Lake Michigan shipwreck. The wreckage of the Trinidad suggests it descended relatively slow and settled right-side up in its final resting place. Based on sonar, archeologists Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck put together this 3-D model. Image: Historical Society of Wisconsin
Canal bump, poor maintenance blamed – not weather
ALGOMA, Wis. – A 138-foot schooner that sank with a cargo of coal in 1881 has been located 10 miles off Algoma in 270 feet of water. Although at the bottom of Lake Michigan 140-some years, the wreckage is remarkably well preserved, said maritime historians Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck. They found the wreckage with side-scan sonar. Many personal possessions of the crew were in place, they said. Captain John Higgins and the crew escaped the sinking ship and rowed eight hours to Algoma. The ship went down off the main channel and 120 miles short of its destination, Milwaukee. Once ashore, Higgins reported he believed the ship had been damaged passing through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and was leaking. When pumps couldn’t keep up, the crew scuttled the vessel. Too, the Trinidad’s owners apparently had not invested well in maintenance. Higgins said he once was almost killed when a rotting spar broke off and fell on him. When it sank, the Trinidad was 14 years old.
Trinidad. In the background of this photograph at a crowded harbor. The schooner was built in 1867. Mostly it hauled grain. On the final voyage the cargo was coal.