William H. Baker

William H. Baker, 22, fireman, helped to rescue six members of the ship’s company of the steam barge “Sarah E. Sheldon,” Lorain, Ohio, October 20, 1905. Baker was one of a crew of four men of the tug “Frank W” that went 23 miles on Lake Erie from Cleveland, during a gale blowing 50 m.p.h., and through waves 14 feet high, to the “Sheldon,” which had been beached an eighth-mile off shore. They towed a life boat and crew from the U.S. Life Saving Station. After the life-saving crew got the six men aboard their boat, the tug towed them 3 miles farther, into Lorain harbor. On the run to the wreck, the boiler shifted and the main steam pipe cracked.