6. G. P. Griffith set itself on fire
The lake steamer G. P. Griffith was a scheduled packet steamer which operated on the Great Lakes, primarily on Lake Erie, during the warm months of the year. Its trips included several stops, running between Buffalo, New York, and Toledo, Ohio, with dockings at Erie, Fairport, Cleveland, and others. The vessel was between Fairport and Cleveland on June 16, 1850, carrying an estimated 326 passengers, most of them recently arrived immigrants, when sparks from its smokestacks ignited the vessel’s upper works. The captain increased speed in an attempt to reach shore, but the speed fanned the flames aft and the crew was forced to abandon its stations. The vessel went aground in about eight feet of water and was quickly consumed.
The captain, C. C. Roby, threw his wife and children over the side before abandoning the ship himself, hoping to save them. All drowned, including the captain. Thirty-seven survived, and the rest of the passengers and crew died in the flames or the water. Most of the bodies initially recovered were buried in a mass grave on the Ohio shore, which was later looted when it became known that most of the immigrants were carrying all of the money they had with them. Later, bodies which rose from the water were found to be weighted down with money belts containing their owner’s wealth in gold. Bodies of the victims continued to wash ashore two weeks after the disaster. The steamer’s manifest was lost, so the exact death toll remains unknown.
