THE DISASTER.

ABOUT eight o-clock on the morning of the thirteenth day of July, 1890,
the steamer Sea Wing, 110 tons, Captain D.N. Wethern, with a crew
of ten men, of diamond Bluff, Wisconsin, left that place, towing a barge,
and carrying eleven passengers, bound on an excusion to the encampment
of the First Regiment, M.N.G., at Campe Lakeview, about two miles below
Lake City, upon Lake Pepin. At Trenton, twenty-two persons went on
board, and at Red Wing, about 165 others, for the same destination
The day was intensely hot, with low barometric pressure. From about
five o'clock P.M., for over two hours, storm indications were visible to the
northwest and north, a tornado having in fact, in that time, destroyed sev-
eral houses and killed five or six of their occupants, near St. Paul. Cap-
tain Wethern, although the skies were threatening, believed it safe to venture
out, and the boat with all the excursionists and some other, on board, set
out from Lake City on the return, a little past eight o'clock.
The storm gathered very rapidly, and the wind was blowing, by signal
service measurement, sixty miles an hour.
When near the middle of the lake, and five miles above Lake City, the
Sea Wing was suddenly completely capsized by the wind. A cry was heard,
"Cut the barge loose," and an employe of the boat cut the ropes which
bound boat and barge together; they soon drifted apart and were separately
driven ashore. The people who were upon the barge all were saved. Life
preservers had been pointed out to passengers and many had put them on,
before the boat capsized, but some had not done so. Many were impris-
oned in the cabin, and some were otherwise so caught, or injured, that they
were unable to escape. Planks, Boards, life-preservers, chairs, etc., were
floating about, and many saved their lives by securing some of them. The
thick clouds made the night so dark that only by the lightning flashes
could one see to gain help, or to render any. Many deeds of heroism were
done among these people suddenly hurled into the waves. Men able to
swim supported others, until they could be drawn upon the wreck, or could
pick up some plank for life-preserver, or even swam with them until picked
up by rescuing skiffs. The efforts of swimmers, and the winds and waves
landed them at widely separate points, two boys even getting to shore on the
Wisconsin side.