There was a storm warning in effect when Captain John Savage and the\u00a0Asia<\/em>\u00a0left Owen Sound a little after midnight on September 14. The ship was grossly overloaded with cargo, including draft horses and cattle, on the main deck, as well as extra passengers sleeping on couches and chairs because of a scarcity of staterooms.<\/p>\n At Presque Isle the\u00a0Asia\u00a0<\/em>took on a full load of cordwood fuel then headed north for the French River, away from the shelter of the Bruce Peninsula. The passengers had endured a difficult ride on the mounting seas, and presumably the captain was hoping that the load of fuel would improve the vessel’s sickening roll. Hit by the full force of the gale, the\u00a0Asia\u00a0<\/em>slowed to a crawl as the wheelsman tried desperately to keep the ship’s nose into the wind to avoid the deadly troughs between waves.<\/p>\n By 9 a.m. the storm had reached a feverish height and the crew, in an effort to stabilize the pitching vessel, cut loose the cargo on deck and forced the horses overboard but within two hours, the wheelsman had lost the battle and the\u00a0Asia\u00a0<\/em>fell into the troughs. Each wave threatened to capsize the ship and finally, she rolled completely over, tossing cargo and passengers into the roiling water.<\/p>\n Struggling not to drown, two teenagers, Dunkan Tinkiss and Christy Ann Morrison, found their way into one of the few lifeboats. A large group clung to the gunwales as the small boat flipped and tossed in the waves. After the storm calmed, only six of the lifeboat passengers, including the\u00a0Asia’s\u00a0<\/em>first mate and Captain John Savage, remained. Following days of drifting aimlessly, all on board succumbed to exposure except the teenagers. Drifting onward with their grisly cargo, Tinkiss and Morrison finally landed on an island off Pointe au Baril where they were rescued by an Ojibwa couple. They were the only survivors of the\u00a0Asia’s\u00a0<\/em>122 passengers and crew.<\/p>\n
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