" and the little assembliage departed. Jackson, Gordon and Minor had been given a decent christian burial and their friends adn relatives, if they had any, will have that consolation, if ever heard from. The pallbearers were C.E. Kelley, Jay Johnson, and E. Challand of the Naomi's crew and G. Heinny, F Keenau and J. Kinney of the Crosby freight house. Present at the services were Phil Rosbach and Barney Hopkins, ship's officers.
In its 48-year history, the thousand-ton propeller Wisconsin was a ship fraught with disaster and strange contrasts.
It was given the name Wisconsin on the day it was launched in 1881, and still had that name on the day it foundered off Kenosha in 1929. Yet the vessel went through six name changes in between. Her names included E. G. Crosby twice. The boat also was named the General Robert M. OReilly for one year, from 1918 to 1919. Its other names were Naomi and Pilgrim.
It was known as the Naomi when the vessel sustained a tragic fire that claimed the lives of five people, four of them trapped below deck, in 1907. Fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. while the Naomi, under the command of Capt. Thomas Traill, was steaming from Grand Haven to Milwaukee with 50 passengers, an estimated 30 crew members and an unknown cargo of freight.
That three other boats were nearby and able to come to the vessel's aid at sea averted what might have been an even worse disaster. The steamers Saxona, Kansas and D. G. Kerr converged on the burning vessel in time to save lives.
A lookout on the Kansas spotted the fire breaking out even before the crew members on the Naomi knew. The Kerr, commanded by a Captain Ballentine, drew alongside the stern of the burning boat to take passengers, while the Saxona, with Capt. George McCollough at the helm, picked up survivors from several lifeboats.
But rescuers discovered, to their horror, that four coal passers were trapped alive below deck in the ship's forecastle with no way of escape. The men's faces appeared at a tiny porthole as they pleaded for help and took turns getting air. But the portholes were too small for the men to climb through.
The ship's hull was steel. Even though two of the assisting boats stood by, with fire hoses turned on the Naomi's hull, they could not save the trapped sailors.
Captain McCollough said of the incident: "There was no possible means of getting those men out from the red hot steel cage in which they were imprisoned. The cries of the imprisoned men ceased and we heard no more."
There was a fifth death. A passenger, J. M. Rhoades, a lumber buyer from Detroit, escaped the burning boat but was so badly burned he died later in a Grand Rapids hospital.
The Naomi's burned hull was towed to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where it was rebuilt and put back into service.
The second and final disaster happened when the Wisconsin developed a serious leak during a northwest gale and sank about seven miles off Kenosha.
Dock Hand. Killed on burning ship.
The funeral of the three unfortunate deckhands of the Naomi was held this morning with short, simple but impressive services at Lake Forest cemetery. Standing beside the graves, with the rain falling during the entire service, was a little gathering of townspeople and of shipmates of the unfortunate men. A few appropriate remarks and a short prayer was rendered by the Rev. Bourns of Spring Lake. Mrs. Pardee and Mrs. Koster saing, "Nearer My God to Thee" and the little assembliage departed. Jackson, Gordon and Minor had been given a decent christian burial and their friends adn relatives, if they had any, will have that consolation, if ever heard from. The pallbearers were C.E. Kelley, Jay Johnson, and E. Challand of the Naomi's crew and G. Heinny, F Keenau and J. Kinney of the Crosby freight house. Present at the services were Phil Rosbach and Barney Hopkins, ship's officers.
In its 48-year history, the thousand-ton propeller Wisconsin was a ship fraught with disaster and strange contrasts.
It was given the name Wisconsin on the day it was launched in 1881, and still had that name on the day it foundered off Kenosha in 1929. Yet the vessel went through six name changes in between. Her names included E. G. Crosby twice. The boat also was named the General Robert M. OReilly for one year, from 1918 to 1919. Its other names were Naomi and Pilgrim.
It was known as the Naomi when the vessel sustained a tragic fire that claimed the lives of five people, four of them trapped below deck, in 1907. Fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. while the Naomi, under the command of Capt. Thomas Traill, was steaming from Grand Haven to Milwaukee with 50 passengers, an estimated 30 crew members and an unknown cargo of freight.
That three other boats were nearby and able to come to the vessel's aid at sea averted what might have been an even worse disaster. The steamers Saxona, Kansas and D. G. Kerr converged on the burning vessel in time to save lives.
A lookout on the Kansas spotted the fire breaking out even before the crew members on the Naomi knew. The Kerr, commanded by a Captain Ballentine, drew alongside the stern of the burning boat to take passengers, while the Saxona, with Capt. George McCollough at the helm, picked up survivors from several lifeboats.
But rescuers discovered, to their horror, that four coal passers were trapped alive below deck in the ship's forecastle with no way of escape. The men's faces appeared at a tiny porthole as they pleaded for help and took turns getting air. But the portholes were too small for the men to climb through.
The ship's hull was steel. Even though two of the assisting boats stood by, with fire hoses turned on the Naomi's hull, they could not save the trapped sailors.
Captain McCollough said of the incident: "There was no possible means of getting those men out from the red hot steel cage in which they were imprisoned. The cries of the imprisoned men ceased and we heard no more."
There was a fifth death. A passenger, J. M. Rhoades, a lumber buyer from Detroit, escaped the burning boat but was so badly burned he died later in a Grand Rapids hospital.
The Naomi's burned hull was towed to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where it was rebuilt and put back into service.
The second and final disaster happened when the Wisconsin developed a serious leak during a northwest gale and sank about seven miles off Kenosha.
The funeral of the three unfortunate deckhands of the Naomi was held this morning with short, simple but impressive services at Lake Forest cemetery. Standing beside the graves, with the rain falling during the entire service, was a little gathering of townspeople and of shipmates of the unfortunate men. A few appropriate remarks and a short prayer was rendered by the Rev. Bourns of Spring Lake. Mrs. Pardee and Mrs. Koster saing, "Nearer My God to Thee" and the little assembliage departed. Jackson, Gordon and Minor had been given a decent christian burial and their friends adn relatives, if they had any, will have that consolation, if ever heard from. The pallbearers were C.E. Kelley, Jay Johnson, and E. Challand of the Naomi's crew and G. Heinny, F Keenau and J. Kinney of the Crosby freight house. Present at the services were Phil Rosbach and Barney Hopkins, ship's officers.
In its 48-year history, the thousand-ton propeller Wisconsin was a ship fraught with disaster and strange contrasts.
It was given the name Wisconsin on the day it was launched in 1881, and still had that name on the day it foundered off Kenosha in 1929. Yet the vessel went through six name changes in between. Her names included E. G. Crosby twice. The boat also was named the General Robert M. OReilly for one year, from 1918 to 1919. Its other names were Naomi and Pilgrim.
It was known as the Naomi when the vessel sustained a tragic fire that claimed the lives of five people, four of them trapped below deck, in 1907. Fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. while the Naomi, under the command of Capt. Thomas Traill, was steaming from Grand Haven to Milwaukee with 50 passengers, an estimated 30 crew members and an unknown cargo of freight.
That three other boats were nearby and able to come to the vessel's aid at sea averted what might have been an even worse disaster. The steamers Saxona, Kansas and D. G. Kerr converged on the burning vessel in time to save lives.
A lookout on the Kansas spotted the fire breaking out even before the crew members on the Naomi knew. The Kerr, commanded by a Captain Ballentine, drew alongside the stern of the burning boat to take passengers, while the Saxona, with Capt. George McCollough at the helm, picked up survivors from several lifeboats.
But rescuers discovered, to their horror, that four coal passers were trapped alive below deck in the ship's forecastle with no way of escape. The men's faces appeared at a tiny porthole as they pleaded for help and took turns getting air. But the portholes were too small for the men to climb through.
The ship's hull was steel. Even though two of the assisting boats stood by, with fire hoses turned on the Naomi's hull, they could not save the trapped sailors.
Captain McCollough said of the incident: "There was no possible means of getting those men out from the red hot steel cage in which they were imprisoned. The cries of the imprisoned men ceased and we heard no more."
There was a fifth death. A passenger, J. M. Rhoades, a lumber buyer from Detroit, escaped the burning boat but was so badly burned he died later in a Grand Rapids hospital.
The Naomi's burned hull was towed to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where it was rebuilt and put back into service.
The second and final disaster happened when the Wisconsin developed a serious leak during a northwest gale and sank about seven miles off Kenosha.
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