Believed to be The Hattie Wells, it was built in Port Huron, Michigan by the shipbuilders Stewart & Fitzgerald in the year 1867.  The three-masted schooner had a length of 135’, with a beam of 26’, and a depth of 11’.  Later configured as a schooner barge, the Hattie Wells was lost in a storm on November 6, 1912.

Over the years she courted disaster on a number of occasions including collision, grounding and lightning strike. After a grounding in 1892 she was given up for lost but was later salvaged as a wreck and towed back to Detroit for refit. Once again afloat, she continued in service, later as a barge.

In November 1912, hauling lumber (Hemlock, elm and pine) from Waukegan, IL to Muskegon, MI in heavy weather she was being continually swamped and was taking water. Shifting cargo took out a pilot house containing a donkey engine which powered bilge pumps. With the only means of removing water gone, the vessel was doomed to sink and so the towing tug cut the hawser and proceeded to attempt a rescue of the 5 hands on board. At considerable risk to the tug, goaded on by two plucky young stewardesses, a dramatic rescue was successfully executed and all hands were safely recovered.

Hattie Wells: Lake Michigan Shipwreck from SeaView Systems, Inc. on Vimeo.

VJ Books have recently posted this video of the 2010 Cussler Con – featuring Clive Cussler, Jack Du Brul, Grant Blackwood.  Its interesting hearing from Clive about the balance between himself and co authors of his books.

The latest book in the Oregon Files series has just been released in the UK this week (3rd March)

Synopsis

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon have undergone many hair-raising adventures before – but never one quite like this.

Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Cabrillo and his remarkable men and women must survive them all.

A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China . . . a daring rescue in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border . . . a woman gone missing in the jungles of northern Thailand and Myanmar . . . for Cabrillo and company, all of these events will come together – leading to the greatest threat against US security that the country has ever known.

Buy The Jungle on Amazon