Sunken History—A Diver's Journal
John Breden
by Captain Deb Biniecki

It was early Friday morning July 21, 1899, when Jane Conners walked the dock in Port Huron, stretching her legs and thinking about the trip to come. She lifted her face to the dim morning light and felt the cool breeze freshening from the north. She had chosen a different path for herself than most young women of the time. She enjoyed freedom at a time when women's choices were limited and opportunities for adventure, few. If she felt any apprehension about the trip, she pushed it aside as she thought about her work preparing meals for the captain and crew aboard the schooner barge John Breden.

The John Breden was built in 1862 in Port Delousie, Ontario, by Donalson & Andrews for John Breden and others. She had three masts and measured 130 feet in length by 25 feet in width and 12 feet in depth. The wooden merchant barkentine was valued at $18,000. She sailed the Great Lakes carrying lumber and coal until 1875 when she lost her head gear in a collision at Elk Island in the St. Clair River. This accident changed her service from a bark to a barge. She was towed by steam powered tugs which enabled her to navigate narrow channels until 1889. She was then renovated as a three-masted schooner and sailed again for a short time before major repairs returned her to a barge once again. By 1899 the Breden changed hands 11 times and had fallen into a state of disrepair.

Jane had been held up in Port Huron for several days when the vessel was seized by authorities for nonpayment of debt. During this time, she and the other crew members were not being paid. Crew member, John Farley, who rode the vessel from Toledo, jumped ship in Port Huron after being paid the wages he was due. She must have felt relief when the situation was resolved with the owners. With a new crew secured and the vessel released, they would finally be under way.

Jane Connors, Captain McDonald, Joseph Benson and two other men, presumably transients picked up in Port Huron, boarded the schooner barge John Breden for what was to be the final leg of its journey up the lake to drop a load of lumber in Bay City. The tug Winslow left Port Huron at 10 a.m. that morning with her consort, John Breden, trailing behind her.

The weather was that of an average summer day on the lake with clear conditions and temperature in the 70s and brisk northerly winds at 12 knots. According to Captain McDonald, "Everything was alright until we were off Lexington, when the tug turned back. After we had turned, the pumps were sounded and 12 inches of water were found in the hold. I called all hands to the pumps, but while they were still pumping I saw that the vessel was about to founder. I called to the cook to come where I could help her, and in less than 15 minutes the Breden had gone to the bottom. The tug turned back and did everything possible to save us."

Lost in the foundering were the two unnamed sailors and the cook, Jane Conners. The two sailors, working deep in the hold at the pumps, were never recovered. The body of Jane Conners was later picked up by a tug and taken to Mulford's Funeral Parlors in Port Huron. Captain McDonald was locked up in the county jail as a witness to the foundering.

A coroner's inquest was held at the Mulford Funeral Parlors over the body of Jane Conners. The prosecutor took testimony as to the condition of the barge. Captain McDonald testified that he had no reason to believe the vessel would not safely make the trip. He believed her to be seaworthy, though he could not account for why she was loaded with 600 tons of coal when she was rated for only 319 tons. He did say that he would have refused the commission had he thought the barge would not make the trip.

Former crew member, Edward Farley testified to the Breden's condition. He stated that he left the vessel in Port Huron because he felt no assurance that he would be paid his wages and that he did not regard the Breden as being sea worthy. He made it clear that he thought the Breden was unsafe after working hard at the pumps nonstop to keep her afloat during the trip from Toledo to Port Huron. Mr. Farley thought the Breden was towed too rapidly to withstand her poor condition. While working on the Breden, he provided his own yawl, the only means of life saving on board.

Loaded to almost twice her capacity, in poor condition and struggling to stay afloat in the best conditions, all it took was a brisk north wind to send her to the bottom of Lake Huron.

The jury for the inquest censured both owners and the mate of the Breden for taking the crew aboard and leaving Port Huron when the vessel was in such a deplorable condition. The results of the inquest served as a warning to shippers anxious to get out their cargo and to owners of vessels that have long outlived their usefulness, who promote their purposes at the risk of the lives of their crew.

The John Breden rested undisturbed on the bottom for close to 100 years before being discovered by a group of local research divers in 1994. She lies in 50 feet of water just outside the southern boundary of the Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve. In contradiction to Captain McDonald's report, the Breden did not turn around. Her bow is still oriented to the north. She appears to have simply pulled apart from the stress of the load and speed of the Winslow. Her bow lies 60 feet from the hull with her sides filleted open and a distance from the hull. The divers found the remains of the two unlucky sailors that shipped out on the Breden for the first time, as well as the ship's bell and a pottery jug.

Through the seasons, Lake Huron's storms, sending waves of ice water pounding the Breden's hull, have washed away any traces of the drama that unfolded almost 100 years earlier.

If you would like to contact Capt. Deb with any ideas, feedback or information regarding shipwreck stories, please contact her through Huron Explorations at 810-648-4638 or email at fathoms@greatlakes.net. SCUBA diving charters can also be arranged through the above contact information.