July 29, 1936:
The motor ship Material Service sinks early in the morning a mile north
of the lighthouse at Eighty-Sixth Street as she is caught in an open-water gale for which she was not designed. Although seven members of the crew are rescued, Captain C. D. Brown and
15 other crewmembers die. First Mate
John M. Johnson says upon his rescue, “We were going along as usual when
suddenly the vessel listed to port. Then
it came back on an even keel, but immediately began to sink. We had the usual complement of lifeboats, but
the sinking was so sudden that there was no chance to launch them.” [Chicago
Daily Tribune, July 29, 1936] The
ship was hauling gravel from Lockport to Chicago, had left the mouth of the
Chicago River around midnight and had headed south for a dock in the Calumet Harbor
area when disaster strikes.
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1 comment:
My Grandfather, Carl A. Holt, was Captain of the MATERIAL Service right up until the night she sank. The ship was not caught in a game, the weather was already foul and my Grandfather refused to take her out into open water. He was fired and Captain Brown took over. My Grandfather lost alot of good friends that night and it haunted him til the day he died.
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