It was late October in 1921 when the schooner “Rosa Belle” disappeared on its return voyage from High Island in Lake Michigan. The Rosa Belle was a two masted 100 foot sailing vessel owned by the Israelites of the House of David, a religious colony headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan. They had a lumbering enterprise on High Island, a small island four miles west of Beaver Island in northeastern Lake Michigan. They had a mill on the island, and with the Rosa Belle, they were transporting to sell the lumber, as well as crops of potatoes.
The House of David had previously used a steamer named the Rising Sun for their voyages to the northern island. The Rising Sun was a larger ship, at 133 feet. But in 1917, the Rising Sun set on Lake Michigan, sinking off the coast of High Island in a wreck from which her passengers and crew were lucky to escape. After the sinking of the Rising Sun, the House of David purchased the Rosa Belle to replace the larger ship. But not for very long.
The Rosa Belle was built in 1863 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to Robert Myer’s book, “Lost on the Lakes,” she changed hands many times before the Israelites laid claim to her. And like old ships, she was not without her issues. She’d been overhauled in 1898, and she had a couple more close calls in her traversing career, including a time in 1875 when she capsized in the lake, and as recently as 1918, when she needed towed in after a storm tore away part of her rigging.
As one of the last schooners sailing the Great Lakes, the Rosa Belle was limited in capacities. Because she wasn’t run on steam, she had to rely more on friendly winds to command her direction, and travel times could vary greatly depending on the weather. This limitation may very well have been her downfall in the autumn of 1921 after she left High Island, loaded with lumber, a crew of twelve and two passengers.
Late October and early November weather is notorious on the Great Lakes for creating sudden storms that have claimed victims for centuries. But when the Rosa Belle left High Island in late October of 1921, the weather wasn’t much of an issue. In fact, the trip was regarded as relatively routine, except for the disappearing part.
Yes, the Rosa Belle disappeared for days without a trace. She was finally spotted on October 31, capsized 42 miles east of Milwaukee, 15-20 miles off of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Her masts were both missing, the stern broken off and completely gone. When news arrived back in Benton Harbor that the Rosa Belle had been found, there was hope that the crew had survived. Damage to the schooner gave the impression that the ship had been rammed by a much bigger boat, and if so that bigger boat might have picked up the survivors. But in the coming days, no survivors showed up. Then the speculation was that the victims had all drowned and their bodies would be found in the forecastle of the upside down boat, which had been blocked shut by shifting cargo. When they towed what was left of the Rosa Belle back to shore, a thorough search was made. They found no bodies inside below deck, nor any clue what had happened to them.
The captain, crew, and passengers of the Rosa Belle were simply gone.
Another ship with local ties to our area also disappeared in the depths of Lake Michigan back in 1895, never to be found. It was called the Chicora.
Present day stories about the Rosa Belle often claim that she was victim to the Lake Michigan Triangle, a portion of the Lake where mysteries abound, much like the Bermuda Triangle. Ships and crews have gone missing, airplanes have disappeared, and strange lights have been seen in the sky, including the “UFO” lights in 1994 that were featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. All the other incidents are stories for a different day. The Michigan Triangle extends from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, across the lake to Ludington, Michigan, and south to Benton Harbor. But the phenomenon known as the Michigan Triangle is a modern idea, and folks back in 1921, while they knew that Lake Michigan could be dangerous, didn’t know anything about a dangerous triangle where mysteries were born. Seafaring had always been a dangerous occupation even if the “sea” was actually a lake. The Great Lakes, in their capacities for danger, are regarded as fresh water oceans.
So who was lost on the Rosa Belle? That question was nearly as mysterious as all the others. Even the House of David wasn’t sure exactly who was on the ship because it was customary for some of the colonists to return to Benton Harbor from High Island. How many non-crew members were on the Rosa Belle were not known for a couple weeks, after word was received from High Island. In addition to the crew of 12, two passengers named George Hinman and Lauren Nye were also onboard the vessel. The crew consisted of Captain Erhart Gliese, First Mate Charles Anderson, Second Mate Waldermer Fredrickson, deck hands Alvin Winder, Robert Daily, Edwin Marshall, Erwin Winge, Jake Von Moulken, and Ulysses Daily, cooks Otis Vaughn and Cecil Caudle, and cabin boy Edwin Wilson. They were all colony members, except for Captain Gliese.
Finding information on the victims proves rather difficult, as they have no graves, and Colony beliefs prohibit the living from associating with the dead, even to honor them. It seems they made an exception to this rule when Benjamin died, but that’s another story for another day. So for the purposes of this article, the victims of this shipwreck are just names lost to history until more information pops up.
Once hope was lost for finding any survivors, Coast Guard authorities could only speculate what really happened to the Rosa Belle on her fateful last voyage. Several theories existed. The most accepted theory was that she was rammed by a bigger boat in the dead of night, and stood no chance of staying intact or afloat. No other ships fessed up to hitting a stray schooner that night, but they might not even have seen her or noticed the collision. Remember, the Rosa Belle’s paths were guided by the wind which might have put them in the path of large ore carriers. It had happened before, without such disastrous consequences.
Another theory was that the Rosabelle sprang a leak and capsized, only to be torn apart from the storms in the following days. But what of her motor lifeboat? Wouldn’t there have been at least a few survivors? Did survivors escape the ill fated ship, only to die from exposure afterwards?
Yet another theory involved an explosion of her gasoline tank, which was located in the stern. That would have destroyed the lifeboat as well, and it could have happened when most of the crew were sleeping.
The wreck of the Rosabelle also sealed the fate for the High Island colony. The House of David didn’t buy another boat, but instead hired boats to transport provisions to the island and lumber back and forth. But by 1922, the House of David put the island up for sale. The News Palladium referred to it as a “Jinx Isle” for the House of David.
After the Rosabelle was towed ashore in Racine, Wisconsin, a colony member sold her wreckage and what was left of her cargo of lumber for $125. There she sat for the next few years, rotting into the shore, washed away bit by bit into her great watery grave.
No bodies were ever recovered, but life vests and wreckage from the Rosabelle found its way ashore for years after the disaster. Some even washed up ashore at St. Joseph, some as late as eight years later — a haunting reminder that pieces of her were still out there, still sailing the lake she called home. And maybe they still are.
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Years ago HofD members thought the Rosa Belle was ramed by the car ferry.
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Thank you Tom. That was the general consensus, I believe… that it was struck by a bigger ship, an ore carrier or a car ferry. I left out the words “car ferry” only because I could see it confusing readers who don’t think cars existed before 1920, lol. The capsized Belle was also first spotted by a car ferry, I believe. Cool song!
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