After nearly a century and a half, the schooner F.J. King has finally been located in Lake Michigan, closing a chapter in maritime history that intrigued shipwreck enthusiasts for decades. Confirmed by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, this remarkable discovery places the legendary vessel near Baileys Harbor.
Constructed in 1867, the schooner disappeared during a violent storm in 1886, leaving only scattered clues and tales. This summer, maritime historian Brendon Baillod utilized sonar technology to uncover the intact hull, now encrusted with invasive mussels.
The Storm That Ended The Schooner’s Legacy
The F.J. King, built in Toledo, Ohio, was a workhorse on the Great Lakes for nearly 20 years, hauling grain, lumber, and iron ore. On its final journey on September 15, 1886, while sailing from Escanaba to Chicago, the schooner encountered fierce winds and towering 10-foot waves near Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. Despite the crew’s efforts operating the pumps, Captain William Griffin eventually ordered abandonment when the vessel’s seams began to give way.
From the lifeboat, the crew saw the schooner sink bow-first around 2 a.m., its stern deckhouse torn away by the storm, scattering Captain Griffin’s papers into the wind. Fortunately, a passing schooner rescued them, but the F.J. King vanished beneath the lake’s surface.
The Emergence of a Maritime Mystery
The exact resting place of the schooner remained elusive. Captain Griffin believed the ship sank five miles offshore, yet lighthouse keeper William Sanderson reported masts visible much closer to the shore. Fishermen occasionally recovered debris in their nets, but divers and wreck hunters could not confirm the site. Gradually, the F.J. King became known as the “ghost ship” of local lore.
Search missions from the 1970s onward were unsuccessful, even with incentives like a $1,000 reward from a Green Bay dive club. Each attempt ended without results, reinforcing its legendary status as a vessel that stubbornly eluded discovery.
Rediscovering the Schooner Nearly 140 Years Later
In 2025, maritime expert Brendon Baillod, who leads the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, reexamined the case with updated strategies. Rather than trusting Griffin’s estimates, Baillod followed detailed coordinates from Sanderson’s lighthouse report. Mapping a two-square-mile area around those points, his team employed side-scan sonar to survey the lake bottom.
On June 28, the sonar detected a 144-foot structure less than half a mile from Sanderson’s mark. Initially skeptical, the researchers soon realized they had located the schooner’s remains.
“A few of us had to pinch each other,” Baillod admitted when recalling the moment. He added : “We really wanted to solve this mystery, and we didn’t expect to.(The ship) seemed to have just vanished into thin air. … I actually couldn’t believe we found it.”
Confirmations through remotely operated vehicles showed the F.J. King astonishingly preserved — a rare find for an artifact so old.
A Time Capsule on the Lakebed
Photographs from the Wisconsin Historical Society showcase the schooner’s wheel, capstan, and deck, all intact under a coating of invasive quagga mussels. Remarkably, the hull has endured despite carrying a heavy iron ore load on its last trip. This discovery provides valuable insights for maritime historians, revealing a nearly complete 19th-century vessel resting undisturbed beneath Lake Michigan.
This find is part of a growing wave of Great Lakes shipwreck discoveries. Estimated to house between 6,000 and 10,000 shipwrecks, only a fraction have been explored or identified. Advances in technology, reduced costs, clearer waters, and passionate citizen scientists have sped up exploration, with Baillod’s team locating five wrecks over the past three years, including the schooner Trinidad in 2023 and steamer L.W. Crane in 2025.
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