- Date
- 1903-10-03
- Kind
- Shipwreck
- Where
- Green Island
- Participants
- Levi Joseph Vorous (victim)
- Wreck of
- Erie L. Hackley
- Lives lost
- 11
- Coordinates
- 45.0503° N, 87.2825° WGoogle Maps: Sinking of the Erie L. HackleyDownload KML
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- shipwrecksshippingmaritimeheritage
Summary
The Erie L. Hackley sank in a violent Green Bay squall on October 3, 1903, after clearing Menominee for Egg Harbor. The vessel had nineteen people aboard; eight survived and eleven died according to the detailed later reconstruction and the Wisconsin shipwreck record. Captain Joseph Vorous was last seen in the pilot house trying to turn the vessel into the wind.
Evidence and limits
The October 10, 1903 Herald is the contemporary local report, but its headline and text say twelve people drowned. The 1973 Beaver Beacon reconstruction and the Wisconsin record give eleven deaths and eight survivors. The graph adopts eleven while preserving the primary twelve-death report in the source notes.
The primary report uses Erie; the existing Beaver Island vessel record and some later local histories use Eric. The identity is kept as one vessel because the sources agree on the 1882 Muskegon build, Pine Lake/Beaver Island service, Green Bay route, and wreck. The local chronology conflicts over whether Campbell acquired it in 1893 or 1897, when the Beaver Island mail contract began, and whether it remained in service until 1906–07; those claims are not silently reconciled with the documented 1903 loss.
The event coordinates are the Wisconsin shipwreck record’s location, not a coordinate for Green Island itself. The wreck is recorded offshore rather than as a wreck on the island.
Open questions
- Which civil or maritime records reconcile the 54-ton primary description with the 90-gross-ton/79-by-17.4-foot later reconstruction and the 100-foot later history?
- Can the names of the other ten or eleven people lost, and the eight survivors, be recovered from contemporary Menominee or Door County reports?
- Which official casualty, inspection, or registry record documents Captain Vorous and the vessel’s final ownership?
See also
Sources
- "Steamer Erie L. Hackley Lost," *Charlevoix County Herald*, October 10, 1903.The contemporary report says the passenger steamer was capsized and sunk in a Green Bay squall on Saturday evening, with nineteen aboard and twelve reported drowned; it identifies the vessel as a 54-ton screw steamer built at Muskegon in 1882 and says it had plied Pine Lake. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Raw issue OCR preserves the casualty headline, the nineteen-person count, the twelve-death report, and the primary spelling Erie L. Hackley.
- The detailed local reconstruction gives the October 3 date, identifies Captain Joseph Vorous, says the vessel carried twelve passengers and a crew of seven, and reports eleven deaths and eight survivors; it also records the name, registry number, dimensions, owner chronology, Green Island location, and cabin recovery near Eagle Bluff.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1973-05_Beaver-Beacon
- The held nine-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1973-05_Beaver-Beacon
- The Wisconsin Historical Society/Wisconsin Sea Grant record corroborates the October 3, 1903 sinking, nineteen people aboard, eight survivors, eleven deaths, Green Bay location, and wreck coordinates; it places the wreck two miles northeast of Green Island in 110 feet of water.
Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Sinking of the Erie L. Hackley”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/sinking-of-erie-l-hackley-1903/, accessed [date], citing "Steamer Erie L. Hackley Lost," *Charlevoix County Herald*, October 10, 1903. (and 4 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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