Here you can download scripts and see pictures that relate to each podcast. Each of these fantastic topics are also available in a personal lecture by the host, Ric Mixter!

Features Overview

jackson park lifesaving station

it was a showcase for the Lifesaving Service during the World’s Fair, but it was 8 miles from where dozens of ships were wrecking near the Chicago River. The keeper at Jackson Park would later complain it was an old lifeboat that kept them from responding to the storm, but the truth was that communications and distance was just too much and the annex crew of two lifesavers at the river mouth were simply inadequate.

Shipwrecks littered southern Lake Michigan

From Milwaukee to the Michigan border, schooners were pushed into each other and onto the shoreline in relentless 60 mile per hour wind. What started out as an 80 degree spring day was transformed into a snowy hurricane that threw hapless crews into the 48 degree water. Historian and master storyteller Ric Mixter shares details on each shipwreck and rescue attempt as well as his family connection to a schooner destroyed near the Calumet River in 1894.

finest hours and costly mistakes

A Gold Lifesaving Medal was awarded to a volunteer who attempted to save the crew of the Shupe in Lake Huron. A lifesaving captain was asked to resign for his plan to save the men and woman stranded in the rigging of the schooner MJ Cummings. Listen to the podcast to hear details on these stories as well as a murder trial, monster fish fry and the funeral party that ended up in court. It’s a story only found on shipwreckpodcast.com !