Intact 1881 shipwreck is found in Wisconsin waters
Crew possessions well preserved in Trinidad vessel
A long-lost shipwreck has been discovered in Wisconsin waters, with details of the vessel revealed this past week by shipwreck hunters. The schooner-type vessel sank in 1881 in Lake Michigan and has been hailed as a remarkable discovery by maritime historians.
The 156-year-old Trinidad vessel was located 270 feet deep near the Algoma coast by members of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, Brendon Baillod, and Bob Jaeck, who used sonar technology to locate the vessel, based on historical records and years of research.
“Few people, if any, had ever searched for her,” Baillod said in a statement about the find. The vessel is “remarkably intact” with some of the crew’s possessions such as plates, bells, and anchors well preserved, he added.
The vessel “ticked all the boxes” as a candidate for discovery, Baillod added, because, “Her crew gave a good description of where she sank, and she went down fairly slowly in deep water so she was likely very intact. She was also fairly near to a port city for convenient access.”
The schooner — a type of sailing ship — was built in 1867 at Grand Island, N.Y., by shipbuilder William Keefe at a shipyard established specifically for its construction, according to a statement from the Wisconsin Historical Society, which detailed the find.
It was built for merchants John Keller and Aaron B. Merriam and was a “canal schooner” built to pass through the Welland Canal, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. It had features such as a lifeboat davit that folded in, so the vessel could traverse narrow waterways.
Baillod and Jaeck discovered the Trinidad in July using sonar technology after two years of archival research, studying historical news articles and records as well as shipping lanes and nautical charts to narrow down the search area.
Baillod said when he and Jaeck first imaged the wreck, “It appeared as little more than an indistinct smudge” on their screen and they “almost missed it.” But a second, slower speed search allowed them to “clearly see that they had discovered a shipwreck.”
They took their findings to underwater archeologist Tamara Thomsen of the Wisconsin Historical Society, who arranged for the site to be surveyed with an underwater vehicle and successfully identified it as the Trinidad vessel.
The discovery team have constructed “a 3-D photogrammetry model of the wreck” using 3,600 high resolution images taken during a technical dive, and the model can be viewed virtually by the public.
The Trinidad was 140 feet long with two masts and had “unusually large and well-appointed accommodations for her day,” according to Baillod. It likely hauled coal from New York and returned with Midwest grain, traveling between Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, and Oswego, N.Y.
“The grain trade was extremely lucrative, and the Trinidad made a fortune for her owners, making hundreds of trips during her career,” he said.
But the vessel’s upkeep fell below standards as “the owners did not invest much money” into it, the Wisconsin Historical Society said, adding that “the hull was leaky” and “the captain was nearly killed by a block that fell from the decaying wire rigging.”
Insurance records show that the vessel was worth $22,000 in 1867, but her value had dropped by half by 1878, Baillod said.
‘Few people, if any, had ever searched for her.’
BRENDON BAILLOD, Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, after discovering the Trinidad
The schooner’s final voyage was May 11, 1881, down the coast of Wisconsin toward Milwaukee, where the vessel began to fill with water about 4:45 a.m. “As that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence . . . [it] continued on course until the vessel suddenly and violently lurched and began to sink,” Baillod said.
The emergency prompted Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight to jump ship, arriving to Algoma after rowing for eight hours in the ship’s small yawl boat. The only loss, according to the group’s statement “was the ship’s mascot, a large Newfoundland dog who was asleep next to the stove when the ship began to sink.”
“Most of the men didn’t have their coats or rain gear and were quickly chilled,” Baillod said. But locals “revived the frozen crew and gave them food and dry clothes before the crew caught the schooner J.B. Merrill, which took them to Chicago.”
The historians have not yet shared the ship’s exact location, to ensure the fragile wooden hull and historical artifacts remain safe. However, they said they plan to nominate the Trinidad for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, to “bring greater visibility to the site,” calling it “an important part of the community history of Algoma and the surrounding area.”
After the site has been fully documented, the location will also be made public so technical divers can visit, they added.