Posted by Georgann Wachter on June 13, 19102 at 14:53:27:
In Reply to: the lake erie wreck of "Swallow" posted by jerry on June 09, 19102 at 20:55:03:
The wreck that the poem,The Legend of John Maynard,was based on was the sidewheel steamer Erie which burned off Dunkirk, NY on Aug. 9, 1841. A man named Luther Fuller was the wheelsman and remained at his post trying to run the vessel ashore with flames around him. His name in the poem was changed. Fuller actually survived, but some 190 or so mostly Swiss and German immigrants did not. The poem has been attributed to Horatio Alger but you may have the correct name for the poet. It was a very popular poem in Switzerland because of the immigrants.
There was a steamer Swallow that burned on Lake Erie at the east end, but that was inOctober of 1901 and no one perished (see our book ERIE WRECKS EAST, PG. 182.).