Just before midnight on May 24, 1863, the tug Crawford had exploded. Three of the four men aboard were killed instantly while a fourth was blown overboard and survived. The brand new tug, launched only a few weeks before, sank in twenty-five feet of water. Fully three weeks later, Lake Michigan yielded up the bodies of Captain Ezra Ozier and crewman Richard Coughlin, half a mile offshore near Hyde Park. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"Explosion of the Tug Boat Crawford: The Captain, Engineer, and Fireman Lost," Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1863, p. 4.
"The Dead from the Crawford Explosion Found," Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1863, p.4.
"The Dead from the Crawford Explosion Found," Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1863, p.4.