Disaster on Lake Erie: The 1841 Wreck of the Steamship Erie (NY)

On August 9, 1841, the steamship Erie, one of the most elegant and fastest sailing between Buffalo and Chicago, departed carrying 343 passengers. Many were Swiss and German immigrants, planning to start new lives in America s heartland most never made it. The Erie erupted in flames during the night, and despite the heroic efforts of the crew of the Dewitt Clinton, 254 lives were lost. As news of this disaster spread, internationally renowned artists and writers, including Horatio Alger Jr. and possibly James Fenimore Cooper, wrote about John Maynard, a fictitious heroic helmsman. Historian Alvin F. Oickle s minute-by-minute account weaves together the tragedy of the immigrant families almost at journey s end, the legend of John Maynard that developed in the aftermath and the fury of a fire on an oceanlike lake.