The wreck of the schooner J.H. Rutter, off the coast of Ludington during a massive gale in the autumn of 1878, and the dramatic events that followed, was a significant event in Ludington’s early maritime history. The J.H. Rutter was a large 212-foot-long, wooden, four-masted schooner. It was built in 1873 in Marine City, Michigan by the famous shipbuilder, David Lester, who was the builder of some of the largest vessels on the Great Lakes at the time.
The Rutter was bound from Chicago to Buffalo, loaded with about 65,000 bushels of bulk corn and rye, under the command of Captain Jeremiah Simpson. While heading north on Lake Michigan on October 31, 1878, one of the Great Lake’s infamous autumn gales blew in, and the vessel was quickly trapped in heavy seas and a raging storm. The Rutter was just off Big Point Sable when it lost its rudder in the storm, and its loose cargo shifted in the heavy seas, causing the vessel to list to port.
The Rutter, now unstable and unable to steer, was in danger of being blown onto the shore where the waves would break the vessel apart. The crew hoisted the flag upside down, a common signal of distress at the time. The distress signal, and the Rutter’s dangerous situation, were seen by the crew of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station at Big Point Sable, then known as Grande Point au Sable.
The crew of the Grande Point au Sable station at the time consisted of the Keeper, Captain Sanford “Shanty” Morgan, his sons James and George Morgan, and at least four other crew members, known as surfmen. At this time, Captain Morgan was away in Detroit, and his son James Morgan was left in charge of the station.
The Big Sable Point Life-Saving Station, as it looked later in its career.
Mason County Historical Society Collection
Going to the rescue of the vessel, the crew of the Life-Saving Station launched their surfboat into the storm and began rowing out towards the Rutter. Captain Simpson of the Rutter was not ready to abandon the vessel yet, but needed to be towed south to Ludington and would need a crew of workers to help shift the cargo. Word was sent for a tug boat.
The tug Margaret, under the command of Captain Robert Caswell, a well-known and experienced local tug boat captain and owner, and the Goodrich Line steamer DePere, both arrived on the scene after fighting their way through the storm. The Margaret realized that it would not have enough fuel to tow the Rutter back through the storm, so it was decided that the DePere would tow the Rutter and the Margaret would follow alongside with the USLSS crew on board in case they needed any assistance.
The vessels made their way back to Ludington, and the Rutter anchored just offshore, north of the piers. The Margaret dropped off the Life-Saving crew at Ludington, and with the situation appearing to be well in hand they made their way, by land, back to the station.
Captain Simpson hired a group of locals to come out to the vessel and help trim the cargo for $1 an hour, equal to roughly $25 an hour today. The tug Margaret brought the workers out to the Rutter and stayed tied up alongside.
During the night, around 11 pm, the storm picked up again and the high winds and waves broke the line holding the vessels together. The Margaret headed back to port to take shelter from the storm. Captain Simpson told them he would hang a lantern in the rigging to signal the tug if it was needed. Meanwhile, the crew and the workers from Ludington continued the hard work of shifting the cargo while being tossed around in the storm.
Around 2 a.m., it was discovered that the aft hatch had been washed off by the waves, and that water was pouring into the vessel. Captain Simpson was summoned and they found that there was 13 feet of water in the hold. By then, the waves were washing over the deck, threatening to sweep everyone overboard. Simpson ordered the men up into the rigging to take shelter from the waves and freezing water.
Only a small lantern could be found, the rest had been broken during the storm. The crew hung the lantern in the rigging, but its light was too small to be noticed. It was not until dawn that their situation became apparent to those on shore. Before long, most of the town was on the beach.
Photograph of the J.H. Rutter off of the beach at Ludington. Notice the crew in the rigging.
Mason County Historical Society Collection
At this time, there was no Life-Saving Station at Ludington; the closest station was at Big Sable Point, almost seven miles to the north. There was no communication with the station, so someone would have to go up to Big Sable Point and alert the crew. Ludington resident D. Abair took his wagon and a team of horses north to get the USLSS crew from the station. He left around 7 a.m. and arrived with the crew, their equipment, and the surfboat around 9 a.m.
The USLSS crew tried several times to reach the vessel with their surfboat from the beach but failed, repeatedly being pushed back by the heavy surf. One of the methods that was used to rescue people from vessels that had run aground was a breeches buoy. A breeches buoy was a device that looked like a life ring with a seat built in, and was suspended by a pulley on a line running from the stranded vessel to the shore. Once set up, the breeches buoy was pulled back and forth like a zip line to take people off of the wreck one by one. To do this, a small cannon was used to fire a projectile, with a line attached, out to the vessel so that the breeches buoy could be rigged between the ship and the shore.
Photograph of a breeches buoy being used to rescue survivors from the shipwreck of the Pere Marquette 3 in 1902.
Mason County Historical Society Collection
This later photo shows the Ludington Life-Saving crew practicing the 'Beach-Apparatus Drill' and shows how the breeches buoy was rigged and used.
Mason County Historical Society Collection
The Life-Saving Service crew fired several shots with their line throwing mortar (the now famous Lyle Gun had not yet been brought into service) to rig the breeches buoy, but they could not get a line to the vessel. Unable to get through the heavy waves, they needed to be towed out to the Rutter.
The local tugboat captains realized that with the high waves and the Rutter having drifted into shallow water, they could not get their boats out to the wreck without likely striking the bottom of the lake and becoming wrecks themselves.
At that time, in Ludington, there was a Corps of Engineers tug, the Col. Graham, which was smaller and had a shallower draft, meaning that it could make it to the Rutter without grounding. The Captain of the Col. Graham, Frederick Kendrick, was willing to help but was bound by regulations to get permission from Washington. A telegram was quickly sent explaining the situation. A reply came back granting permission, but with a volunteer crew only, he could not order anyone to go with him on the risky attempt. Captain Kendrick was joined by his Chief Engineer, James Cummings, as well as several others including notable Ludington residents such as Captain Louis Sterling, Dr. Philip Shorts, Samuel D. Haight, and Duncan Dewar.
The Col. Graham was too small to retrieve all 44 men that were stranded on the Rutter, so a small scow was towed behind the tug along with the USLSS surfboat and crew. By this time the men on the Rutter had been in the rigging for almost 12 hours, helplessly watching the many unsuccessful attempts to reach them throughout the day.
The Col. Graham fought its way through the storm, sometimes disappearing from view in the waves, and finally made it to the Rutter. Approaching the wreck with the tug would be too dangerous, so the surfboat with the USLSS crew came alongside the vessel and was able to take off eight men, before being blown back to shore.
The surfboat was towed out to the wreck again by the tug, and this time was able to get a line to the Rutter. The plan was that the USLSS could now rig the breeches buoy to take the remaining men off of the vessel. But by now the sun was setting and it was clear that the process would go long into the night.
Captain Kendrick decided to attempt to bring his tug and the scow up to the Rutter itself, a risky maneuver in the rough seas as the waves could crash the tug against the Rutter. Onlookers anxiously watched from shore. They were able to get the scow alongside the wreck and all of the stranded men clambered aboard. With everyone safe, the tug started making its way back to the harbor and blew its whistle as a signal of success. A cheer went up from the onlookers on the beach. In total 44 men were rescued from the Rutter and all survived.
For their actions during the rescue, at the risk of their vessel and themselves, Congress awarded Captain Kendrick the Gold Lifesaving Medal, and James Cummings the Silver Lifesaving Medal.
The storm that stranded the Rutter on the shores of Ludington caused several other shipwrecks along Michigan’s lakeshore. To the south, four vessels ran aground at Grand Haven, and another, the L.C. Woodruff, near White Lake. The Grand Haven Life-Saving station famously responded to all five of those vessels in distress in one day.
After the incident, Captain Simpson wrote his report on the accident in the office of the Ludington attorney, Charles G. Wing. According to Wing, Simpson’s “whole life and outlook was altered by the incident. He declared he would never step his foot on water again.” By the end of the year, Simpson had moved to Kansas and settled on a farm. A few years later he became a Kansas congressman as a populist and earned the nickname “Sockless Jerry” Simpson due to his advocacy for farmers and the poor. He died in 1905.
Shortly after the wreck of the J.H. Rutter, tug boats arrived to recover the vessel. When the grain was removed and the water pumped out, the Rutter was found to be in fairly good condition. It was taken to Milwaukee for repairs and continued to sail for many more years. It eventually sank due to a collision with the steamer Texan on October 23, 1918, in New York harbor.
The wreck of the J.H. Rutter, along with the rapidly increasing vessel traffic in Ludington harbor, revealed the urgent need for a U.S. Life-Saving Service station at Ludington. A Life-Saving station at Ludington would have allowed an almost immediate response to the Rutter’s situation off of Ludington and could better protect vessels and shipping in and around the growing port. In 1879, almost a year after the wreck of the Rutter, the Ludington Life-Saving station was completed and put into service.
The Ludington Life-Saving station as it looked when it was completed in 1879. The station was later moved to the north side of the Ludington channel and expanded.
Mason County Historical Society
In 1915, the US Life-Saving Service and the US Revenue Cutter Service were merged to create the US Coast Guard. All of the USLSS personnel and stations, including the Ludington station, were now part of the Coast Guard. Both as the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard, the Ludington station has had a long and proud record of service, and today the Coast Guard continues to protect the waters around Ludington.
Sources used during research
Articles
Cabot, James L. “Daring Rescue of Rutter’s Crew.” Ludington Daily News, Nov. 4, 1989
Cabot, James L. “Tales of Adventure: the rescue of the crew of the J.H. Rutter.” Ludington Daily News, July 6, 2002.
Hanna, Frances C. “Aground off Ludington.” Ships and Sailing, Nov. 1951. 60-61.
Unknown. “29th Anniversary of Rutter Stranding.” The Ludington Chronicle, October 30, 1907.
Unknown. “40 Men Cling to Rigging of Grounded Schooner.” Ludington Daily News, Nov. 1, 1956.
Unknown. “Early November is Anniversary of Disaster of the J.H. Rutter.” Ludington Daily News, Nov. 2, 1960.
Unknown. “Forty Men Cling to Shrouds of Stranded Schooner.” Ludington Daily News, Nov. 2, 1951.
Wing, Charles G. “Mason County: a tale of early times.” Ludington Daily News, Nov. 22, 1920.
Books
Truman, Stephen, Grace Truman, and Joel Truman. Storms and Sand: A story of shipwrecks and the Big Sable Point Coast Guard Station. Grand Rapids, MI: Pine Woods Press, 2012. 29-31.
United States Coast Guard. Beach-Apparatus Drill. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918.
United States Life-Saving Service. Annual Report of the Operations of the U.S. Life-Saving Service for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1878. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1871. Google Books. 77-78.
Unknown. Magnificent Gallantry of Local Sailor Saved Many Lives from Wrecked Ship. Grand Haven, MI: Tri-Cities Historical Society, Sept. 5, 1981.
Webpages
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, BGSU. “DePere.” Accessed Oct. 30, 2020
https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/434766
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, BGSU. “Emmett, Robert.” Accessed Oct. 30, 2020
https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/434942
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, BGSU. “Margaret.” Accessed Oct. 30, 2020
https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/437742
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, BGSU. “Rutter, J.H.” Accessed Oct. 30, 2020
https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/438963
Komentarji