On the cold morning of Nov. 19, 1886, the La Pointe lightkeeper on Long Island woke to a macabre sight. He recorded this entry in his logbook:

From tower saw a vessel with 2 masts pretty close to shore. I went down, I found it was a barque wrecked. It appeared that they had let go their anchors. She was lying bow to the east, about 2 1/2 miles from lt. house. I discovered 3 bodies, one in main, 2 in mizzen rigging , did not find any bodies on shore. Her boat is between the lighthouse and the end of the point. Her stern came ashore 1/4 mile east of the lighthouse. On her arch board is Lucerne, Cleveland. The fishing tugs were out setting their nets in the morning, they saw the wreck and reported it at Bayfield. The fishing tug Browne came to the wreck at 1 p.m. and took the bodies from the rigging and took them to Bayfield.

Searchers on the tugs S.B. Barker and Cyclone of Bayfield reached the Lucerne wreck that afternoon. The Lucerne's worried owners had sent the tugs to locate the missing schooner. The lighthouse keeper might have misidentified the Cyclone as the tug Browne in his account.

Otherwise, the tugs' findings were in accordance with the La Pointe lightkeeper's report. But the tugs added that part of the Lucerne's cabin was found drifting near the lighthouse, and the three frozen men found lashed in the rigging were covered with 1 to 6 inches of ice. It appeared they had climbed the masts to escape Lake Superior's freezing waters.

The men were cut down from the rigging by Ed and Charlie Herbert of Bayfield. The Bayfield County Press reported, "[T]o do it required a great deal of skill and nerve, qualities the boys are not lacking in."

continued