Door County Fishermen Were Right: Lost Shipwreck Found After 139 Years

DOOR COUNTY, WI — One of Lake Michigan’s most elusive shipwrecks has finally been found after nearly 140 years.

The Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association (WUAA) announced the discovery of the schooner F.J. King, which sank during a storm off Baileys Harbor in September 1886.

The 144-foot, three-masted wooden schooner was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago when heavy seas opened her seams.

At 2 a.m., Captain William Griffin ordered his crew into the ship’s yawl boat. Moments later, they watched as the F.J. King slipped beneath the waves. The men were later rescued by the schooner La Petite and brought to safety in Baileys Harbor.

With search efforts dating back to the 1970s, including a $1,000 reward from a local dive club, the wreck was never located.

Fishermen reported snagging pieces in their nets, and even a lighthouse keeper claimed to see her masts poking through the surface. Still, searches always came up empty.

That changed on June 28, 2025, when WUAA volunteers deployed new sonar equipment near the location reported by the Cana Island lighthouse keeper in 1886, according to a news release.

Within hours, they spotted a 140-foot-long object on their screens. Remote operated vehicles soon confirmed it: the F.J. King was intact and resting in roughly 150 feet of water.

"After all the previous searches, we couldn’t believe we had actually found it, and so quickly," said principal investigator Brendon Baillod.

But discovery wasn’t just chance. Baillod had studied hundreds of old records about the F.J. King and talked with past searchers.

While many believed the wreck site had already been checked, he thought the lighthouse keeper’s report from 1886 was more reliable than the captain’s estimate made in the middle of a stormy night.

Baillod mapped out a small grid around the keeper’s description, and the schooner was found less than half a mile from that spot.

WUAA says the find is not just about solving a maritime mystery, but also about connecting the community with its history. Twenty citizen scientists and historians from across the Midwest took part in the search, even piloting ROVs to the wreck site.

A 3D photogrammetry model of the wreck is now available here. The group plans to nominate the site for the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

This is WUAA’s fifth major find in three years. Past discoveries include the schooner Trinidad in 2023 and the tug John Evenson in 2024.

"Finding an historic shipwreck brings with it a great responsibility," Baillod said. "Once a vessel has a name, a story and links to the community, it becomes a part of the community’s history and even a source of tourism."