140-year-old schooner F.J. King, long considered a 'ghost ship,' located in Lake Michigan
Researchers led by Brandon Baillod say the 19th-century cargo schooner was found off Bailey’s Harbor; hull appears largely intact despite iron-ore cargo
A team led by researcher Brandon Baillod located the wreck of the three-masted cargo schooner F.J. King in Lake Michigan on June 28, 2025, the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association confirmed Monday. The vessel, which sank during a violent storm on Sept. 15, 1886, had eluded searchers for decades and acquired a reputation as a “ghost ship.”
The F.J. King was discovered half a mile from a lighthouse keeper’s reported sighting after side-scan sonar revealed a large object roughly 140 feet long on the lake bottom off Bailey’s Harbor on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. Bailey’s Harbor is a small community of about 280 people that juts into Lake Michigan.
Built in Toledo, Ohio, in 1867, the F.J. King was a roughly 144-foot, three-masted cargo schooner. Contemporary accounts say the ship was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, bound for Chicago when a powerful gale struck on the night of Sept. 15, 1886. Crew logs and newspaper reports from the time describe waves as high as 10 feet breaching the hull, seams opening and water flooding the vessel.
Captain William Griffin and his crew worked to pump out the water, but the ship sank at about 2 a.m. The storm ripped away the stern deckhouse and reportedly blew Griffin’s papers some 50 feet into the air. The crew was rescued by a passing schooner and brought ashore at Bailey’s Harbor.
Conflicting contemporary reports about the location of the sinking and repeated searches since the 1970s frustrated wreck hunters. Baillod, who had been searching for the vessel for years, focused his team on a two-square-mile search area informed by a lighthouse keeper’s account. A side-scan radar contact in that area produced the sonar image that led to the identification.
"A few of us had to pinch each other," Baillod said in the announcement. "After all the previous searches, we couldn’t believe we had actually found it, and so quickly." Investigators noted the hull appears largely intact, a surprise given the heavy iron ore cargo, which many had expected would have broken the vessel apart.
The find adds to a series of recent discoveries by the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association. In the past three years the group has documented five wrecks, including the steamer L.W. Crane in the Fox River at Oshkosh earlier in 2025 and the tugboat John Evenson and the schooner Margaret A. Muir off Algoma. Baillod and colleagues previously located the schooner Trinidad off Algoma in 2023.
The Wisconsin Historical Society and partner organizations typically document and assess underwater cultural resources to determine condition, historical significance and any protection needs. The society did not immediately release detailed survey data or plans for further dives; investigators said further study will aim to verify the identification, record the site, and evaluate preservation measures. The discovery resolves a long-standing maritime mystery for local historians and contributes to the broader record of Great Lakes shipping and storm-related losses during the late 19th century.