Posted by M. Saleh on October 14, 1999 at 19:26:17:
In Reply to: Lady Elgin Wreck posted by Ron Falconberry on July 28, 1999 at 22:18:27:
: I am working on a speech to give to my Toastmaster's club about a person involved in the 1860 wreck of the Lady Elgin. His name was Edward Spencer and he reportedly rescued 17 people from drowning.
: I am interested in getting historical information on the wreck, such as the name of the ship that ran into it, possibly the name of the captain and any well-known individuals that may have been on board. Additionally, where did the Lady Elgin come from and where was it going?
: Is there a web site or another way of getting a good historical breakdown of the wreck or of Edward Spencer?
: Any information you could give me would be appreciated!
: Thank you;
I hope you enjoyed reading the articles I have sent you about Captain Jack Wilson of the Lady Elgin. I would just like to make a comment about the heroic efforts and personality of Captain Wilson. The young 38 year old ship captain of the largest steam ship of the Great Lakes could even be considered to be a hero for our times, because Captain Wilson is one of the unique individuals who was sincerely devoted to give generously the happiness and wholesome good times and ultimate safety and security to all of his passengers, friends, crewmembers, friends, and family. The kind-hearted Captain Jack Wilson, throughout his life and brilliant career as a ship captain and celebrity was trule the kind of person who loved and cherished the safety, security, good times, friendship, and happiness of his crewmembers, family, passengers, and hundreds of friends in the Lakes area and other places, and the disasterous situation of the Lady Elgin was to be for him no exception to his past life saving and survival achievements for himself and his passengers, as he did all things possible to combine service with authority as he attempted to, once again, show that he was, again, the master he always was, to liberate his passengers from the dangerously murderous waves of Lake Michigan and the potentially lethal "breaker" waves that were already crashing passengers and their rafts against the rocky shores of Winnetka, Illinois. As I return to my place with the Milwaukee Excursionists, and the early morning sunlight is making the scene of the Lady Elgin disaster more visible, I see, in spite of Captain Jack Wilson's repeated warnings for passengers to "watch out for breakers at the shore", his wonderful cheerfulness and his dynamically enthusiastic assurances that all passengers would survive the terrible shipwreck, all that the captain and his passengers had hoped would go right, everything had now gone tragically and fatally wrong as Captain Wilson now saw a wreckage strewn lake, that was now also strewn with aout 150 or more dead bodies floating with the remains of the Lady Elgin. The Civil War had not yet broken out, but the obviously peace-loving, non-violent, and gentle Captain Jack Wilson now experienced a kind of prelude to the death and destruction of a was that he would be unable to see himself as he possible held a hidden grief for the passengers that he had now lost. All Captain Jack wilson was able to do at this time was to hold all the virtue , love, beauty, peace, and happiness, that he had promoted about the Lady Elgin, as the lifelong part of himself that he would now continue to exert to his 100 surviving passengers as the now reached the shore with a new friend, Edward Spenser to do his best to rescue them as Captain Jack Wilson fiercely refused to go to the shore with them, so the captain could assist his waterbound passenders to maintain their positions of the deck rafts that he personally and authoritatively attempted to guide to the shore. Fear, sorrow, despair, and anger were not a part of Captain Jack Wilson's mind or body at this time or any other time in his life,and he would not tolerate or accept such bad and pessimistic behavior on the part of any of his passengers at this time or, in fact any other time, if they intended to survive. Captain Jack Wilson had now won the admiration, respect, and devotion of even Captain Garret Barry and his Milwaukee Union Guards before they, themselves, were lost near the shore. Captain Jack Wilson was aware that his deck rafts and other wreckage of the Lady Elgin was failing, and many passengers were fallin off the 60 foot deck raft where he continued to stand with his passengers as the raft itself was now breacking into more pieces and a number of passengers had already fallen off and were drowned in spite of Captain Wilson's attempts to dive into the raging waves himself to save them. surviving passengers, later, reported that Captain Wilson remained standing on his feet while other passengers reclined in their places as they held to ropes tied to their rafts. Captain wilson continued to cheer the passengers on, however that they would survive as they came closer to the shore. One female passenger reported, later that Captain Wilson had been kind and supportive toward her since she had been injured and no one else care to bother with her unless they would loose hold of their own positions and their lives. Captain Wilson, according to her statement, wanted her to survive since she had suffered enough negligence by selfish passengers, and he wanted her to survive, as she had done so well at following his orders while so many other did not care to obey any of what he said. Captain Jack Wilson was naturally an expert swimmer, and he made it is business to save many other men, women, and children as they fell off their rafts and replace them there again. When a women called out to Captain Jack Wilson to rescue a drowning and her baby, he rescued the woman and held her baby in his own strong and loving arms, as he had a deep love and wonderful love for children and all other innocent and helpless members of humanity. he held the baby for a time for its mother, and returned it to the mother. The mother and child, unfortunatly, lost their lives at the shore. By the morning daylight the rain subsided but the wind continued to blow and the waves of Lake Michigan continued to take their toll on the lives of more Lady Elgin Passengers who had almost reached the shore in the warm warm waters only to lose their lives. (Captain Wilson and Edward Spenser naturally could not be in one hundred places at once, and only limited help was now available from people on the shore.) Some passengers, when they reached the shore alive with Edward Spenser to rescue them had reported that Captain Jake Wilson had not survived himself to the shore, and several conflicting reports were given by survivors that the Captain had drowned in his attempt to save some women; he might have drowned to save some men who fell off their rafts; he was drowned in an attempt to save some women and children, and several othersuggested way in which he might have lost his own life with his passengers, though his original rescue agenda had failed so miserably. (In the extreme stress, chaos, and confusion of the Lady Elgin survivors who where immediately asked about Captain Wilson's whereaouts by 9:30am, Sept.8, the confused survivors were naturally bound to say anythin, since Captain Wilson continued to refuse to goe to the sore himself, as he was fully capable of doing, if he chose to do so. Captain Jack Wilson continued to be stubbornly unselfish and caring to the lives of the passengers he had left, as he was too genreous and caring to leave them when they were only less than 100 feet from the shore.) A more reliable account, that incidentally was recongnized as accurate, based on the eye-witness reports of those who had actually last saw Captain Jack Wilson alive and were with him on a deck raft, testified that the Captain actually was forced, naturally against his own will, out of this world, when he made his final dive to rescue two screaming little girls who had fallen off his deck raft. Captain Jack Wilson had barely gotten the two girls back on the raft with his promise to swim them to the shore when a stra peice of timber, possibly from the Lady Elgin, struck the brave, heroic, caring, and courageous Captain Jack Wilson in the head, so he was now knocked unconscious, and thrown into the murderous waves to be tragically drowned with his two little friends who now were on their way to the shores of eternal life in heaven. Captain Jack Wilson truly deserved such a reward for the way he handled himself and everyone else throughout his lifeand throughout the horrible and tragic nightmare of the Lady Elgin disaster. Though Captain Jack Wilson could no longer speack for himself to the world about all he had been through in his final hours of life, others would do his speaking of the terrble ordeal for him in a most respectful and reverant way as to the hero he was, and that he must not be forgotten. Captain Jack Wilson could speack through the words of songwriter Henry C. Work in his ballad "Lost on the Lady Elgin": "Up from a poor man's cottage/Forth from the mansion's door/ Reaching across the waters/ Echoinglong the shore/ Caught in the evening breezes/Borne on the evening gale,/Lost on the Lady Elgin/Sleeping to awake no more./Numbered in that three hundred,/Who failed to reached the shore." In other words, Captain wilson was a poor man with a poor family. He had been in command of the luxuriously elegant Lady Elgin that was his home away from home. The ship was sunk in a heavy rain storm that drowned 300 passengers with Captain Wilson to join them as they all lost their lives and fell asleep in eternity, never to be awakened to this world again or to return to it.