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Event

Stranding of the Frank C. Leighton, 1887

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeEvent
Date1887
WithinBeaver Island
ErasIrish era
On this page
Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Event
Date
1887
Kind
Accident
Where
Beaver Island
Eras
Irish era
Concepts
maritimeshippingshipwrecksheritage
Within
Beaver Island
Media
Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision

Summary

In 1887 the schooner Frank C. Leighton, carrying iron ore, became stranded on the west side of Beaver Island. The December 1961 Beaver Beacon says the Beaver Island station keeper and volunteer crew saved the vessel.1

Evidence and limits

The source says “west side of Beaver” and does not identify a named beach, point, or reef. This is therefore recorded as a stranding and rescue at island level, not as a wreck or a precisely located casualty. The account is a later local retrospective rather than a contemporary report.

The History Map’s more specific French Bay placement, twenty-person rescue, and claim that 100 tons of ore were thrown overboard are useful leads, not confirmed facts. The federal casualty table for the relevant fiscal year does not name this vessel. Because the National Archives finding aid shows that the Beaver Island station’s 1887 log survives, that log should be checked before the map’s added detail is accepted or rejected.

Open questions

  • What was the precise date and location of the stranding?
  • Which keeper and volunteer fishermen carried out the rescue, and what became of the vessel afterward?

See also

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, December 1961, “The Changing Face of Beaver Island.” ↩

Sources

  1. Retrospective says the schooner Frank C. Leighton, carrying iron ore, became stranded on the west side of Beaver Island in 1887 and was saved by the station keeper and volunteer crew.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held six-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 · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Described in this archive: Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision.
    Places the incident near French Bay and adds twenty men and 100 tons of ore thrown overboard; no independent source inspected confirms those particulars.
    websites · www.beaverisland.net · raw · History · Historical_Map · history_map_1800
  4. United States Life-Saving Service, Annual Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888, casualty table, pp. 311–352.
    Direct search found other Beaver Island incidents but not the Frank C. Leighton. This negative check does not rule out an event omitted from the annual table. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    research · beaver_island_history_map_1978 · primary_sources · uslss-annual-report-fy1888
  5. Confirms Beaver Island station logs survive for 1883–1941; the 1887 log remains uninspected.

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 7 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Stranding of the Frank C. Leighton, 1887”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/stranding-of-frank-c-leighton-1887/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, December 1961, “The Changing Face of Beaver Island.” (and 4 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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