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LAKELANDBOATING.COM
the fact that its owners expected the ship to provide many years of service plying the lake. In spite of her considerable size, Atlantic turned out to be a surprisingly fast ship, typically completing the Buffalo to Detroit run in somewhere around 18 hours. Considering the speed record for that route was not much less — just 16.5 hours, a mark set by Atlantic herself in 1851 — the vessel enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as one of the speediest vessels on the Great Lakes. But speed records could hardly have been top of mind for Atlantic’s crew on the afternoon of August 19, 1852, as the ship commenced boarding in Buffalo under the command of Captain J. Byron Pettey. Even for the lax standards of the day, this was a heavy load; every cabin was full and the belowdecks immigrant class was jam-packed, leaving an additional 250 or so passengers — most of them Norwegian, German and Irish settlers headed west to the promise of a better life — with no alternative but to huddle out in the open on the main deck.
PHOTOS PUBLIC DOMAIN
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he bottom of the Great Lakes is littered with shipwrecks, some vessels lost to horrendous storms, others to unseen shoals. Yet among them, one tragedy stands out — not just for its appalling loss of life, but because those losses can be directly attributed to a near total absence of anything resembling modern safety standards. Launched in 1848 for the Michigan Central Railroad, the 1,155-ton side-wheel paddle steamer Atlantic was a big ship for its day, stretching 267 feet in overall length and riding on a substantial beam of 33 feet. Designed to ferry both passengers and cargo on the lucrative run between Buffalo and Detroit, Atlantic was a well-built vessel, constructed with 85 comfortable staterooms. The design also included high-density accommodation below, in what was unofficially referred to as the immigrant class. In all, Atlantic was built to carry up to around 300 people, plus cargo. At the time of its launch, Atlantic was valued at $110,000 — an enormous sum in its day, and one which reflected
