Historians Set the Record Straight on This Misidentified 155-Year-Old Shipwreck in Lake Michigan
For years, experts thought a wreck near Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, was the “Christina Nilsson.” Recently, they realized it’s actually the “Joseph Cochrane,” which sank in 1870
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Call it a case of mistaken identity: A shipwreck found in Lake Michigan turned out to be a different vessel than historians initially thought.
Now, the wreck is being relisted on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places with the correct name, the Wisconsin Historical Society announced. Historians are also taking steps to get the wreck relisted on the National Register of Historic Places, reports the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Christopher Clough.
The shipwreck in question is submerged near the Wisconsin town of Baileys Harbor, not far from the Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse. For years, historians thought the wreck was the Christina Nilsson, a 139-foot-long three-masted cargo schooner that sank in 1884.
Recently, however, they realized they were wrong. They’ve now determined the wreck is the Joseph Cochrane, a 131-foot-long Great Lakes cargo schooner that sank in 1870.
“Research of historic shipwrecks is never really finished,” writes Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, in a Facebook post. “There is always something to learn, and an opportunity to correct misinformation.”
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Historians based the new identification on the shipwreck’s location, dimensions, historic newspaper accounts and a newly discovered insurance claim form for the Christina Nilsson, per the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
An independent researcher recently found an article about the insurance claim while working on a book project. On the form, an adjuster had written that the Christina Nilsson’s wreckage was located on the northeast side of Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse. The wreck that turned out to be the Joseph Cochrane, meanwhile, was located on the lighthouse’s southwest side.
The Joseph Cochrane rests on the lake floor submerged under ten to 15 feet of water. The wreck is 563 feet from the lighthouse, which is known as the “Bird Cage.”
Built near Rochester, New York, the schooner launched in 1856, according to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks database. Throughout its 14-year life, the vessel hauled various kinds of cargo, including corn, wheat, lumber and coal. It also endured at least four collisions and sinkings as it sailed across the Great Lakes, mainly between Buffalo and Chicago.
On the night of October 23, 1870, the Joseph Cochrane was sailing in northern Lake Michigan with a load of lumber. As the ship pushed through stormy weather, it sprang a leak. Initially, crew members tried to pump out the water. But the next morning, Captain Charles Anderson decided to steer the ship toward the shelter of Baileys Harbor.
However, Anderson made a navigational error and the vessel got stuck on a reef. The crew was stranded on the vessel until the morning of October 25, when water levels receded enough for another boat to rescue them.
“Efforts were made for three days to save the vessel, but winds continued to batter the ship, and it was ultimately abandoned,” according to the Wisconsin Historical Society announcement.
Within a week, the Joseph Cochrane had sunk beneath the surface. But some of its valuable cargo washed ashore, and another schooner was able to recover roughly 100,000 feet of lumber.
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The owners did not have insurance for the Joseph Cochrane. When they determined the ship could not be salvaged, they surrendered its registration on June 30, 1871.
Maritime archaeologists with the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association surveyed the Joseph Cochrane wreck in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2021, per the Wisconsin Shipwreck database. It’s submerged 11 to 15 feet deep, with its stern facing the shore. The remains are “well preserved,” with the lower hull still intact. Since a lot of water moves through the area, invasive quagga mussels haven’t been able to overtake the wreck.
The Christina Nilsson, meanwhile, was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1871. The vessel transported grain and iron across the Great Lakes until it sank amid a storm on October 24, 1884. All eight crew members survived.
Historians say they still haven’t positively identified the wreck of the Christina Nilsson, because its remains are scattered across the lakebed, per the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Pieces of at least one other wreck have also been found in the same area, so researchers need more time to figure out which fragments belong to the Christina Nilsson.
