By Suzette Lopez
On November 14, 1887, the Captain of the small Canadian schooner SARAH requested assistance from the keeper of the Charlotte Life Saving Station as his ship had run ashore during a snow storm. The following is from the US Life Saving Service Annual Report of 1888 and details how the ship was assisted. It will remind you of how things were done in 1887. The fact that the surfmen helped sack and transfer the cargo of grain tells what an effort it was to lighten the load and float the SARAH.
“November 14, 1887 — On the night of the 11th, during a fresh, northwest wind and snow-storm, the schooner SARAH, of Port Burwell, Ontario, bound from Pickering, in that Province, to Charlotte, New York, laden with barley, and having a crew of five all told, ran ashore fourteen miles east of the Charlotte Station, (Ninth District,) Lake Ontario. In the morning of the 14th the captain applied to the keeper for assistance and the latter went with him some seven miles up the Genesee River, where they procured a lighter with which to save the cargo and aid in the attempt to float the vessel. It was not until the 18th that everything was in readiness. The life-savers then manned the surf-boat and, taking with them two strong hawsers, accompanied the tug and lighter previously engaged, to the scene of the accident. On arrival the surfmen ran lines to the stranded craft and, getting the lighter alongside helped to sack and transfer the grain. During the afternoon the wind canted to the westward and blew with such force as to compel the suspension of work, and the station crew returned to their quarters. The next morning (19th) they again boarded the schooner and succeeded through the day in discharging a large part of the cargo. In all nearly two-thirds were saved. On the 22d the surfmen assisted to put some fifty empty oil barrels in the hold in hopes, by this means, of getting the vessel clear, but the tug, after repeated efforts, failed to pull her off. Attempts to dislodge her proving futile, she was left on the beach through the winter and was not floated until June 5th of the following year (1888), at which time she was got off by a tug and towed into Charlotte badly damaged. “
Built as the LAURA EMMA in 1864 at Port Burwell, Ontario, she measured 73.3 feet in length, 19.4 feet in beam and 6.6 feet in depth. Records show she was rebuilt at Port Dover in 1882 from the bottom of the LAURA EMMA and renamed SARAH.
The SARAH sailed through 1922 and was reported broken up in February 1923.
—————————————————
Suzette Lopez is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
