Lake Pepin, MN Disaster, Jul 1890 - Misjudgment of Captain

THE LAKE PEPIN DISASTER

Misjudgment of the Sea Wing’s Captain.

The Work of Rescue.

Lake City, Minn., July 16.—Surrounded by beautiful bluff and pleasant farming lands Lake Pepin’s unruffled surface Monday gave little evidence of the fierce struggle with the elements and of the death-dealing fury of storm that raged off this peaceful little city Monday night. The loss of life is probably greater than any other single calamity that has ever visited any part of the northwest. St. Cloud’s cyclone of a few years ago was disastrous in the extreme, but it is nothing beside this. The list of dead may exceed 100.

The lake shore was made to reverberate Tuesday morning with the thunder of dynamite, which was brought into requisition in the hope that it would be of help in bringing some of the as yet unrecovered bodies to the surface.

With axes holes were chopped in the decks, and ropes fastened to the bodies under the water, and these drawn to the surface, carried ashore and turned over to the ambulance corps. The bodies of those who went down with the steamer were taken out of the cabin, through a hole cut in the pilot house and through the cabin doors. Believing that still some bodies were to be found in the half-dismantled wreck, Gen. Mullen ordered the tearing away of the upper works of the vessel, and the pushing of the wreck further toward the shore, where she was righted.

This work was done by the Luella and the Ethel Howard, and soon as the wreck could be got at in its new position Gen. Mullen and his military helpers went all through the Sea Wing, recovering three more bodies, bringing the total up to sixty-five, and convinced themselves that no more bodies were to be found there. The shattered old hulk was then left to drift at will, and her broken and battered frame-work was in sad contrast with the bright skies and smooth waters.

During the morning a systematic patrol of the water over which the hulls had drifted after being first struck by the gale had been kept up by the citizens of Lake City. After the last bodies had been taken from the wreck, Gen. Mullen pressed into service all the row-boats within reach, and with four soldiers in each boat began, late this afternoon, a thorough dragging of the lake all about the scene of the disaster. No bodies were found this afternoon late, and at dark the search was abandoned for the day. Dynamite will be used in the morning.

The number known to have been saved is now estimated at about seventy-five, which leaves about 115 people thought to have perished in the wreck. This number will undoubtedly be diminished as full returns come in of those who escaped. From all that can be learned the storm did not seriously affect any other locality than the vicinity of Lake City.

Some of the crops on the farms nearby, which were in the path of the hurricane, were more or less damaged by wind and hail. The damage to buildings in Lake City will not probably exceed $100,000 all told, and may fall considerably short of these figures.

JUST 215 ABOARD

L. S. Bayrell, of Argyle, Minn., was on the ill-fated steamer when she turned over. He says there were just 215 people on the steamer when she left the First regiment camp on her return voyage.