Schooner Allegheny Lost In Superior Gale

By James Donahue

The Allegheny was identified as a three mast schooner from the day it was launched at Erie, Pennsylvania in 1873 but chances are it rarely sailed under canvass. The vessel was used for most of the 40 years it spent on the lakes as a barge under tow behind operating steamships.

That is what the Allegheny was doing on June 6, 1913, when it was caught in the Lake Superior gale that wrecked it. The vessel was heavily laden with lumber and under tow behind the steamer M. T. Green when the storm struck the two vessels off Vermillion Point, Northern Michigan.

The tow line parted and the Allegheny was blown into a sand bar where it broke up in the seas. Lifesavers from the Vermillion Life-Saving Station removed five crew members but a sixth man apparently died in the incident.

The Allegheny was but one of a long line of wooden schooners that once were a familiar sight on the Great Lakes. For all of its years, photos of this vessel are apparently rare.

There is a record of one accident involving the Allegheny during those years. She collided with the Propeller Wisahickou in the St. Clair Flats, at the entrance to Lake St. Clair in 1877.