‘Ghost ship’ discovered at bottom of Lake Michigan 139 years after sinking

A “ghost ship” that sank in Lake Michigan nearly 140 years ago and eluded several search efforts over the past five decades has been found, according to researchers with the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association.

The wooden schooner got caught in a storm in the dead of night and went down in September 1886. In the weeks after, a lighthouse keeper reported the ship’s masts breaking the ocean surface, and fishermen caught pieces of the vessel in their nets. Still, wreck hunters were unable to track down the ship’s location — until now.

Earlier this year, a team of researchers with the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association and Wisconsin Historical Society located the shipwreck off the coastal town of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, the association announced on Sunday.

Named the F.J. King, the ship had become a legend within the Wisconsin wreck hunter community for its elusive nature, said maritime historian Brendon Baillod, principal investigator and project lead of the discovery.

“We really wanted to solve this mystery, and we didn’t expect to,” Baillod told CNN. “(The ship) seemed to have just vanished into thin air. … I actually couldn’t believe we found it.”

The wreck is just one of many that have been found in the Great Lakes in recent years, and there are still hundreds left to be recovered in Lake Michigan alone, according to Baillod.

The ‘ghost ship’

Built in 1867, the F.J. King plied the waters of the Great Lakes for the purpose of trans-lake commerce. The ship transported grains during a time when Wisconsin served as the breadbasket of the United States. The 144-foot-long (44-meter) vessel also carried cargo including iron ore, lumber and more.

The ship had a lucrative 19-year career until that September night when a gale-force wind caused its seams to break apart, according to the announcement. The captain, William Griffin, ordered the crew to evacuate on the ship’s yawl boat, from where they watched the F.J. King sink, bow first.

Over the years, many wreck hunters have tried to uncover the ship’s location based on reports from the captain but were unsuccessful. Within the Great Lakes communities, word of the ghost ship spread until it became a local legend. About two decades ago, Neptune’s Dive Club in Green Bay even issued a $1,000 reward for the ship’s discovery, according to the announcement.

Around the same time, Baillod also became aware of this mystery. He began to investigate the original records of the ship’s sinking and came across the missing evidence needed to track down the vessel: a local newspaper article from one week after the ship’s demise featuring an account from a local lighthouse keeper, William Sanderson.

In the article, Sanderson reported the location of the ship, so that other sailors could steer clear of the protruding masts.

Baillod, who is also the current president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, marked down the location on a map and drew a 2-square-mile (5.2-square-kilometer) grid around the point of interest. Baillod’s team, including 20 citizen scientists, located the shipwreck on June 28 using sonar technology less than half a mile (0.8 meter) away from the location Sanderson had indicated.

The team had not expected to find the legendary shipwreck right away. But when the image of the vessel with a “remarkably intact” hull appeared on the screen after their second pass of the area, the crew recognized the wreckage immediately and cheered. The team then sent two remotely operated vehicles about 120 to 130 feet (36.5 to 50 meters) underwater to confirm that it was the F.J. King.

“We thought others had probably looked there, but apparently we were the first,” Baillod said. “And our citizen science members … were the first human beings to lay eyes on this ship since 1886. It was amazing.”

Ric Mixter, a shipwreck researcher who has authored books and produced documentaries on wrecks in the Great Lakes, said the discovery of a shipwreck in such great condition is “thrilling.” Mixter was not involved with the find.

“I think there’s a lot of secrets down there that (tell us) about what the era was like. … it’s amazing to have something that has been untouched, and we may be able to get some details from it,” said Mixter, who is also a board member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. “And the fact that they brought in novice explorers and archeologists to work with them, to get them excited about shipwrecks, is more important, I think, than the King is.”

It’s not surprising, Mixter said, that the lighthouse keeper had a better idea of where the ship was than the captain who was on board before it sank, as sailors facing big storms are often more focused on getting everyone off the ship and surviving.

A seabed of shipwrecks

The Great Lakes have the most shipwrecks per square mile among all bodies of water in the world, largely due to the high shipping traffic in the 19th century and the lake’s volatile weather. Researchers know about the wrecks because reporting any commercial ship that sails on the lakes is required; from the early 19th century to the 20th century, about 40,000 ships sailed the Great Lakes, Baillod said.

There are about 6,000 commercial vessels on the seabed of the Great Lakes, lost to storms or other issues. In Lake Michigan alone, there are over 200 shipwrecks waiting to be discovered, according to Baillod, who has created a database of these ships over the past three decades.

Wrecks in the Great Lakes have been found since the 1960s, but in recent years the rate of these finds has accelerated greatly, in part due to media attention, clearer waters and better technology, Baillod said. Some wreck hunters and media outlets call this the golden age for shipwreck discoveries.

“There’s a lot more shipwreck awareness now on the Great Lakes, and people are looking down in the water at what’s on the bottom,” he added. Part of the reason it’s easier to see in the water is thanks to quagga mussels — an invasive species that was introduced in the 1990s. The mollusks have filtered most of the lakes, turning them from their old greenish hue, which allowed for only a few feet of visibility, to clear blue. Now, the lakes have visibility of up to 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30.5 meters), Baillod explained.

“Tourism has popped up around paddle boarding and kayaking, and these shipwrecks are visible from the surface because the water is so clear,” he added.

And then there are advancements in technology. “Side-scan sonar used to cost $100,000 back in 1980,” he said. “The one we used to find this (shipwreck) was just over $10,000. They’ve really come down in price.”

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has a project in the works to map the bottom of the Great Lakes in high resolution by 2030. If the organization succeeds, all shipwrecks will be found, Baillod said.

In the meantime, Baillod said he hopes he and his team will continue to discover missing shipwrecks from his database in the coming years and bring along citizen scientists for the ride: “I keep looking, and I don’t doubt that we’ll keep finding.”

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