“Another attempt was made to get the LILY E. afloat on the 27th. The pumps were kept constantly going to free her of water and the holes made when she was scuttled were closed, but at 2 p.m. the sea again became so heavy that the vessel had to be scuttled a second time. All nineteen members of the vessel and station crews working on board the schooner were taken ashore in the surfboat.
Photo at top of page: LILY E. as the South Shore Yacht Club courtesy of John Ebersol
“On the 29th steam pumps were placed in position on board and on the 30th the LILY E. was pumped out, raised, and towed into the harbor at Manistee where she was laid up for the season. During the assistance rendered by the U. S. Life-Saving Service, the surfboat was used 41 times and landed 27 persons without mishap except that the keeper had one of his fingers badly injured but continued to perform his duty. The estimated amount lost of the vessel and cargo was $8,400; however, this seems too high as the LILY E. was not severely damaged and the value of the cargo was only $1,200 with about three-quarters of the oats being saved.
“The LILY E. was sold to John Greilick of Traverse City, Michigan as the principal owner for the season of 1887 and from May 26, 1888 to January 11, 1900, the enrollments record that she was owned, at least in part, or sailed by the Gundersons; Gustav, Nels, Fred, and Louis, of Sheboygan. From this point in time the record of the LILY E. is best related in terms of her Norwegian owners and masters whose resourcefulness and ingenuity extended her life, and the lives of many other sailing vessels, well beyond their time.
“James Gunderson was born on January 27, 1831, in Kragero, Norway and sailed on salt water for some years before he came to America in about 1855 to make his home in Sheboygan. In 1859, he married Miss Anne Gurine Thompson and they had six sons: Gustav, Martin, Nels, Fred, Louis and Theodore; and one daughter Martha Maria. The Gundersons were well known and respected sailors who owned a number of schooners including the LIBERTY, TRANSIT, INDUSTRY, H. D. MOORE and J. A. HOLMES as well as fishing tugs and propellers. They rebuilt the LILY E. in 1892 which restored her rating according to Inland Lloyds to A-2, the rating she was given when only six years old.
“In the winter of 1899-1900, the Gundersons sold the LILY E. to Claus S. Jorgenson of Racine and Samuel Jorgenson of the same place as equal owners. Claus was born at Langesund, Norway on August 14, 1866 and came to Racine in 1887. On October 9, 1906, the LILY E. sprung a leak off Kewaunee while bound for Milwaukee from Manistee with a load of bark and a crew of five but managed to reach Milwaukee harbor where Capt. C. Jorgenson requested assistance of the life-saving crew. They boarded the schooner and manned the pumps to keep the LILY E. afloat until she could be docked. The estimated value of the vessel was reported at $700 and the cargo of bark $425.
“Helpful encounters with the U. S. Life-Saving Service were the rule rather than the exception for most of the old schooners during the twilight of the sailing ship on the Great Lakes. The LILY E. Capt. Jorgenson, delivered a cargo from Racine to South Manitou Island in April of 1908 and, while lying at the dock one mile northwest of the station on the 27th, a shift of wind into the east started a heavy swell which pounded the schooner against the dock with great force. The station crew boarded the vessel, manned the windless and assisted her crew of five to work the LILY E. clear of the dock and to a safe anchorage in the harbor. On May 22, 1908, surfmen at the Charlevoix station took lines from the LILY E., the schooner MAJOR N. H. FERRY, and the steamer J. S. CROUSE and assisted them to safe moorings in the harbor.
“Jorgenson sailed the LILY E. until 1909 when he sold his one half interest in the schooner to another Norwegian captain, Anthony Bolster of Chicago, and retired from the lakes. Bolster had been owner and master of the schooner EBENEZER, ex-WATTS SHERMAN for three seasons, 1896 through 1898, and the schooner LOMIE A. BURTON for the season of 1899. He then sailed the schooner CHARLES E. WYMAN for the Michael Hilty Lumber Company of Milwaukee until he supposedly retired from the lakes in 1905 to establish a grocery business in Chicago. His purchase of the LILY E. in the spring of 1909 represented a return to the marine scene but it is not known whether he actually sailed the schooner.
“On April 29, 1911, the Chicago Transportation Company officially became the last owner of the LILY E. as a commercial vessel. After the season of 1912, she was laid up for the winter in Sturgeon Bay with a broken foretopmast and later towed to the boneyard south of the shipyard where she was to remain in the mud for several years while events in Milwaukee began the dawn of a new career for the old lumber schooner.
“The city of Milwaukee began to develop the lake front on its south side from Russell Avenue to just south of Nock Street in 1913. J. E. Hathaway & Company drove a wooden pile revetment along the shore which curved to the east between Iron and Nock Streets to form a protected anchorage intended for sailing yachts and motor boats. The weather in the fall of 1913 was typical for the area as a series of storms slowed the construction of the pilings and breached them at several points. A severe storm struck the south shore area on November 11th, damaging the construction equipment and halting the project for the season.
“This development of the lake front for recreational purposes encouraged a group of local Bay View residents to form a corporation in 1913 to be known as the South Shore Yacht Club. The new club rented a house at 342 Beulah Avenue (South of Shore Drive) owned by James R. Williams, a steel worker in the rolling mills just to the north, but vacated this property on April 23, 1915. That same evening the membership met in the residence of Commodore William Barr at 388 Beulah Ave. to discuss a new home for their club. The Commodore read a letter from Daniel B. Starkey, a member, stating that he could get a schooner free for the club and the towing also done free of charge. The homeless yacht club quickly passed a motion to accept Starkey’s offer and the decision to convert a lumber schooner, the LILY E., to a yacht club had been made.
“Starkey inspected the LILY E. in Sturgeon Bay and reported that it was in good condition and had better lines than the Lincoln Park Yacht Club in Chicago, the ex-schooner CARRIER. The LILY E. was not acquired without cost, but a special meeting held at the Bay View Public Library on May 29, 1915, which was called to consider her purchase. “A motion was made and seconded that the Board of Trustees be authorized to enter into a contract with the owners of the schooner (the Chicago Transportation Company) according to the terms of $50 down and the balance of $300 to be paid in one year and the secretary be authorized to draw a check in payment for it.” Motion carried. A letter from Leathem & Smith Towing and Wrecking Co. said that the schooner was still on ground but that they expected to have it released soon.
“The LILY E. was pulled from the mud of the boneyard in Sturgeon Bay and taken to the Leathem & Smith dock for temporary repairs before the trip to Milwaukee. Starkey and Edward E. Gillen arranged for the tow from Sturgeon Bay to the anchorage at south shore where she arrived on July 5, 1915. They were elected life members of the club at the regular meeting on July 9, 1915 in consideration of time and money they gave for the schooner. The tug employed in the tow was the EDWARD E. GILLEN, ex-J. J. HAGERMAN which together with the WELCOME had pulled the LILY E. from the sand off Jones Island in the spring of 1883, thirty-two years before.”
READ ABOUT THE LILY E.’S NEW CAREER IN PART FIVE
(Schooner Days in Door County, by Walter & Mary Hirthe, p 71-80)
Suzette Lopez Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
