THE DEAN RICHMOND 1893

The DEAN RICHMOND was a typical Great Lakes package freighter. It was 238 feet long, 35 feet in breadth, and a 14 foot deep draft. Gross tonnage was 1250. Built in 1864, its only unusual feature of the period was a twin engine/propeller design.

During 1893, the DEAN RICHMOND had been under charter to the Clover Leaf Railroad, with her regular run between Toledo Ohio, and Buffalo New York. On the cold October afternoon of Friday the 13th 1893, loading of the major cargo of zinc and lead ingots, and bagged flour was completed at the Toledo docks. The ship slipped her mooring lines and headed eastward to disaster.

An ominous storm built throughout Friday evening. By Saturday morning a full gale was blowing, with sustained winds of 60 knots. The DEAN RICHMOND was fighting for her life. She was sighted twice that morning in the middle of Lake Erie just east of Erie, Pennsylvania. Her smoke stacks had been torn from the vessel by the high seas, and the crippled vessel apparently was floundering with no rudder control. On Sunday morning, October 15, 1893, bodies and wreckage from the DEAN RICHMOND began washing ashore in Dunkirk, New York, 40 miles east of Erie. This confirmed the worst fears ... the ship had gone down! The dreadful news was announced in the NEW YORK TIMES of that day: THE DEAN RICHMOND A WRECK-LOST WITH A CREW
OF EIGHTEEN IN LAKE ERIE NEAR DUNKIRK.

The image below was made at a sonar ranges of 75 and 100 meters. The wreck is lying upside down. To the left can be seen the twin propeller shafts and blades, the rudder is also visible. During salvage a large hole was opened in the center of the hull and debris was scattered around the hull.