Searchers discover shipwreck of schooner that sank in Lake Michigan almost 140 years ago

By Todd Richmond the Related Press

Madison, Wis. (AP) – After a long time of looking out the underside of Lake Michigan, seekers lastly discovered the wreck of a cargo shoeer who sank nearly 140 years in the past throughout a wild storm throughout a wild storm off the shoreline of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Historic Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Affiliation introduced on Monday {that a} workforce led by researcher Brandon Baillod discovered the wreck of the FJ King. Baillod mentioned in an e -mail to The Related Press that the wreck was found on 28 June.

Based on the announcement, the Baillod workforce discovered the ship of Bailey’s Harbor, a metropolis with round 280 individuals on the door safety of Wisconsin, a protrusion of land that caught in Lake Michigan that offers the state its distinctive mitten-dump form.

The FJ King was a 144 toes (43.89 meters), three-masted cargo shoe in-built 1867 in Toledo, Ohio, to move grain and iron ore. Based on the announcement of the Historic Society and Archaeology Affiliation, the ship got here throughout a storm of the door of the door on September 15, 1886, whereas the iron ore of Escanaba, Michigan, moved to Chicago.

Waves estimated at 8 to 10 toes (2.4 to three meters) tore her seams and after a couple of hours of pumping captain William Griffin his males ordered his males within the ship’s yawl boat. The schooner lastly fell round 2 o’clock within the morning, with the strict ornamental home of the ship away within the storm and despatched Griffin’s paper 50 toes within the air. A passing schooner picked up the crew and took them to the port of Bailey.

Searchers are looking for the FJ King for the reason that Seventies, however conflicting accounts of the situation of the ship when it dropped, pushed their efforts. Griffin reported that the ship was about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the port of Bailey, however a lighthouse keeper reported that the masts of a schooner break the floor nearer to the coast. Shipwreck -hunters shn the realm however obtained empty. Through the years, FJ King developed a fame amongst shipwreck hunters as a ghost ship.

Baillod believed that Griffin won’t know the place he was within the darkness when the ship went down. He pulled a rack of two sq. kilometers (5.17 sq. kilometers) across the location that the lighthouse keeper gave and continued looking out. Aspect scan Radar found an object of roughly 140 toes (42.6 meters) lower than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the situation of the lighthouse keeper. It turned out to be the FJ King.

“A few of us needed to squeeze one another,” Baillod mentioned within the announcement. “In spite of everything the sooner searches we couldn’t imagine that we had actually discovered it, and so quick.”

He mentioned the hull appears to be intact, shocking seekers who anticipated to seek out it in items due to the burden of the iron ore that the schooner wore.

The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Affiliation has now found 5 wrecks for the previous three years. Earlier in 2025 the group discovered the steamboat LW CRANE within the Fox River in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in addition to tugboat John Evenson and Schooner Margaret A. Muir for Algoma, Wisconsin. Baillod Discovered the Schooner Trinidad Outdoors Algoma in 2023.

Initially printed: September 15, 2025 at 12:24 pm Edt