156-Year-Old Ship Found Off Algoma

Schooner Trinidad as it appears today. Photo by Tamara Thomsen and Zach Whitrock, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Maritime Historians Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck have located the intact remains of the historic Great Lakes schooner Trinidad in about 270 feet of water off the Algoma shoreline.

The Trinidad was a 140-foot schooner built at Grand Island, New York in 1867 by shipwright William Keefe. The vessel was primarily used in the grain trade between Milwaukee, Chicago and Oswego, New York. It was lost in May of 1881 shortly after passing through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal with a cargo of coal for Milwaukee. 

A three-dimensional (3-D) photogrammetry model has been created to explore the site virtually. Baillod and Jaeck will work with the Wisconsin Historical Society to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places in the near future.

The wreck is among the best-preserved shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters with the deck-house still intact, containing the crew’s possessions, anchors and deck gear still present.

To view the 3-D photogrammetry model and detailed historical information, visit shipwreckworld.com/articles/discovery-of-the-historic-great-lakes-schooner-trinidad.