The Capsizing of the Sandsucker Kelley Island

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.

To read more about the capsizing of the Kelley Island, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Sandusky newspapers, now on microfilm, carried numerous articles about the tragedy.

Sandusky's Coal Docks

Sandusky, Ohio has long been known as having one of the finest and most well-protected harbors on the Great Lakes. Since the late 1890s, the transfer of coal from railway cars to vessels has been taking place in Sandusky. For many years, the Pennsylvania Railroad owned the docks at the foot of King Street on Sandusky’s west side, and the transfer of coal from the railway cars to ships was done by the employees of the Lower Lake Coal Docks Co. The Twin Anniversary Edition of the Sandusky Register and Star News, from November 24, 1947 featured an article which explained how the process of loading coal went from manually dumping coal from wheelbarrows to the ships, to a steam operated crane, and finally to machines that are electrically operated. The postcard below, by E.B. Ackley featured the electrically operated coal loader #3.

 Several ships can be seen in this 1937 photograph of the coal docks.

This picture taken by the Torow Studio in the late 1940s captures the view of the coal docks at night.

Currently, the Sandusky Dock is owned by Norfolk Southern Corporation, and is operated by the Sandusky Dock Corporation. The average loading capacity is over 2,600 tons per hour. After dark, the lights from the docks can be seen for miles, causing us to take note of this vital part of the Great Lakes economy.