Almost three hundred drown on Lake Michigan in an excursion steamer collision
The 300 foot, 1000 ton steamer Lady Elgin left Chicago around midnight on a pleasure trip with 300 passengers and 85 crewmen aboard. Just before dawn she collided with the schooner Augusta. Little damage was suspected but suddenly the Lady Elgin's boilers dropped through her bottom and she immediately sank. Only 100 aboard were saved. The dead included the owner of the Illustrated London News, Henry Ingram. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chronicle, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1860 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1861), 154-156.