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Erie

New York waters · lost 1841

  • Fire
  • Lives lost: 170–254

No public position. General area: About eight miles off Silver Creek, New York, between Dunkirk and Buffalo.

The steamer Erie left Buffalo on an August evening in 1841 crowded with about 343 people, crew and a band among them. Four hours out, painters' turpentine stored on deck exploded into flames, and the newly varnished ship burned off Silver Creek, New York. Somewhere between 170 and 254 people died.

The story

The Erie was a wooden side-wheel steamer built at Erie, Pennsylvania, by the Erie Steamboat Company and completed in 1837; the HCGL vessel record gives 1836. She was about 177 feet long and carried passengers between Buffalo and Chicago. Her owner was Charles Manning Reed of Erie, a state legislator, militia general and later a U.S. congressman.[1,2] Her engine failed on her maiden voyage in 1838, but within weeks she ran from Erie to Buffalo in just over five hours, then a record for a Great Lakes ship.[1] The HCGL record lists a hard early career: a grounding near Buffalo in 1838, a collision in 1839 that sank the British steamer Minnissetunk in the Detroit River, and a boiler explosion there in 1840 that killed six people.[2]

On August 9, 1841, she left Buffalo with about 343 people aboard, among them a band and a team of painters. The painters left their supplies, including demijohns of turpentine and varnish, on deck beside the vent from the boiler, an area that had caught fire three times before; the ship herself had just been repainted and varnished. About 8 p.m., some four hours out, there was an explosion, and flames swept the hull within seconds.[1] Captain T.J. Titus could not reach the cabin where the life preservers were stored, and the engineer could not reach the engine. As the ship turned for shore, two lifeboats capsized; the third carried the captain and four others.[1]

The steamer DeWitt Clinton arrived about 10 p.m. and found the Erie burned down to a smoldering frame around her boiler, with dozens of people in the water. Fewer than 100 were saved. An attempt to tow the wreck ashore failed, and she sank around dawn on August 10.[1] The HCGL record places the loss about eight miles off Silver Creek, New York, and notes that her boilers and shaft were salvaged in 1844–45 and the hull raised and towed to Buffalo for stripping in 1854.[2] Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks records simply that she caught fire and sank.[3]

Lives lost: Early estimates were about 170 and later accounts as high as 254 (Wikipedia); the HCGL record gives 175 to 253.

Questions people ask

How many people died when the steamer Erie burned in 1841?

The number is uncertain. Early estimates were about 170; later accounts reached 254, and the HCGL vessel record gives a range of 175 to 253. Fewer than 100 people were rescued.

What caused the Erie fire?

Painters' supplies, including turpentine and varnish, had been left on deck beside the boiler vent. They exploded into flames about four hours out of Buffalo, and the freshly varnished ship burned quickly.

Learn more

Museums and groups are linked for further reading; they are not connected with this site.

Look, don't take

Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

  • United States: under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (43 U.S.C. § 2105) the U.S. claims title to abandoned shipwrecks embedded in a state's submerged lands, or resting on them and eligible for the National Register, and transfers that title to the state.[4][5][6]
  • New York: Education Law § 233 makes it a class A misdemeanor to investigate, excavate, remove, injure or destroy objects of historical or archaeological interest on, in or under state-owned lands without the written permission of the Commissioner of Education.[7][4]

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected

Diving Lake Erie wrecks is dangerous: cold water, poor visibility, depth, entanglement and boat traffic. Nothing here is dive guidance or a dive position. Dive only with proper training, a qualified operator and current information from the groups that maintain moorings.

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Sources

  1. Erie (steamship, sank 1841), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  2. HCGL vessel record: ERIE, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. 43 U.S. Code 2105 - Rights of access (Abandoned Shipwreck Act: title to abandoned shipwrecks), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  5. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  6. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  7. law-ny-edn-233, nysenate.gov. Accessed .

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