ALL THOUGHT TO BE LOST.

NO MORE HOPE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE LAKE STEAMER CHICORA.

TWENTY-NINE PERSONS DROWNED.

FULL LIST OF THE MISSING, WHO HAVE UNDOUBTEDLY FOUND A GRAVE IN THE WATERS OF LAKE MICHIGAN.

Benton Harbor, Mich., Jan. 23. -- All hope for the safety of the GRAHAM & MORTON screw steamer Chicora has been abandoned here by the finding of wreckage from the vessel off South Haven. The fate of twenty-nine men, who are known to have been aboard when the steamer left Milwaukee for this port Monday morning, is almost as hopeless. Veteran mariners number every man with the dead.
The list of the officers and crew and passengers, so far as known, is as follows:
BALLINGER, "DOC," manufacturer, St. Joseph, passenger.
CLARK, JAMES R., clerk, St. Joseph.
DAVIS, JESSE, porter, Benton Harbor.
DOWNEY, GRANT, oiler, Detroit.
HODGES, JOHN, watchman, Baltimore.
LYNCH, "NATE," cook, St. Joseph.
MALONE, JAMES, pantryman, Chicago.
MARKS, JOSEPH, wheelman, Benton Harbor.
McCLURE, ROBERT, chief engineer, Detroit.
MORGAN, M. W., head waiter, Benton Harbor.
PEARL, JOSEPH, druggist, St. Joseph, passenger.
ROBERTSON, THOMAS, watchman, Baltimore.
SIMMONS, C. D., first mate, Benton Harbor.
STINES, BENNIE, second mate, (Captain's son,) St. Joseph.
WIRTS, ALFRED, second engineer, Detroit.
In addition to the foregoing there were on board the vessel two firemen, one coal passer, eight deckhands, and two gentlemen from St. Joseph, who were, along with BALLINGER and PEARL, guests of the Captain.
The ill-fated vessel was caught while crossing the lake and fell an easy prey to the seventy-mile-an-hour hurricane which swept the icy waters of Lake Michigan throughout Monday and continued with little moderation for another twenty-four hours. The fears of all concerned were confirmed when the following dispatch was received from South Haven:
Capt. DONAHUE, the lighthouse keeper, noticed this morning, through the hazy weather, portions of what seemed to be wreckage floating abreast and on each side of the harbor here, a couple of miles outside and close to open water. Capt. MATTHEWS of the life-saving station led a party of volunteers on a dangerous trip over the moving ice until they came into a lot of fresh wreckage. SOme of it was wedged between the ice, but the greater portion was seen underneath the ice. The parts which were brought here were easily recognized by vessel men as belonging to the CHicora. A perilous gale is still blowing, the weather is thick, and the darkness combines to prevent another search for further proof of the disaster.
The following telegram was received here by the steamship company this evening from South Haven:
We have just found some of the Chicora's upper works in the ice off this place. There is no doubt she has foundered.
Capt. STINES, SIMONS, McCLURE, LYNCH and CLARK have families. The rest of the men are single.
The loss on the vessel, exclusive of the cargo, amounts to $165,000, and the cargo of thirty-eight car loads of flour for export was valued at $20,000. The Chicora was a screw steamer of 900 tons burden, built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company two years ago. The Graham & Morton Company carried no insurance on her, except for fire, and there was no insurance on the flour.
Owing to dull business, she was taken out of commission Jan. 1, but last Saturday was again put in commission. She was a strongly-built boat and well manned. It is barely possible that the victims are adrift on an ice field.
Capt. STINES is said to have had forebodings of impending disaster, and some time ago said as much to friends.
MR. GRAHAM'S first theory was that the boat, which he partly owned, having left Milwaukee at 5:45 o'clock A. M., would begin to get the full force of the gale about 10 o'clock, and that Capt. STINES, with his knowledge of St. Joseph Harbor and of the large field of ice that would be blown toward this shore, would put about and either make his way back to Milwaukee, attempt to make the Chicago Harbor, or, failing to do either, lie "on and off" the shore somewhere in the vicinity. It is thought the boat was not more than forty miles from land when the storm broke.
This is the first disaster that has overtaken any steamer from this port since the sinking of the ill-fated Hippocampus in the Fall of 1886, from being overloaded.
JAMES R. CLARK, who was filling the place of the regular clerk, J. W. HANCOCK, was ex-United States Marshal for the Western District of Michigan. He was born in 1844 at Montreal, and had resided in Michigan since two years of age. He was a telegraph operator in the army during the war. After the war he was engaged by the Goodrich Transportation Line until 1876, when he became Deputy Sheriff of Berrien County, and at the end of four years was elected Sheriff. From 1890 to 1894 he was United States Marshal, with headquarters in this city. Since retiring from office he had been engaged in Lake Spring. He leaves a wife and daughter.

The New York Times New York 1895-01-24

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!