2-995-629 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The lake steamer "Lady Elgin", as she lay at her wharf at Chicago on the day before she was lost - from a photograph by S. Alschuler, 1860. '...a Canadian-built boat...constructed some nine years ago. She was 300 feet in length, and 1000 tons burden, and had the reputation of swiftness, which made her a favourite with excursionists and travellers...[She] usually made three annual excursions on Lake Superior, starting from Chicago; and it was while she was proceeding on the last of her three excursions for the present year that she met her fate. The captain of the unfortunate steamer was Mr. John Wilson...The Augusta schooner, the vessel which ran into the Lady Elgin, is owned by Mr. George W. Bissell, of Detroit, and commanded by Captain Malott. She did not escape scathless in the collision, all her head-gear, jibboom, and stanchions being carried away...The coroner's inquiry into the loss of the Lady Elgin was still proceeding at the departure of the last mail...According to the best authority, the number of persons on board the Lady Elgin when she left Chicago was 393, including the crew. Of these 114 are reported as saved. This would leave 279 lost, of which the bodies of only 67 had been recovered up to the 14th September'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.