- Dates
- 1922 – 1939
- Kind
- Rescue
- Where
- Beaver Island
- Eras
- Lumbering era
- Concepts
- shippingfishingmaritimeconstructionhistoryseasonal-life
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The Beacon recounts how Israel, Steve, and Harvey Nedeau commissioned the Beaver Island-built Helen N in 1922, and how the wooden fishing boat survived five days trapped in Lake Michigan ice during the January 1926 storm before returning to service.
Evidence limits
This is a later narrative account and does not replace vessel registries, Coast Guard records, or contemporary rescue reports.
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, January 2004, “The Helen N, an Island-built Boat”.Recounts Gus Mielke and John Roen’s Beaver Island construction of the 44-foot Helen N, its January 1926 ice entrapment and rescue, and eventual sinking. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-01_Beaver-Beacon
- The held issue scan confirms the January 2004 historical account.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2004-01_Beaver-Beacon
Added 5 August 2026 · revised 7 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “The Helen N survives a 1926 ice rescue before sinking years later”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-helen-n-island-built-boat/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, January 2004, “The Helen N, an Island-built Boat”. (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-07. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “The Helen N survives a 1926 ice rescue before sinking years later”RIS for “The Helen N survives a 1926 ice rescue before sinking years later”