J. H. Graham, president of the Graham & Morton line, received a message from Saugutuck, stating that a bottle was picked up on the beach containing a note signed by Robert McClure, engineer of the Chicora, which read as follows:
Capt. Stines and Mr. Clark washed overboard. Engine is broken and we are all lost. Are near enough to land to see the shore if it was not snowing.
Mr. Graham thinks that it is worthy of belief. This goes far to prove the statement of a man named Plummer, of South Haven, who stated that he saw the Chicora near that port on the afternoon of Jan. 21, and it will be proved that the Chicora was only lost by the breaking of her machinery or losing the stearing [sic] gear. Her hull in that case is undoubtedly near shore, and search will begin for it at once.
The Chicora went down in Lake Superior in January, 1895. As recently as 2001, there was an effort to find her, but instead of the Chicora, the divers found the H. C. Akely.