The wreck of a ship missing for nearly 140 years was discovered by a team led by researcher Brendon Baillod, announced the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association. Known as a “ghost ship,” the F.J. King was discovered off Bailey’s Harbor in Lake Michigan in Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, reports AP News.
Built in 1867, the 144-foot three-masted cargo schooner ran into a gale on September 15, 1886 while moving iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan to Chicago. The crew evacuated and were transported to Bailey’s Harbor by a passing schooner, leaving the wreck to lie undiscovered for 139 years. Searchers have been looking for the F.J. King since the 1970s with no success, due to conflicting accounts of the ship’s location when it sank, as well as reports from fishermen claiming to have found pieces of the wreck, leading to the ship’s reputation as a ghost ship.
Baillod based his search on the report of the lighthouse keeper at the time of the shipwreck, drawing a 2-square-mile grid around the location given. The wreck was discovered by side-scan sonar less than half a mile from the lighthouse keeper’s location.
PHOTO: WISCONSIN UNDERWATER ARCHEOLOGY ASSOCIATION
