The schooner Marysburg (1870)

1. General

Port of Picton Registry, Number : 34

See also the entry for the schooner Marysburg in our ships Database.

NOTATIONS:

2. Subscribing Owners: C. Wilson, sole owner, sold to John Allen and James Guy of Oshawa & John Blow of Whitby, dated July 12, 1871
3. CARRIED TO NEW BOOK
4. Book of Transactions: MARYSBURG: VESSEL WENT ASHORE AT PORT UNION ON LAKE ONTARIO ON OCTOBER 31, 1881 AND WAS ABANDONED BY CREW. REGISTER CLOSED ON DECEMBER 20, 1881

History:

1854 : built Colborn, Ont. (Cat Hollow) by George Ault as the JAMES LESLIE.
1860 : owned by John Burke & Co. Bowmanville, Ont.
1861 : extensive repairs.
1866 : owned by W.B. Ferguson, Bowmanville.
1870, May 23 : rebuilt South Bay by Tate; renamed MARYSBURG; 99 x 22 x 9; 150 tons.
1871, July 12 : owned by John Allen, James Guy, Oshawa & John Blow, Whitby.
1871, September 10 : ashore Pt. Pelee, Lake Erie; released.
1873, February 2 : owned by Cornelius J. Starling, Belleville, ONT.
1874, October : damaged, Lake Erie.
1875 : extensive repairs.
1876, May 20 : collided with schooner AMERICAN in fog; repaired.
1881, October 31 : wrecked, Port Union, Lake Ontatio.

Newspaper and other transcriptions

5. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Wednesday, September 13, 1871 ASHORE AT POINT AU PELEE. - The schooner MARYSBURG, hailing from Picton, Lake Ontario, during the thick weather on Sunday night mistook the light at Point au Pelee and ran ashore on the west side of it. She is well out; has no cargo on board, and was bound westward for freight. She is 190 tons burthen, was built at South Bay in 1870, and is valued at $11,000 gold. The tug GLADIATOR has gone from Detroit to render her assistance.
6. British Whig (Kingston, ON), 1 Oct 1872 -- sch. Marysburg almost reached Cleveland, but had to run back to Long Point; she lost both anchors and main boom; sch. M.L. Collins lost main sail.
7. Casualty List for 1873 Chicago Inter-Ocean, Dec. 25, 1874. 1 Oct 1874: Schooner MARYSBURG, outfit damaged on Lake Erie, October 1874. Property loss $100.
8. Oswego Palladium, Monday, May 22, 1876 A Collision On The Lake -- The Schooners American and Marysburg Involuntarily Meet off Braddock's Point : One of the worst looking wrecks we have seen this season is the schooner MARYSBURG, which arrived this morning from Toronto with lumber. Last Saturday night about eleven o'clock when the MARYSBURG was some twenty miles off Braddock's Point she collided with the schooner AMERICAN, Captain Cal. Becker, striking the AMERICAN on the starboard side forward of the mizzen rigging. The MARYSBURG lost her bowsprit and jib boom and her jibs and all of her head gear, which was carried off by the AMERICAN.
   When the collision took place the MARYSBURG was on the port tack and the AMERICAN on the starboard, both passing the water at a smart pace. The violence of the shock was so great that the MARYSBURG's stem was driven back at the top two or three inches, and her deck load of lumber was disarranged aft to the cabin, and about one thousand feet of lumber went by the board.
   At the time of the collision there was a heavy fog on the lake, rendering it almost impossible to see the length of a vessel, and Captain Sullivan of the MARYSBURG was at the foremast head keeping a look out. he says he did not see the American nor hear her fog horn until she was under his bow, and although an effort was then made to avoid a collision it was impossible to do so. What damage was sustained by the AMERICAN it is impossible to learn at present as she has not arrived at Kingston as yet. It is a great wonder that one of the vessels did not sustain serious damage as both were heavily laden.
   Later. - Since the foregoing was written, we have seen a letter from Nicholas Finn to Mr. Daniel Lyons, of this city, stating that the schooner AMERICAN, Captain Cal. Becker, is in Chicago, so that the MARYSBURG could not have collided with her. The ADRIATIC was on the lake Saturday and she may be the schooner.
9. Daily News (Kingston, ON), Nov. 19, 1877 p.3 Marine Notes: Another Gale - A severe gale blew on the lake from the west on Saturday night and Sunday morning, which caused some damage. Early on Sunday morning the water in the harbour was quite white with the breakers, and anchorage was difficult of access. The Oswego fleet was blown down the lake, it being impossible to make that harbour. The following damage is reported: In the harbour the Marie Annette backed into the schooner Marysburg, having dragged her anchor, carrying away the latter's jibboom, and causing some other damage.
10. Cleveland Herald, Wednesday, November 16, 1881 The schooner MARYSBURG, it is said, has been abandoned. If possible the cargo will be taken out, but the vessel is no longer of consequence to make efforts to save her.
11. References to the schooner Marysburg appear in C.H.J Snider's work:
    Schooner Days DXXII (522) The Marysburgh, 22 Nov 1941.
    Schooner Days CCXLII (242) Cat Hollow Craft II, 30 May 1936.
    

References and source notes

(5-10) Many of the contemporary newspaper cuttings can be found at Maritime History of the Great Lakes, Newspaper Transcriptons
(11) C.H.J. Snider Schooner Days index, Naval Marine Archive.