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Sea Wing Disaster, 1890

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Black and white photograph of the steamer Sea Wing, c.1889.

The steamer Sea Wing, c.1889.

The July 13, 1890, capsizing of the steamer Sea Wing on Lake Pepin and the deaths of ninety-eight of its passengers horrified Minnesota and the nation. The accident ranks among the most deadly on America’s inland waterways.

Captain David Niles Wethern typically used his 135-foot steamboat Sea Wing to tow log rafts to lumber mills along the Mississippi River. He made extra money operating his vessel as a no-frills excursion craft. In July 1890 the captain announced he would take the Sea Wing on a day-long voyage and visit Lake City, located on Lake Pepin about sixty miles southeast of St. Paul.

Captain Wethern based his steamboat in Diamond Bluff on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi. He counted upon great interest in his excursion among townspeople of Red Wing, the largest city along his proposed route. Eager Red Wing residents greeted the riverboat as it approached the levee at 9:30 a.m. on July 13. More than 150 excited customers surged onto the Sea Wing and an attached barge.

Excursionists found Lake Citians prepared for their visit with popcorn, ice cream, and lemonade stands at the ready. Planned activities ran smoothly until a late-afternoon rain squall scattered the crowd, disrupting the schedule. Shortly after 7:00 p.m. Captain Wethern blew the ship’s whistle to recall his passengers.

A chaotic scene greeted the excursionists at Lake City’s Washington Street landing. Threatening clouds had gathered even before boarding began. Some bystanders cautioned passengers to stay on shore. A number of ticket holders had yet to appear, while some new customers bought tickets and got on.

At eight o’clock Sea Wing and its barge, now with 215 on board, left port. It sailed onto Lake Pepin, a 21-mile-long widening of the Mississippi. Captain Wethern did not know that a few hours earlier a storm front moving into the region had produced a tornado on the outskirts of St. Paul that killed six people.

Half an hour out of Lake City Wethern observed a powerful gale coming off the Minnesota shore. He turned the riverboat to meet the storm. Many of those on board, including most of the fifty-seven female excursionists, crowded into the ship’s cabin. Sea Wing rode up on a massive wave to about a forty-five-degree angle before a blast of heavy winds capsized the steamer.

Lightning illuminated the scene. Those tossed into the roiling waters struggled to survive by clinging to wreckage or swimming for shore. About twenty-five survivors, including Captain Wethern, took refuge on the overturned steamboat’s flat bottom. Unfortunates trapped in the cabin quickly drowned. The wreckage, along with the barge and its passengers, drifted downriver.

The overturned steamboat’s pilothouse touched bottom at Central Point near Lake City and rolled onto its port side. Survivors on the craft’s slippery hull were pitched into the water. A number of passengers on the barge jumped off as their vessel reached Central Point’s shallow waters. They ran to Lake City to alert the populace.

National Guardsmen and Lake City volunteers began removing bodies from the Sea Wing’s main cabin around midnight. They carried the dead to shore, later moving them to another steamer, Ethel Howard, for shipment to Red Wing. At 6:10 Monday morning, that boat arrived at the city levee. It carried fifty-two lifeless forms.

Guardsmen continued to labor around Central Point throughout the morning recovering more of the drowned. They had found about ten by noon. Officials reported that some forty passengers were missing. Retrieval efforts continued at Central Point until Thursday, when the last body was discovered. The death toll was ninety-eight.

The catastrophe nearly overwhelmed the city of Red Wing, home to sixty-seven victims, with another eight from nearby townships. The death toll among females proved grim; fifty of the fifty-seven died.

Demands for an investigation into the Sea Wing disaster arose, prompting a response from government officials. Formal hearings began in St. Paul on July 20 and concluded a week later. A final report noted that Sea Wing had been overloaded and did not have a properly licensed pilot and crew. The inspectors labeled Captain Wethern’s actions unskillful.

Federal officials did not bring Captain Wethern to trial for reasons that went unreported. He faced severe condemnation in the days following the accident but also received some sympathy. His wife and one of his sons had died in the accident.

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“A Mournful Day.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 16, 1890.

Angell, Madeline. Red Wing, Minnesota: Saga of a River Town. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1977.

Biennial Report of the Adjutant General of Minnesota for the Two Years Ending July 31, 1890. Minneapolis: Harrison Printers, 1891.

Camp, Gladys. “Sea Wing Floundered 83 Years Ago.” Red Wing Daily Republican Eagle, July 13, 1973.

Clark, W. D. Rest Island and Lake City Souvenir. Lake City, MN: June 1892.

“Captain Wethern Censured.” Red Wing Advance Sun, August 27, 1890.

Department of Commerce and Labor, Steamboat Inspection Service. General Rules and Regulations Prescribed by the Board of Supervising Inspectors. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1910.

Easton, August B. History of St. Croix Valley, Vol. 1. Chicago: H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co, 1909.

Hankins, Ross. Excursion Boats on the Upper Mississippi. Typescript. N.p., 1976.
Manuscript Collection, Goodhue County Historical Society, Red Wing.

Harris, Dolores Haustein. “Writer’s Father Gives Firsthand Account of Historic Tragedy,” Generations of Today. (July 2000): 29–31, 42.

Hodgson, Thomas. “A Meteorological Look at the Sea Wing Disaster,” manuscript, 1986, 1–3.

Hunter, Louis C. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949.

“Hurled to Doom Without Warning.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 13, 1926.

In Memory of Those Who Perished in the Disaster to the Steamer Sea Wing on Lake Pepin, July 13, 1890. Red Wing, MN: Red Wing Printing Co., 1890.

Johnson, Frederick, L. The Sea Wing Disaster: Tragedy on Lake Pepin. Red Wing: Goodhue County Historical Society, 2014.

——— . “Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sea Wing.” Minnesota History 52, no. 2 (Summer 1990) 72–77.
http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/52/v52i02p072-077.pdf

“Lake Pepin’s Horror.” Lake City Graphic Sentinel, July 15, 1890.

“Man at Fault.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 15, 1890.

Petersen, William J. “Captains and Cargoes of Early Upper Mississippi Steamboats.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 13, no. 3 (March 1930): 224–240.

“Recovering the Dead.” St. Paul Dispatch, July 16, 1890.

“Very Climax of Horror.” St. Paul Daily Globe, July 15, 1890.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1890-07-15/ed-1/seq-1/

“What Capt. Wethren (sic) Says.” St. Paul Dispatch, July 17, 1890.

Wills, Harold. “Pieces of Craft Scattered to the Wind.” Red Wing Daily Republican Eagle, February 4, 1957.

Woodward, I. B., comp. Historical Sketch and Souvenir First Battalion Artillery NGSM, Battery A. Minneapolis: Miller Printing, 1892.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of the steamer Sea Wing, c.1889.
Black and white photograph of the steamer Sea Wing, c.1889.
Black and white photograph of the Sea Wing, c.1889. Its owners typically used it as a work boat, often towing log rafts down the Mississippi.
Black and white photograph of the Sea Wing, c.1889. Its owners typically used it as a work boat, often towing log rafts down the Mississippi.
Black and white photograph of rescue workers searching for bodies in the wreckage of the Sea Wing, 1890.
Black and white photograph of rescue workers searching for bodies in the wreckage of the Sea Wing, 1890.
Black and white photograph of National Guardsmen searching for survivors in the wreckage of the Sea Wing, 1890. The men at left are standing in the Sea Wing’s attached barge, Jim Grant. The Lake City steamer Ethel Howard is in the background.
Black and white photograph of National Guardsmen searching for survivors in the wreckage of the Sea Wing, 1890. The men at left are standing in the Sea Wing’s attached barge, Jim Grant. The Lake City steamer Ethel Howard is in the background.
Black and white photograph of the steamer Ethel Howard, 1898. The Ethel Howard, shown here at Central Point, delivered the bodies of victims of the sinking of the Sea Wing to Red Wing in 1890.
Black and white photograph of the steamer Ethel Howard, 1898. The Ethel Howard, shown here at Central Point, delivered the bodies of victims of the sinking of the Sea Wing to Red Wing in 1890.

Turning Point

Despite threatening weather, Captain David Wethern decides to take his steamboat, Sea Wing, and its 215 passengers and crew onto Lake Pepin on July 13, 1890.

Chronology

1888

David Niles Wethern and Marion (Mel) Sparks build their 135-foot-long Mississippi riverboat Sea Wing in Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin.

1889

Wethern and Sparks share duty piloting Sea Wing, towing rafts of timber down the Mississippi, hauling cargo to neighboring river cities, and conducting occasional excursions for paying passengers.

1890

In early July the Sea Wing’s owners advertise a day-long excursion to Lake City and Camp Lakeview where the Minnesota National Guard will stage military demonstrations that are open to the public.

1890

In late morning on July 13 Sea Wing, along with about two hundred passengers and crew, reaches Lake City. Captain Wethern is in the pilothouse and Sparks serves as engineer.

1890

Sea Wing, now with 215 people on board, sails upriver at 8:00 p.m. on July 13 and soon encounters a frontal thunderstorm that overturns the riverboat. Ninety-eight people drown.