On December 12, the Pennsylvania State fish commissioner's tug Commodore Perry discovered the Marquette & Bessemer No. 2's lifeboat #4, fifteen miles off Erie, Pennsylvania. Nine bodies were found in the lifeboat. The boat had held a tenth person, but that person apparently went mad, removed his clothes, and jumped overboard. None of the bodies were dressed in warm clothes, suggesting that the evacuation had been hurried. Strangely, the body of Steward George R. Smith was found with two large knives and a meat cleaver from the ship's galley.
