Long-lost schooner discovered in Lake Michigan after nearly 140 years
A wooden schooner that vanished beneath the waters of Lake Michigan nearly 140 years ago has been discovered, with citizen scientists on board to share in the excitement, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
The 44-metre, three-masted F.J. King had long eluded maritime historians and shipwreck hunters. That changed at the end of June, when the Wisconsin Underwater Archeological Association (WUAA) launched a search off Baileys Harbor in Door County. Brendon Baillod, president of the WUAA, said he and fellow researcher Bob Jaeck were “dumbfounded” when the schooner’s outline suddenly appeared on sonar.
Historic find guided by old clues
The team used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and sidescan sonar to map the lakebed about 23 metres below the surface. A key clue came from an 1886 newspaper article in which a lighthouse keeper described the last sighting of the ship’s masts. Using that detail, Baillod created a two-by-two-mile search grid that led directly to the wreck.
“It was hidden in plain sight, right where it was supposed to be,” Baillod said. The discovery was considered a long shot, and the expedition’s original goal was mainly to give volunteers experience with sonar and ROV technology.
Public joins first-of-its-kind expedition
The expedition marked the first time that members of the public were able to participate in a Lake Michigan shipwreck hunt. More than a dozen citizen scientists and community historians from across the Midwest joined the WUAA over two days to experience the search first-hand.
Remarkably, the F.J. King is intact and standing upright on the lakebed, with its masts rising about six metres from the bottom. The find was reported to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archaeology Program, whose staff visited the wreck to document it and create a 3D photogrammetry model. The WUAA also plans to nominate the F.J. King for the National Register of Historic Places.
According to the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Wisconsin Water Library, an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks lie scattered across the Great Lakes – most of them still waiting to be found.
