Lake George’s Unlucky 1897 Steam Yacht

It was a bit of an unlucky vessel. The 65-foot long, 75 horse-power Lake George steam yacht Helen [II] was constructed by shipbuilder Chris Bates. The watercraft was built in 1892 on land just north of today’s Old Warren County Courthouse in the Town of Lake George, New York.

Charles F. Burhans, a summer resident of nearby Warrensburg, was principal owner of the “handsome” boat. An earlier Burhans family steamboat, also named Helen, was sold after the new craft was launched.

On July 21, 1897, Burhans was at his seasonal home in Warrensburg, recovering from typhoid fever. The engineer and back-up pilot, Charles Wood, had tied the yacht to its pier for the night, secured by three lines. The Helen [II] was running charters on the waterway. The sleek steamboat was berthed on the west side at the Lake House, where Shepard Park is today.

During the evening of July 21, 1897, the vessel was stolen from its dock and several holes were drilled into its wooden hull. On July 22, when the early morning Delaware & Hudson train arrived at Lake George at 4 am, railroad personnel noticed an odd sight. A steamboat was slowly sinking off the Crosbyside Hotel, today’s Wiawaka Holiday House, on the lake’s east side.

By the time a rescue team came out, the steamer had settled into 50–60 feet of water. Chairs, cushions, and a table from the Helen were floating on the lake surface.

Twenty men in small boats, equipped with grapnels and lines, plumbed the waterway until the Helen [II] was snagged and the hapless vessel was buoyed.

Captain Wood secured the services of a hardhat diver from Merritt Wrecking Company (later known as Merritt-Chapman & Scott) of New York City to raise the sunken craft.

Famed deep-sea diver, John Haggerty, and his assistant soon arrived at Lake George. Haggerty discovered the sunken yacht resting in 18 inches of lake bottom mud.

An airtight closet had created an air pocket that helped keep the boat afloat for some time before it finally sank. Haggerty found eight one-inch diameter holes drilled into the hull near the steam boiler. Fortunately, however, only four holes went through. The fewer holes delayed the watercraft from quickly sinking, thus allowing the D&H personnel to spot it.

The first attempt to lift the submerged steamboat failed when attachment lines unexpectedly broke. Finally, after two days of diving by Haggerty, the Helen [II] was raised on the second recovery attempt. The bill for the dive work was about $500 and damage to the vessel was put at $1,000.

The town board of Caldwell (now Lake George) offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this dastardly deed, but it was never paid out. The Helen [II] was repaired and was back on the lake in three weeks.

Diver John Haggerty eventually caught the tough luck of the steam yacht. After the USS Maine sank in Havana, Cuba harbor in 1898, Haggerty led a dive unit that partially salvaged the warship. Unfortunately, in 1902, five years after the Helen [II] incident, Haggerty died at his Brooklyn home. He suffered from “rushes of blood to his head” from years of deep diving.

The steam vessel Helen [II] would likewise soon meet its demise. After a rather ordinary career as a pleasure and excursion craft, the unlucky yacht became a victim of new technology, the gasoline-powered marine engine.

Illustrations, from above: Sketch by Joseph W. Zarzynski depicting the sinking of the steamboat Helen [II] on Lake George on July 21, 1897; A grainy photograph of the Helen [II] steamboat (courtesy Lake George Boats by Betty Ahearn Buckell and the Lake George Historical Association); and the April 10, 1886 cover of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper showing a Merritt Wrecking Company diver emerging from the depths from the shipwreck Oregon, south of Long Island, NY.