On Saturday morning, May 2, 1925, a crew of sixteen men left
from Sandusky in the sandsucker Kelley Island, owned by the Kelley Island Lime
& Transport Company. Early in the afternoon the vessel met with rough waters just off Point Pelee. The adverse
weather conditions, combined with shifting cargo,
caused the vessel to capsize. Several men were trapped below decks.
A total
of nine men perished in the lake disaster. The dead were: Captain William G.
Slackford, Oley Kriss, William Mayer, Rolland Will, Alvey Martin, William A.
Slackford, all of Sandusky. Frederick Holder and Paul Everett, both of Oak
Harbor, and Thomas Moran, of Castalia also drowned in the accident.
Deckhand Curtis Brown was hailed a hero because of his
successful efforts in rescuing three crew members. The Sandusky Register reported that several other crew members also heroically tried to save the ship from the water that was rushing into the
ship. Alvey Martin and Frederick Holder failed in their efforts. Captain
Slackford remained in the deckhouse as the ship sank. The Canadian fishing
boat, the Flossie B., came to the aid of the crew of the capsized sandsucker.
Members of the crew who survived the disaster were: Curtis Brown, Andrew
Krause, William Loveridge, and Scott Pethbridge, all of Sandusky; Clarence
Bloomstrom and Nicholas Rennard, both of Toledo; and Morton Everett of Oak
Harbor. The surviving crew members of the ill fated voyage are pictured below:
The picture below shows three men from the Lakeside
viewing the overturned hull of the Kelley Island.
The Slackford family suffered a double loss, as Captain
William G. Slackford and his son William A. Slackford both died in the lake
tragedy. Captain Slackford was a well respected shipmaster; his biography is online.
A shipmaster’s pennant which once belonged to Captain Slackford is in the collections of the Follett House Museum.
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