Witching Hour - Dark History: The night the Clarion burned off Point Pelee

Witching Hour - Dark History On Dec. 8, 1909, the freighter Clarion burned in a Lake Erie gale off Point Pelee. Captain Bell and 12 men left in a lifeboat and were lost. Six crowded at the stern until the steamer L.C. Hanna took them off. Fifteen died.

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Witching Hour is our nightly local history and folklore feature. Ghost stories and legends are retold as stories people tell, not reported as fact. Sources are listed below the story.

Tonight's Witching Hour is dark history from the waters off Point Pelee.

A fire in a gale

On the night of Dec. 8, 1909, the Anchor Line freighter Clarion was crossing the west end of Lake Erie in a winter gale. Near the Southeast Shoal off Point Pelee, fire broke out below decks. A lightship was anchored off the shoal to warn passing boats.

Thirteen in a lifeboat

Captain Bell and 12 men took to a lifeboat. They were never found. Two more crewmen died: the mate aboard the ship, and a sailor who drowned trying to reach another lifeboat.

Six at the stern

That left six men on the burning ship. Newspapers the next day said they crowded toward the stern, against the wind, to stay as far from the flames as they could.

The steamer L.C. Hanna, under Captain Matthew Anderson, came to help. For hours it worked against the wind and sea to reach them, and it finally took all six off the Clarion.

Fifteen men died that night. Next time you stand at the tip of Point Pelee and look out over the passage, remember the Clarion.