The lumber-laden schooner Jennie Lynn fought desperately against the storm through the dark hours of May 21, 1883. Her captain had managed to make harbor south of Chicago and dropped two anchors, hoping the twin cables would hold his vessel against the extraordinary winds tearing across Lake Michigan. By dawn, five men would be dead and the schooner would lie capsized in the shallows, another victim of the Great Lakes’ legendary fury.

Cables Part in the Gale

The National Republican reported that a “storm of extraordinary violence prevailed on Lake Michigan last night” as the Jennie Lynn and numerous other sailing vessels struggled to reach Chicago’s harbor. The schooner, carrying a cargo of lumber from Muskegon, Michigan, had initially found relative safety in the harbor south of the city. Captain John Anderson ordered everything secured above deck as the wind howled from the northeast, driving the vessel inexorably toward shore.

Despite the crew’s preparations, the tremendous force of the storm proved too much. The Jennie Lynn’s anchor cables snapped under the strain, leaving the heavy lumber schooner unmanageable in the churning waters. As dawn broke around 5 o’clock on the morning of May 22, the vessel capsized near land, her masts disappearing beneath the gray waves.

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storm of extraordinary violence prevailed on Lake Michigan last night

— National Republican, May 22, 1883

One Survivor’s Desperate Swim

Of the six men aboard the Jennie Lynn, only mate Exel Sample survived the disaster. As the schooner went over, Sample plunged into the frigid lake and swam desperately for shore, where rescuers pulled him from the water. Captain Anderson, along with sailors L. Peterson, A. Helgeson, and a man identified only as Christianson, all drowned in the wreckage.

The Jennie Lynn was not the only vessel to fall victim to the storm. The schooner Mary Ellen Cook, under Captain Williams, bore down on the outer government breakwater early that morning after the lighthouse beacon was extinguished. The extent of other disasters remained “only yet partially known” as Chicago authorities struggled to assess the full scope of the night’s devastation.

Echoes in Modern Shipping

The Great Lakes continue to challenge maritime traffic today, though modern weather forecasting and GPS navigation have dramatically reduced such disasters. The same shipping lanes where the Jennie Lynn foundered now see massive ore carriers and container ships, guided by sophisticated storm tracking systems that Sample and his crewmates could never have imagined.

Sources

• National Republican, May 22, 1883 — Library of Congress