Award-winning author Valerie van Heest recounts the worst disaster on the open waters of the Great Lakes when the palatial sidewheel steamer Lady Elgin sank in Lake Michigan on September 8, 1860, taking with it over three hundred souls, mostly Irish from Milwaukee’s Third Ward. This copiously researched historical narrative takes the readers back to the eve of a pivotal presidential election during the golden age of passenger travel on the Great Lakes, describes in detail the terrifying loss of the steamer, and recounts the discovery of the vessel’s remains more than a century after the disaster, offering testament to the trauma that brought it to the bottom.