Citizen scientists with Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association (WUAA) discover the wreck of the schooner F.J. King off the coast of Door County, 2025. (Image courtesy of WUAA)
(WTAQ-WLUK) — A 139-year-old shipwreck was discovered off the coast of Door County.
The F.J. King was one of the most highly sought ships on Lake Michigan and has been the subject of countless search efforts since the 1970s. With their remote operated vehicles, Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association (WUAA) citizen scientists and principal investigator Brendon Baillod were the first humans to lay eyes on F.J. King since it sank on Sept. 15, 1886.
The F.J. King was a 144 foot three-masted wooden schooner built in 1867 in Toledo, Ohio, by master shipwright George Rogers. She was constructed for the grain and iron ore trades and designed to engage in trans-lake commerce through the Welland Canal around Niagara Falls. The ship had a successful 19-year career before taking on a cargo of iron ore at Escanaba, Michigan, bound for Chicago. While off the Door Peninsula, she ran into a gale from the southeast with seas estimated at 8 to 10 feet, which caused her seams to open. The crew was put to the pumps but after several hours of hard labor, Captain William Griffin ordered the men to gather their belongings and get into the ship’s yawl boat. At 2 a.m. in the inky darkness, the F.J. King went down bow-first as the men pulled for shore. They watched as the ship’s stern deckhouse blew off, sending the captain’s papers 50 feet into the air. The men were picked up by the passing schooner La Petite, which took them to Baileys Harbor.
Captain Griffin filed a wreck report at the Oswegatchie Customs House where the vessel was enrolled. On it, he stated that he thought the vessel went down around five miles from shore in 25 fathoms (150 feet) of water. However, the next week, William Sanderson, keeper of the Cana Island Lighthouse, reported seeing the masts of a schooner breaking the surface nearer to shore and reported the location to a local newspaper.
The find was reported to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archaeology program, whose staff visited the wreck to document it and to create a 3D photogrammetry model. Future plans for the site include nominating it to the State and National Register of Historic Places. The location will eventually be released to the public once the site has been listed on the National Register.
This is the fifth significant shipwreck located by the WUAA in the last three years. Earlier this year, the group located the steamer L.W. Crane in the Fox River at Oshkosh and last year they located the remains of the tug John Evenson and the schooner Margaret A. Muir off Algoma. In 2023, Baillod located the fully intact remains of the schooner Trinidad in 265 feet of water ten miles off Algoma. The Trinidad and the Muir have since been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
WUAA plans to do more community-involved searches for historic underwater remains in the future and is interested in partnering with local and regional historical groups to survey submerged landscapes that tell the story of Wisconsin’s underwater history.
State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing, or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime.
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