The vessel
Show on the chart- Type
- Wooden three masted schooner barge, bulk freight, one of the largest sail vessels on the Lakes in her day
- Built
- 1877 at Huron, Ohio, by Valentine Fries, launched 9 March 1877. Also recorded as Milan or Fries Landing, Ohio.
- Size
- 227 x 36 x 16
- Gross tonnage
- 998
- Net tonnage
- 948
- Owner
- James Corrigan, Cleveland, Ohio
- Captain
- Captain John Bridges, lost with the ship
- Cargo
- Iron ore, about 1,500 tons
- Date lost
- 9 December 1900
- Cause of loss
- Storm. In tow of the steamer Iron Duke, she filled and sank in a gale.
- Lives lost
- 8
- Depth
- 75
- Registry
- Official number 125581. PHMC PASS number 36ER0331.
- PHMC site number
- 36ER0331 ( http://www.phmc.pa.gov/Preservation/ ) Sidescan Sonar Images
Position 42.17407, -80.25007 (published to arc-second precision, from the ShipwreckWorld (Jim Kennard) (42 deg 10' 26.6412" N, 80 deg 15' 0.2412" W))
Recorded location: 42.16666, -80.25
What it was
Built in 1877 on the Huron and Milan shore of Ohio by Valentine Fries, she was a big three masted schooner 227 feet long. When new her mastheads stood 103, 105 and 90 feet above the deck and she carried 21 tons of anchors and chain, and she was still counted among the largest sailing vessels on the Lakes two decades later. Like most surviving Lakes schooners she ended her career cut down to a towed bulk barge, by 1900 owned by James Corrigan of Cleveland and running iron ore from the head of the lakes.
How it was lost
On 9 December 1900, in tow of the steamer Iron Duke, she filled and foundered in a gale about nine miles off Presque Isle, taking Captain John Bridges and seven others down with her. Her wreck sat squarely in the steamer track and was reckoned a menace to navigation, and a mast thought to be hers was still standing out of the water in the summer of 1901.
Diving it
About 75 feet, rated intermediate by ShipwreckWorld. No sourced visibility or current information was found.
The wreck today
A mast believed to be hers still projected above the water in the summer of 1901 and the wreck was considered a menace to navigation, lying in the steamer track. The Regional Science Consortium holds sidescan sonar imagery of the site. No detailed modern structural description was found.