A Door County shipwreck is added to the State Register of Historic Places. Here's what to know

Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·5 min read
Part of the shipwreck Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.
Part of the shipwreck Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.

BAILEYS HARBOR - Add another shipwreck off the shores of Door County to those listed on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places.

The remains of the wreck of the Emeline, a late 19th-century lumber-carrying schooner that lies in Lake Michigan off Anclam Park in Baileys Harbor, was added to the state register by the Wisconsin Historical Society, which announced the designation Monday.

Here are a few things to know, past and present, about the Emeline.

What is the ship's history?

Originally built in Michigan in 1862, according to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, the Emeline was converted two years later into a three-masted, double-centerboard schooner and lengthened from 83 to 111.4 feet. It spent most of its career carrying lumber throughout the Great Lakes region.

On Aug. 8, 1896, the Emeline was bringing a load of tamarack bark from Charlevoix, Michigan, to a tannery in Kenosha when it was struck by a squall about 20 miles southeast of Baileys Harbor, the website says. The storm knocked the vessel over onto her starboard side, then her deck load of bark rolled off, "after which she righted herself only to capsize to her port side," the Wisconsin Shipwrecks site says.

The Emeline's crew − Capt. Adam Abrahamson, who had bought the ship just five months earlier, and three crew members − were able to launch their rescue boat and row themselves to Baileys Harbor, so no lives were lost in the wreck.

Attempts were made over the next couple of days to right the Emeline and bring her to harbor, but none were successful. The tug Sydney Smith from Sturgeon Bay tried towing it by one of the Emeline's three masts but ended up breaking the mast instead, and the schooner Nancy Dell was used to right the vessel only to have her roll back over later.

The Emeline eventually sank in 18 feet of water Aug. 22, 1896, two weeks after she initially capsized, with her gunwales, two remaining masts and spars protruding from the surface of the lake. By January of 1897, the wreckage had broken into pieces. By 1903, her masts were no longer visible, and she was declared a hazard to navigation and dynamited in September of that year.

A diagram showing an overhead view of the remains of the Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.
A diagram showing an overhead view of the remains of the Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.

How many Door County shipwrecks are historic places?

Tamara Thomsen, maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, said in an email to the Advocate that the Emeline is now the 27th Door County shipwreck on the state's historic register, out of a total of about 275 wrecks around the Peninsula.

Seventeen of the historic wrecks are listed as their own individual site − the Emeline is its own historic place, for example − while the other 10 wrecks are part of a larger historic place. Four are part of the Jacksonport Wharf Archaeological District site, three are in the Bullhead Point Historical and Archaeological District off of Sturgeon Bay, and three are part of the Pilot Island NW site.

The Emeline is not yet on the National Register of Historic Places, like the other Door County shipwrecks on the state register, but Thomsen said it has been nominated for review. She added that three more wrecks in the waters off the Peninsula are nominated for the state register, with consideration of the Boaz and the Sunshine, both in North Bay, expected at the end of May, and the Peoria off Baileys Harbor in November.

Why is the Emeline historic?

Thomsen said one of the main reasons the Emeline was placed on the state register is because of its double-centerboard construction, of which few examples from its time remain.

"A full archaeological survey of the wreck was conducted by (the historical society's) Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program archaeologists in 1996, but because of staff changes, the nomination was not completed," Thomsen said.

"In 2022 our office received a grant from Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute to examine double-centerboard schooner wrecks sites in our state, of which there are six (in Wisconsin), and only seven are known in all the Great Lakes, making the Emeline a rare example of unique ship construction not known through blueprints, but only through the archaeological record."

Divers take measurements on the remains of the Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.
Divers take measurements on the remains of the Emerline, a 19th-century logging schooner in the water off Baileys Harbor that recently was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin.

She also noted that the Sea Grant funding enabled the historical society to confirm that the hull was the Emeline. Previously, it was called the Anclam Pier Wreck.

Kay Dragan, curator and exhibits manager of the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, said the wreck is important to preserve because of the Emeline's history as a logging vessel, with both the logging and shipping industries being a huge part of the economic history of the county.

"The wreck of the Emeline is a prime example of the importance of logging and water in Wisconsin's history," Dragan said. "While it was already protected by law, having the designation on the Register of Historic Places ensures that it will be preserved and remembered for the coming generations."

Wait a sec. If it was dynamited, what's left to see?

Divers who are interested in checking out the wreck shouldn't be deterred by the fact it was dynamited almost 120 years ago. Thomsen said that was done just to flatten the hull and collapse its upright sides. Wisconsin Shipwrecks says the remains sit upright on their sandy bed with many of the hull components still intact and more beneath the sand.

Thomsen said the wreck can be reached with a short swim from Anclam Park, but visiting divers must bring a dive flag to signal their whereabouts to nearby boaters. Of course, the wreck is protected by state and federal laws, and removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts from the site is a crime.

"There is quite a bit to see on the site," Thomsen said. "Understand that dynamiting didn't obliterate the ship, it only dropped the upright sides so the wreck was no longer a hazard to navigation. Everything is still there."

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County shipwreck added to the State Register of Historic Places