Searchers locate wreck of 1886 schooner F.J. King off Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula
Wisconsin Historical Society and underwater archaeologists say the three-masted cargo schooner was found intact after nearly 140 years on the bottom of Lake Michigan
A team led by researcher Brandon Baillod has located the wreckage of the F.J. King, a three-masted cargo schooner that sank in a storm on Lake Michigan almost 140 years ago, the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association announced Monday.
The wreck was discovered June 28 less than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the site reported by a local lighthouse keeper near Bailey's Harbor on the Door Peninsula, the organizations said. The F.J. King, built in 1867 in Toledo, Ohio, measured about 144 feet (43.9 meters) and was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago when it ran into a gale on Sept. 15, 1886.
Contemporary accounts say waves estimated at 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 meters) ruptured the ship’s seams. After several hours of pumping, Captain William Griffin ordered the crew into the ship’s yawl boat. The schooner sank bow-first around 2 a.m., and onlookers reported the stern deckhouse being blown away in the storm and Griffin’s papers being tossed about 50 feet into the air. A passing schooner rescued the crew and landed them at Bailey’s Harbor.
Searchers have sought the F.J. King since the 1970s, but conflicting descriptions of where the schooner went down hampered efforts. Griffin reported the ship sank about 5 miles (8 kilometers) off Bailey’s Harbor, while a lighthouse keeper said he had seen a schooner’s masts breaking the surface much closer to shore. The differing accounts contributed to the vessel’s reputation among wreck hunters as a ‘‘ghost ship.’’
Baillod said he drew a two-square-mile (5.17 square-kilometer) grid around the lighthouse keeper’s reported location and began systematic sonar searches. Side-scan sonar revealed an object measuring roughly 140 feet (42.6 meters) in length. Team members identified the target as the F.J. King.
“After all the previous searches, we couldn't believe we had actually found it, and so quickly,” Baillod said in a written announcement. He and his colleagues reported that the hull appears largely intact, a finding that surprised them given the heavy iron ore cargo the schooner was carrying when it sank.
The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said the discovery adds to a string of recent finds. In the past three years the association has documented five wrecks, including the steamer L.W. Crane in the Fox River at Oshkosh and the tugboat John Evenson and schooner Margaret A. Muir off Algoma in 2025. Baillod located the schooner Trinidad off Algoma in 2023.
Freshwater conditions in the Great Lakes are known to slow decay compared with saltwater environments, aiding preservation of wooden hulls and artifacts, and researchers said the intact state of the F.J. King could provide information about 19th-century ship construction and iron-ore transport on the lakes. The Wisconsin Historical Society and the underwater archaeology association did not announce plans for excavation or artifact recovery and did not release detailed site coordinates.
The Door Peninsula, a narrow landform that projects into Lake Michigan and gives Wisconsin its mitten-thumb outline, has a long history of maritime traffic and storms that have produced numerous wrecks. The discovery of the F.J. King adds to the documented maritime heritage of the region and provides researchers with another well-preserved example of a mid-19th-century Great Lakes cargo schooner.
The Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said they will continue to study the site and coordinate any future work with state preservation authorities and maritime archaeologists.