On this day September 26, 1930, Milwaukee’s OUR SON foundered in a gale and sunk about 20 miles off of Sheboygan, Wis. The Lake Carriers Association said she was the last active sailing vessel to ride the upper lakes.
A three-masted schooner, the OUR SON was built in 1875 at Black River, Ohio, by Henry Kelley. Her owners were Henry Kelley and his son Frank A. Kelley. It is said that Henry chose the name as an honor to all his sons, several of which had died before the schooner was built. She measured 182 feet in length, 34.6 feet in beam and 13.4 feet in draft and was originally built for the ore and grain trade but in her later years hauled spruce and balsam pulpwood.
OUR SON with posts, August 22, 1925
The OUR SON had several owners in her life, the last being Winand Schlosser of Milwaukee who purchased her in 1920. She spent three weeks in the Sturgeon Bay Dry Dock’s yard in 1926 having new steel plates put on her bottom at a cost of about $5,000. Upon leaving there she sailed to Upper Michigan for a load of pulpwood for a paper mill in Green Bay, Wis.
OUR SON on August 6, 1930
OUR SON (right) with the steamer WILLIAM NELSON (left) going to her rescue
On September 26, 1930, the OUR SON, loaded with pulpwood, waterlogged in a terrific gale about 40 miles West Southwest of Big Point Sable and foundered off Sheboygan. Luckily Capt. Charles H. Mohr of the steamer WILLIAM NELSON was in the area, noticed the schooner flying distress signals and rescued her crew of seven. The newspapers reported with flair the loss of one of the sailing oldies. Below is a sample, unfortunately the clipping did not note a source.
“Built in 1875, the OUR SON bent its masts before many a storm on the inland seas only to meet disaster during the first of the season’s lake squalls yesterday. Her captain, Fred Nelson, for 55 years answering the lure of smacking canvas on the lakes, stood aboard the WILLIAM NELSON and saw his ship disappear. But his boat fought to the last. And when abandoned, the OUR SON had her canvas cut. To leave her with sails hopefully spread would have been sacrilege, Capt. Nelson argued. “
You have to love … “answering the lure of smacking canvas on the lakes.”
Capt. Charles H. Mohr of the steamer WILLIAM NELSON
Capt. Mohr was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for Heroism for rescuing the crew of the OUR SON during that terrific gale. Capt. Mohr seemed to be in the right place at the right time often. He also participated in rescues on June 6, 1922, with the rescue of seven persons from a sinking launch near Tobermory, Georgian Bay; on November 12, 1926, with the rescue of three men from the yacht VALENCIA on Lake Erie; on November 23, 1927, with the rescue of four men from the yacht MILDRED near Erie, Pa., and on July 29, 1929, with the rescue of six from an overturned motor boat off Kelleys Island. What’s that saying … location, location, location. I would think you would always want Capt. Mohr near your location.
Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
