The Sinking of the Lusitania

RMS. Lusitania

On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania, the British ocean liner, the largest in the world, was returning to Liverpool, England on her 101^st voyage across the Atlantic. A German U-boat torpedoed and sank her in 18 minutes. Nearly 1200 of some two thousand passengers and crew perished in the attack, including 120 Americans.

Charles Frohman

 Alfred Vanderbilt, one of the world’s richest men and a great sportsman, was aboard. He was headed to England to purchase horses and hunting dogs. Charles Frohman perhaps the greatest theater impresario to have ever lived, had also booked passage.  He was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1860.  He and his two brothers, Gustave and Daniel, owned and managed a large number of theaters in London, Paris, and New York where their productions were featured. 

                                               

The Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of WWI. Submarine warfare was intensifying by the spring of 1915. The German embassy in the United Sates had placed notices in New York newspapers, warning of dangers of sailing on the Lusitania. She was known as the “Greyhound of the Seas” because of her speed. The Lusitania’s crew and the Cunard Line felt secure in the belief that she could easily out sail any submarine.  However, some Americans did pay heed and the Lusitania left New York with less than half her usual number of passengers.

Alfred Vanderbilt

 Walther Schwieger, captain of U-boat 20 watched the tragedy unfold through his periscope. He wrote in his log that the “ship stops immediately and heals over to starboard quickly, immersing simultaneously at the bow… Great confusion reigns on board.” Indeed, passengers were panic stricken.  The few lifeboats that were loaded and lowered foundered in a matter of minutes, drowning those aboard.

And “Eyewitness to History” article states that Vanderbilt and Frohman went to the ship’s nursery. Hoping to save the babies, the two men tied life jackets to wicker “Moses baskets” that held the little ones.  The baskets were carried off the ship as the water rose, but none survived the wave action created as the enormous vessel sank. 

With Frohman at the end was actress and rising star Rita Jolivet, who survived the tragedy. Testifying at the Enquiry Board, she stated that she, Charles Frohman, and her brother-in-law held hands and went out on deck. "The water swept me away from my brother-in-law and Mr. Frohman."

RMS Lusitania

Americans were outraged when they learned of the sinking.  Germany justified the attack by stating the ship was secretly carrying munitions to help the British war effort. President Woodrow Wilson protested to the Germans.  Americans’ attitudes began to turn against Germany. When the United States entered WWI two years later, the tragedy of the Lusitania was a factor. It was not until 1982 that the British admitted therewas a “large amount of ammunition in the wreck.” It still remains a safety issue to those interested in salvage operations. Charles Frohman’s body was recovered and returned to the United States. He was buried in Queens, New York. 

You can see some of the Frohman theater playbills that are part of the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums’ Frohman Collection. 

   

The Arrow: Lake Erie's Steam Passenger Vessel

Arrow
Charles E. Frohman Collection

The “Arrow” was built in 1895 by the Detroit Dry Dock Co. of Wyandotte, Michigan. She was built for the Sandusky & Island Steamboat Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, who maintained ownership for nearly 30 years. The steel passenger steamer was lighted with electricity and accommodated 900 passengers. She made trips to many locations on Lake Erie: Kelleys Island, Put-In-Bay, Lakeside, Sandusky, Middle and North Bass Islands, Marblehead, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Port Clinton.                                                                       Arrow, with full load of passengers Charles E. Frohman Collection Ownership transferred various times over her approximately fifty-year lifespan. In 1923, the North Shore Steamboat Co. of Chicago, Illinois took ownership and rebuilt the vessel. She burned on the Chicago River in April 1932, however the company maintained possession until 1934.                                                                    Arrow's crew on Lake Erie Charles E. Frohman Collection Two years later Chester W. Armentrout of Monroe, Michigan purchased her.  He converted the "Arrow" to a barge in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1936. Benjamin O. Colonna of Norfolk, Virginia bought her in 1938. For the next five years, she operated on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways between Norfolk and Savannah, Georgia. In the midst of World War II, H. G. Williams of Jacksonville, Florida, bought her and converted the "Arrow" into a cargo vessel. Her name was also changed to “H-165” in that same year. She served continuously during the war, carrying cargo and assisting the U.S. Maritime Commission in salvage operations. Finally, McCormick Shipping Corporation of Panama bought her and used her as a cargo vessel in the banana trade. The "Arrow" met her demise on August 9, 1948 when she wrecked on the Barrier Reef near Hunting Cay Light, Honduras.

Construction of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Put-In-Bay, South Bass Island
Courtesy of the National Park Service

2013 marked the Bicentennial of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory on Lake Erie that ended British control of the Great Lakes. The naval battle was a pivotal moment in the War of 1812. As the occasion drew near, Put-in-Bay, the site where Perry set sail to meet the British fleet, was jam packed with events to commemorate the historic occasion. Much of the activity took place at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial.


As early as the 1850s, monument associations attempted to establish a memorial to Perry on South Bass Island and nearby Gibraltar, but each time ideas, money, and plans seemed to fizzle. As the 100th anniversary neared, the Inter-State Board of the Perry’s Victory Centennial Commission was formed. With funds from states surrounding the Great Lakes, the commission decided to build a memorial to the long-lasting peace between the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain that followed Perry’s Victory.


After choosing architects Joseph H Freedlander and Joseph D. Seymour’s design in a national competition, the commission broke ground in the fall of 1913. The following 4th of July, the cornerstone was laid. Prominent photographer Otto Herbster was contracted to photograph the monument’s construction.

 

Construction of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Taken by Otto Herbster as the Work Crew Reached the 16th Course
Charles E. Frohman Collection

Herbster’s photographs captured the workmen as they built forms, hauled sand and gravel, and shaped and built 79 courses of pink granite. The Doric column reaches 352 feet above Lake Erie. Its 9 ½ foot thick domed walls and ceiling feature Indiana limestone.

Put-In-Bay: The Construction of Perry's Monument by Jeff Kissel

Arcadia Publishing

Amazon.com

 

Nearby, you can see Mr. Herbster’s photo of the monument as the 16th course was reached and another taken in March 1914 of the full construction crew. To see more of Otto Herbster’s great photos of the construction of the monument, see Jeff Kissel’s fine work by Arcadia Publishing. Online, go to HISTORYPIN and click on South Bass Island on the map. There you can see a slideshow of 28 of Mr. Herbster’s monument construction photos. Better yet, when winter ends (!)head for the Bay this summer and enjoy the magnificent view from the top of this great monument - the 4th tallest in the United States.

Construction Crew of  Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Photo by Otto Herbster, March 1914
Charles E. Frohman Collection

A version of this post appeared during the Bicentennial in Lifestyles 2000.

 

Tony Jannus at Cedar Point: Lake Erie's Yesterdays on Pinterest

 

Tony Jannus on the Boardwalk at Cedar Point

August 1914

Photograph by Ernst Niebergall

Charles E. Frohman Collection

 

 

 

Above is a picture of Tony Jannus, one of America's most famous early flyers. Jannus was a test pilot for Tom Benoist, who built airboats at Sandusky, Ohio. During the summers of 1913, at the centennial celebration of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, and 1914, Jannus flew exhibition flights and took local residents on flights over Lake Erie. On New Year's Day 1914, Jannus flew one of Benoist's airboats on the United States' first scheduled passenger flight, between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida. Jannus' flight heralded in commercial aviation in the United States. His fete proved that scheduled flights of cargo and passengers could be economically viable. More on Jannus, his life, and the upcoming commemoration of that first scheduled flight in an upcoming post...

 

You can see pictures of Tony and the Benoit airboat on Pinterest on my Lake Erie's Yesterdays board. There are also some of early fliers Harry Atwood and Glen Curtiss making flights over Lake Erie near Sandusky and at Cedar Point. More photos from the Charles E. Frohman Collection can be found by googling Lake Erie's Yesterdays OhioLINK.

 

 

  

 



Louis Baus' Great Lakes Commerical Shipping Photographs

As an Ohio native and three-time governor, President Hayes held a deep interest in the state’s history. He was an early member of area historical societies. He collected original materials that help tell the stories of the people who settled and developed the region. Since the Hayes Center’s creation in 1916, collecting and preserving the area’s history has remained part of the institution’s mission.

Among the Hayes Center’s holdings is the Charles E. Frohman Collection. The wide-ranging archive of unique materials chronicles the lives of those who shaped the future of the Erie Islands and the communities of Lake Erie’s Western Basin. It is a rich collection of books, papers, photographs, and maps of which more and more are digitized. Through support from the Sidney Frohman Foundation, some 2,400 photographs now appear online at Lake Erie’s Yesterdays through OhioLINK’s searchable image database.

Recent efforts have focused on photographs of ships that once plied the waters of the Great Lakes. The photographs were taken and collected by Louis Baus. A long time Cleveland, Ohio photographer, Baus worked independently and then as a staff writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A native Clevelander, Baus in his later years was fascinated by commercial shipping on the Great Lakes. As a member of the Great Lakes Historical Society, he spent many days traveling and photographing American and Canadian vessels.

Before his death in 1949, Baus had compiled 18 albums of more than a thousand pictures of Great Lakes ships. There are pictures of tugs, freighters, ferries, mail boats, lumber and car carriers, barges, and the ports and harbors they called home. His original black and white prints fill most of the albums, but Baus also collected drawings, pen and ink sketches, and photographs by others. For each vessel, he wrote a capsule history.

You can search Lake Erie’s Yesterdays for a picture of a single ship by entering its name or the entire collection by entering “Baus.” Whether viewing his albums in their entirety at the Hayes Center or online, one gains a sense of those vibrant days when vessels carrying wheat from the Great Plains, ore from Minnesota, and timber from Michigan dominated the Great Lakes. At the same time, one can’t help but be struck by the number of ships lost in storms, collisions, and groundings, taking lives and fortunes to the bottom with them.

Louis Baus’ passion for the region’s waterways extended beyond the Great Lakes. Between 1896 and 1933, he traveled and photographed the entire length of the old Ohio Canal - from Cleveland to Portsmouth. In 2004, the University of Akron purchased Baus’ collection of photographs of canal boats, crews, passengers, locks, and businesses along the canal ways. His more than 400 photographs can be viewed on the university’s website.