Just Three Hundred Feet
By James Donahue
Battered by 15-foot waves
and a fierce northeaster, the steamer W. H. Sawyer’s luck ran out on Aug. 11, 1928 as the vessel raced for the safety
of the Harbor Beach breakwater.
The Sawyer plunged to
the bottom of Lake Huron just three hundred feet from safety and within sight of the Harbor
Beach Lifesaving station.
The wreck dropped in
an upright position in shallow water so its two masts were visible for days, marking the grave of the ship’s cook, who
went down with it. John J. Buckley, Detroit, signed on as
a cook only days before the Sawyer sailed on its final journey.
Buckley reportedly became
seasick during the storm and went to his bunk. He became trapped below when the Sawyer sank. His body washed ashore about
a week later.
Steaming north with the
barges A. B. King and Peshtigo in its tow, the Sawyer was on its way from Toledo to Lake Superior with a cargo of salt. The barges were carrying either crushed limestone or salt.
The three boats were
caught in heavy fog and anchored for about a day in the St. Clair River, so Capt. August Galonbisky was pushing his 38-year-old
vessel through the storm to make up for lost time. He chose not to make an unscheduled stop at Harbor Beach that day to escape the brunt of
the gale, even though the storm was strengthening at that hour.
Galonbisky had second
thoughts later in the night when the winds reached an estimated 50 miles an hour and the Sawyer’s wooden hull began
to break open from the pounding the seas were giving it. He turned around somewhere off Port Hope. As the Sawyer turned, however,
the towlines parted, leaving the two barges to battle the storm on their own.
The King, a 177-foot
converted schooner, was carrying a crew of six men and a woman cook. The Peshtigo, 201-feet-in-length, had a crew of seven
aboard. Both barges were blown into the rocks near Port Hope and both crews were rescued by Pointe aux Barques lifesavers.
Meanwhile, the Sawyer
was racing with the wind at her stern for Harbor Beach. Galonbisky knew by now he was in trouble. His ship had taken on a serious leak,
the water was mixing with the salt in the cargo hold, and the salt was jamming the ship’s pumps. In other words, the
Sawyer was sinking.
Just before 3 a.m. Commander
Davidson at the Harbor Beach
lifesaving station was watching the Sawyer’s lights as the vessel approached the harbor entrance. Davidson knew from
the way the vessel was taking the wves that it was foundering. He got his lifesaving crew assembled.
The Sawyer sank so quickly
that Galonbisky, his first mate, and wheelman were all thrown into the water from where they stood in the wheelhouse. All
three were picked up by the lifesavers. Other crew members swam or floated ashore, clinging to wreckage.
Wreckage from the Sawyer
came ashore for miles along the coast. The wreck had to be destroyed by dynamite to clear the harbor entrance. The Peshtigo
was the only one of the three vessels salvaged. The King also was declared a total wreck.
The Mind of James Donahue