Loss of the Antelope, The

DESCRIPTION: The Antelope sails from Chicago; on the second day out a gale arises. The cook, in the fore-rigging, freezes to death; the ship springs a leak and is wrecked. The captain tries to save his brother, but drowns; all but the singer are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from various informants by Walton)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship shore work disaster storm wreck brother cook sailor worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1870: Antelope wrecked on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, probably near Point Betsey?
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 202-205, "The Shores of Michigan (The Antelope)" (1 composite text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
MidwestFolklore, David D. Anderson, "Songs and Sayings of the Lakes," Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 1962) p. 10, "(On the eighteenth in the morning)" (1 text)
Roud #3840
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The Loss of the 'Antelope'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (tune)
NOTES [1253 words]: Scholars long found it hard to identify the ship in this song, since Wolff lists two Antelopes lost on Lake Superior alone, and there were others on the other Great Lakes. In 1879, a tug with that name was wrecked, probably near Marquette (Wolff, p. 29). A better candidate for this song would be the 187 foot schooner Antelope, built in 1861. On October 7, 1897, while carrying coal from Sandusky to Ashland, Wisconsin, she started taking on water (the guess is the seams of the old ship started to come apart). It was clear she would not survive, so the Henry W. Sibley, which was towing her, took off her crew (Wolff, pp. 77-78).
Keller, p. 55, has a chapter entitled "Antelope: A Name With A Curse." He notes that Antelope was a popular ship name, and claims that 13 Antelopes worked the Lakes in the 1890s: "seven schooners, two propellors, one brig, one scow, and one tug" -- but goes on to note that all of them capsized, foundered, burned, or was stranded.
Keller, who quotes a fragment of this song, describes the same 1897 wreck cited by Wolff above. He notes that this Antelope was originally built as a steamer but later converted to a schooner (although she still had a smokestack even after her engine was removed!). This increased her cargo capacity, but it can't have strengthened her structure. Keller has a picture on p. 56; it shows a typical 1860s design. It looks as if she would be very inefficient under sail. Keller, p. 57, does note that, although there was no storm at the time of her sinking, October 7, 1897 had featured rather high seas, and that the Sibley had been towing her at twelve miles per hour -- a high speed for a schooner, particularly an old one. And it is perfectly possible that there would be ice in the water around the Apostle Islands in October (Keller, p. 21, shows her going down just east of Michigan Island, on the eastern edge of the Apostles, almost due northeast of Ashland, Wisconsin).
Ratigan, p. 235, quotes the same version of this song as Keller. This version seems to be set on Lake Superior (as opposed to Lake Michigan in the Snyder and Walton version). On p. 236 he says that of the 13 ships named Antelope on the Great Lakes, two of them (both schooners) were lost in 1894. He therefore thinks the song should be associated with one of the 1894 wrecks.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors adds even more to the confusion. Their version, extremely composite (at least four informants contributed parts) is clearly a Lake Michigan song as given (the ship sets out from Chicago). They do not try to locate the relevant Antelope. It appears to me that at least part of their version is based on "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)."
Yet one of their verses is quite similar to the Keller/Ratigan fragment. Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors even quotes that same text as a fragment of a different song from Lake Superior!
The MidwestFolklore version is also a Lake Michigan version; author Anderson thinks the Antelope was probably wrecked in 1894.
If there are in fact two songs (one presumably set on Lake Superior and one on Lake Michigan), then it seems likely that Walton accidentally combined verses from both. But I suspect that the Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors hypothesis is wrong; this is really one song, which was perhaps localized to various events. Whether it was inspired by an actual Antelope seemed questionable. (It is truly unfortunate that no one ever really tried to collect songs of Lake Superior sailors....)
That was as far as I was able to take things -- and it turns out that there was a lot more to be learned. Solomon Foster came to another conclusion, based solely on the Walton text. He suggests that the Antelope involved was a 3-masted schooner, 337 tons, built 1855 at Buffalo, New York, by a shipbuilder named Jones. It was driven ashore in a storm eight miles north of Saint Joseph, Michigan on November 20, 1857, with the loss of five lives. More information is available at http://greatlakeships.org/2901840/data?n=4. Foster's own investigation, including scans of three clippings from the Oswego Palladium newspaper, can be found at https://whiskyandwater.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/the-loss-of-the-antelope/,
Mr. Foster points out that the story of this Antelope is a good match for the Walton text:
1. Oswego connection, which matches Walton's origin story for the song.
2. Location; ship was driven ashore was 8 miles north of St. Joseph, MI, which matches every location detail given in the song. (Except perhaps they would have been further north two days out of Chicago?)
3. Date: Database gives the date of the wreck as Nov 20th; the song gives it as Nov 18th.
4. Loss of life: song reports all but one of the crew, database reports five men lost.
There is also the fact that one of Walton's informants claimed that his father, Thomas Peckham, wrote the song. I suspected that, as with so many traditional singers, this meant "modified and perhaps wrote down." But possibly not. Foster's article transcribes the three newspaper pieces. I'll quote portions of them (see his web site for the full transcriptions):
November 28, 1857:
Loss of the Schooner Antelope -- The schooner Antelope, Capt. Geo. Budd, bound from Chicago to Oswego, with 14,000 bushels of wheat, was lost of Friday last, about eight miles north of St Joseph, and Capt. Budd and four of the crew perished. The Chicago Press contains the following particulars, obtained from Capt. Parker, of the schooner H. Rand:
"The Antelope was seen on Friday evening by Capt. Parker, running before the wind, in a southerly direction; but it appears that during the same evening she was driven ashore. The Captain and crew, as soon as she struck, made ever attempt to get ashore, but failed -- her small boat being carried away. Capt. Budd then determined to swim ashore, stripped and jumped into the water with a rope, but after several attempts he failed and had to be hauled on board again nearly dead. Shortly afterwards a wave washed him overboard and he was lost. During the course of the night three men of the crew were washed into the lake and met watery graves. The balance lashed themselves to the deck and rigging, where they were found by a party of men from St. Joseph, who reached the vessel with a scow.
"Five of the crew were found completely paralyzed with cold and wet, and almost dead. -- One they found lashed to the rigging, frozen to death....
"The Antelope will be a total loss. She was an A 1 vessel, owned by A. H. Hovey, Oswego, and valued at $11,000. We are informed that the Northwestern Insurance Company have risks on hull and cargo to the extent of $11,000."
November 30th, 1857/December 5th, 1857:
[The first of these is a report from the first mate about the survivors and losses. Besides the mate, four men were still alive, but one of them, Thomas Peckham, was not expected to live much longer. Five men were lost or frozen to death. The second is mentions several survivors -- including Peckam, who apparently made it after all. And, remember, Thomas Peckham was listed as writing the song!]
Foster's conclusion: "So what have we learned? I think we can be very certain the song was written about the November 20th, 1857 wreck. While there are minor discrepancies, if anything it seems surprising how closely oral tradition preserved the story from 1857 to Snider's recording in 1946, 89 years later!"
I think his work speaks for itself. - RBW
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