Principal investigator Brendon Baillod led the project, in which 20 citizen scientists and community historians from around the Midwest got to participate directly in the discovery of an historic shipwreck. WUAA chartered the tour vessel The Shoreline from the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands in order to share the experience of searching for a lost ship with the larger community.

Missing for 139 years, the F.J. King was one of the most highly sought lost ships on Lake Michigan and had been the subject of many search efforts since the 1970s. Green Bay based Neptune’s Dive Club had even issued a $1000 reward for its discovery. She had developed a reputation as something of a ghost ship due to her elusiveness. Area commercial fisherman claimed to bring up pieces of her in their nets and the local lighthouse keeper claimed to have seen her masts breaking the surface, but when wreckhunters scoured the area, they continually came up empty-handed. The WUAA group consequently considered the discovery a long shot and were mostly focused on learning about sidescan sonar and remote operated vehicle (ROV) technology.

The F.J. King was a 144-foot three-masted wooden schooner built in 1867 at 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. She had a very successful 19-year career before taking on a cargo of iron ore at Escanaba, Michigan, bound for Chicago. When 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 spent several hours trying to save the vessel, but were ordered to escape by Capt. William Griffin. The men were picked up by the passing schooner La Petite, which took them to Baileys Harbor.

The find was reported to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archeology program, whose staff visited the wreck to document it and to create a 3D photogrammetry model. The location will eventually be released to the public once the site has been listed on the National Register.