The schooner Maggie Hunter (1876)

ex-John S. Clarke (1862)

General

Port of St Catherines Registry, Number 1 of 1862

NOTATIONS: Register closed Sept. 1876, Cause: Lost. [Source of Data: N.A.C., MG-40 D3 B.T., B-3716, 1876, VOL. 3 - St. Catherines]

See also the entry for the schooner Maggie Hunter and previous name, schooner John S. Clark in our ships Database.

Newspaper transcriptions

1. Board of Lake Underwriters Lake Vessel Register, 1860 : Schooner J.S. CLARK. [C] 213 tons. Built 1856 at Milford by Johnston. Owned by Quackenbush & Reid. Home port, Port Dalhousie. Value $4,500. Class B 1. REMARKS. -- formerly HAMILTON, large repairs in 1859.
2. Oswego Palladium, Thursday Oct. 12, 1876 : Another Shipwreck. – Portions of a Vessel's Cabin and Cabin Furniture Found on the Beach at Coe's Landing - What is the Name of the Ill-Fated Craft?
   There can no longer be a doubt that there has been a shipwreck on Lake Ontario below this port and that a large schooner has gone down to the bottom, doubtless carrying with her the crew. Soon after the Palladium, containing information of the finding of portions of a wreck at Coe's Landing, six miles below this port, was issued, the news spread like wildfire, and a thousand idle guesses were afloat in a short time. This morning Dr. E. A. Mattoon, who was out of town last night, drove to the place where the wreck was discovered to satisfy himself whether it belonged to the steam barge ELLSWORTH or not - idle rumor having been busy during the night associating the wreck with the steambarge. About noon Mattoon returned to town, (soon after the telegram had been received that the ELLSWORTH passed Ogdensburg Tuesday all right,) bringing a panel from the ill-fasted vessel. The panel is grained in imitation of white oak, the frame painted dark brown, and is from the inside of a vessel's cabin. The wood is new and dry and the paint is fresh. The piece may be seen at this office.
   Dr. Mattoon says that he saw on the beach near Coe's landing, sections of cabin doors and side paneling, six whole doors with hinges that project three inches, piece of cabin scuttle, canvass covering of the cabin deck, painted a bluish white, part of the cabin deck, window sash - oval top, two pails, a bed, piece of washstand, part of bedstead, two large capstan bars, a section of one of the hatches marked "AVII." The farmers told Dr. Mattoon that an oar had been found and that wheat had washed ashore at several places. it is evident that the schooner was a large one, grain laden. The mark on the hatch shows that the vessel must have had four hatchways. We do not know of any large vessel overdue here. The panel will be kept here for identification and sailors are invited to inspect it.
3. Oswego Palladium, Sat., Oct. 14, 1876 : The MAGGIE HUNTER. The Names of the Crew and the Passenger Lost on the Unfortunate Vessel.
   There can no longer be a doubt that the schooner MAGGIE HUNTER foundered off this port last Monday night and carried with her to the bottom of Lake Ontario seven men. Yesterday afternoon the mate of the schooner MARYSBURG, who had been mate on the hunter, identified the wheel cover, a box about three feet long and two feet wide placed over the steering gear, as having been on the unfortunate schooner two trips ago. Captain Nixon of the HUNTER leaves a wife and six children at Toronto, and Sharp, the mate, leaves a wife and children at Port Credit. One of the sailors was a young man named Walter Post of Ferry Point, near Belleville. He was employed in A.S. Page's saw mill several years and last winter he was married. We are informed by Mrs. Roach, who formerly lived in Belleville, that two of the crew and the passenger boarded with her at her residence, West Bridge street, between Second and Third,. Their names are Thomas and William Martin, (brothers) and John Newman, all of Belleville. The former were sailors and the latter a passenger. They were young men and leave widowed mothers in Belleville.
4. NOTE: Rebuilt and Renamed MAGGIE HUNTER in 1876
5. References to the schooner Picton appear in C.H.J Snider's work:
   
   • Schooner Days CXLVIII (148) The Vanished Maggie Hunter, 21 July 1934, could be the origins a commonly held error that the Maggie Hunter had been the Helen – this is surely a different vessel.
   • Schooner Days CCLXV (265) Taits From The Isle Of Tante, 7 Nov 1936, which expands upn the error or "mystery."
   • Schooner Days DIX (509) The Round-Sterned Enterprise, 23 Aug 1941

References and source notes

(1) Various ship registers
(2-4) Maritime historyof the Great Lakes
(5) C.H.J. Snider Schooner Days index, Naval Marine Archive.