DOOR COUNTY, WI – A Lake Michigan shipwreck off Door County that was missing for almost 140 years until found in June 2025 was named to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. The very intact remains of the wreck of the F.J. King, a three-masted canal schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off Door County in 1886 and remained missing for almost 140 years, were placed March 11, 2026, on the State Register of Historic Places by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The Wisconsin Historical Society announced March 11 that the wreck of the 144-foot-long, three-masted schooner F.J. King, which sank in 1886, is now listed on the state register, making it the 34th shipwreck in waters off Door County named to the register. It lies submerged in about 140 feet of water in Lake Michigan off Baileys Harbor and Liberty Grove.
The shipwreck is historically significant because the remains are a very intact example of a shipping vessel unique to the Great Lakes, a news release from the historical society said. The listing for the F.J. King on the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website says the wreck already has been a source of information on wooden schooner construction of the time and should continue to provide maritime archaeological information.
The F.J. King was constructed as a double-masted vessel in 1867 by master shipbuilder George R. Rogers in Toledo, Ohio, to service the coal and grain trade between Lake Michigan and the lower Great Lakes. It underwent several ownership changes during its service, homeporting in Chicago and then New York, and in 1885, the year before it sank, had a third mast added and was adapted for the lumber and iron ore trades.
It was what was called a “canal schooner” or “canallers,” a type of vessel unique to the Great Lakes because it was designed to transit the locks of the Welland Canal that bypassed Niagara Falls while carrying the maximum amount of cargo through the locks with only inches to spare. The canallers generally sailed from Lake Michigan ports with grain from the Midwest and brought it to eastern ports on Lakes Erie and Ontario, then returned to Lake Michigan with coal to heat cities and power factories.
The F.J. King sank Sept. 15, 1886, while carrying iron ore south from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago when it was hit by a southeastern gale that raised waves of 8 to 10 feet, according to an article on the Shipwreck World website. The hull split seams and started leaking, and the ship’s pumps could not keep up with the incoming water. Other efforts over several hours to keep it afloat failed. Capt. William Griffin and crew escaped in the ship’s yawl before the King sank bow-first at about 2 a.m. The crew later were picked up by the schooner La Petite.
The location of the wreck’s remains were unknown, though, and finding it became something of a Holy Grail for maritime archaeologists and shipwreck enthusiasts, the Shipwreck World site said in its story, with diving clubs offering rewards for its discovery.
After 139 years, the F.J. King was found in June 2025 when a citizen science class held on the water by Brendon Baillod, president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, to learn remote sonar operation detected a sunken vessel that subsequently was determined to be the King. The site was documented by Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archaeologists and volunteers in August and October 2025. It has not been visited by divers outside of the initial surveys.
State and federal laws protect the wreck of the F.J. King. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. For more information on the King and other shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters, visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org.
Remains of F.J. King. [Wisconsin Historical Society]
