The Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from Duluth, Minn., to iron works near several Great Lakes ports. She sank during a Lake Superior storm on Nov. 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. Great Lakes Marine Collection – MPL/WMHS
We Preserve and Share
Great Lakes Marine History
The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society is a passionate and dedicated non-profit organization committed to preserving the rich history of the Great Lakes. With a membership of 150 individuals, we are proud to be affiliated with the esteemed Milwaukee Public Library.
Uncover Hidden Treasures
The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society boasts an extensive and diverse collection that encapsulates the true essence of Great Lakes marine history. From the early settlers and fur traders to the bustling steamships and iconic lighthouses, each artifact tells a unique story waiting to be unlocked. Immerse yourself in the beauty, magnificence, and hardships of our maritime past.
The Angeline making her way under the Wells Street bridge of the Milwaukee River.
Great Lakes Marine Collection – MPL/WMHS
November 10, 1975
November 10, 1975. The day the EDMUND FITZGERALD was lost along with her captain and crew. One of those historic moments where you will always remember what you were doing when you heard the news.
The EDMUND FITZGERALD was built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works at River Rouge, Michigan, and launched on June 7, 1958. The “Big Fitz” was christened by Elizabeth Bacon Fitzgerald, wife of the ships namesake. Over 10,000 people were there for the launching and over 900 workers were involved with the construction which cost $8.4 million. The FITZ was the largest ship ever to be launched sideways.
Continue reading here
Once There Were Many, Now There are None
By James Heinz
There is an old saying in the shipping business: “The ship doesn’t make any money while it is tied to the dock.” The bulk carriers of the Great Lakes could be loaded with iron ore quickly by using the oldest machine mankind has ever used to move things: Gravity.
That left the problem of how to get the ore out of the ship’s hold. Originally ships were unloaded by men who shoveled the ore into wheelbarrows. It took five days to unload 400 tons by hand. Meanwhile the ship wasn’t making any money tied to the dock. A better solution was supplied by engineer George Hulett, who saw how long it took to unload ships in his home city of Ashtabula, Ohio. His solution: The Hulett unloader.
They were huge machines that looked like monsters from a sci-fi movie. To describe exactly how they worked would take half a page. Their size and operation can best be understood by viewing the attached photos and diagram and by viewing videos of them in operation on You Tube.
About 80 Huletts were built between 1898 and 1954. Almost all were used on the Great Lakes except one in New York City that unloaded garbage. Most were built on Lakes Erie and Michigan. They grew in capacity from 10 to 20 tons and could unload as much as 1,000 tons an hour. The Huletts made it feasible and economical for Great Lakes shippers to builder bigger and bigger bulk carriers and for the steel industry to greatly increase production.
They weighed as much as 1,500 tons. At first powered by steam, they eventually used electricity. They drew so much electricity that when they were in use, they caused the lights in town to dim, and each dock required its own electrical power plant.
Starting in the 1980s the Huletts began to be replaced by self-unloading rigs carried on the ships themselves. This reduced the ship’s total cargo capacity. A ship that had previously taken 18-24 hours to unload using a Hulett unloader could be unloaded in six hours. The quicker turnaround time more than made up for the reduced load. No longer did the ship not make money while tied to the dock. It also enabled ships to unload in any port, whether it had Hulett unloaders or not.
The last Hulett unloaded its last cargo on December 15, 1992, at Whiskey Island in Cleveland. Ohio. The last two Hulett’s at Whiskey Island lingered disassembled for several years due to efforts to preserve them as monuments of industrial engineering but in 2024 Port Cleveland decided to sell them for scrap.
Once there were many, now there are none.
Discover the rich marine history of the Great Lakes.
Officers 2025
- President: Todd Gordon
- Vice President: Christopher Winters
- Secretary: Janyce T. Hetzel
- Treasurer: Nancy Carpenter
- Executive Director: Suzette J. Lopez
- Past President: Carl Eisenberg
- Milwaukee Public Library Special Collections Coordinator: Kirsten Thompson
Newsletter
- Soundings Editor: Kathie Uttech Gordon
Events
May 18, 2026 - Treasures of the Great Lakes - Milwaukee Public Library - 11:30 - 12:30 - FREE - What Rests on the Bottom Off Milwaukee - Guest Speaker Jim Heinz
Treasures of the Great Lakes
Monday, May 18
11:30 am-12:30 pm
Milwaukee Central Library
814 W. Wisconsin Ave.
First Floor Meeting Room – Wisconsin Avenue Rotunda just right of the elevator
FREE
Join us for an interactive PowerPoint
What Rests on the Bottom Off Milwaukee – Guest speaker Jim Heinz
Learn about a ghost ship, the TITANIC of the Great Lakes, a fireboat on fire and a plague ship on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
CANCELED. WILL BE RESCHEDULED LATER IN THE YEAR. Treasures of the Great Lakes - Milwaukee Public Library - 11:30 am - FREE - Whalebacks
Treasures of the Great Lakes
TO BE RESCHEDULED LATER IN THE YEAR
11:30 am-12:30 pm
Milwaukee Central Library
814 W. Wisconsin Ave.
First Floor Meeting Room – Wisconsin Avenue Rotunda just right of the elevator
FREE
Join us for an interactive PowerPoint
Whalebacks – “You call that dam thing a boat – why it looks more like a pig!”
May 20, 2026 - Book Club - 7 pm - ZOOM
The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd
By Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
Email wmhs59@gmail.com to register
“[A] striking, thoroughly researched depiction of just how much persistence and inventiveness it took for a woman in Colonial America to retain security and dignity over the course of her life.” —Christian Science Monitor
Few know that Captain Kidd, one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the seas, had an accomplice, a behind-the-scenes player who enabled his plundering and helped him outpace his enemies. That accomplice was his wife, Sarah Kidd, whose extraordinary life is a lesson in reinvention and resourcefulness. Twice widowed by twenty-one and a successful New York merchant in her own right, Sarah secretly aided and abetted her husband, fighting alongside him against his accusers. Marshaling in newly discovered primary source documents, historian and journalist Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos reconstructs Sarah’s extraordinary life, uncovering a rare example of the kind of life that pirate wives lived during the Golden Age of Piracy. This landmark work in women’s history weaves together the personal and the epic in a sweeping story of romance and adventure.
May 21, 2026 - Private Tour of DESCO Corporation - 7-8:30 pm
Private Tour of the DESCO Corporation
Thursday, May 21, 2026 – 7:00 – 8:30 pm
2450 S. Commerce Drive, New Berlin, Wis
MUST REGISTER by May 18th – email wmhs59@gmail.com
June 15, 2026 - Treasures of the Great Lakes - Milwaukee Public Library - 11:30 am - FREE - Milwaukee's Fireboats - Guest speaker Jim Heinz
Treasures of the Great Lakes
Monday, June 15
11:30 am-12:30 pm
Milwaukee Central Library
814 W. Wisconsin Ave.
First Floor Meeting Room – Wisconsin Avenue Rotunda just right of the elevator
FREE
Join us for an interactive PowerPoint
Milwaukee’s Fireboatts – Guest speaker Jim Heinz
Hear the story of the boats that kept Milwaukee safe, including the one that does so today.
June 24, 2026 - Book Club - 7 pm - ZOOM
Email wmhs59@gmail.com to register
The Sea Captain’s Wife: A true story of mutiny, love, and adventure at the bottom of the world
The true story of the first female captain of a merchant ship and her treacherous navigation of Antarctica’s deadly waters, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot
Summer, 1856
Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Patten and her husband, Joshua, were young and ambitious. Both from New England seafaring families, they had already completed their first clipper-ship voyage around the world with Joshua as captain. If they could win the race to San Francisco that year, their dream of building a farm and a family might be within reach. It would mean freedom. And the price of that freedom was one last dangerous transit―into the most treacherous waters in the world.
As their ship, Neptune’s Car, left New York Harbor and sailed down the jagged coast of South America, Joshua fell deathly ill and was confined to his bunk, delirious. The treacherous first mate, confined to the brig for insubordination, was agitating for mutiny. With no obvious option for a new captain and heartbroken about her husband, Mary Ann stepped into the breach and convinced the crew to support her, just as they slammed into a gale that would last 18 days. Determined to save the ship, the crew, and their future, she faces down the deadly waters of Drake’s Passage.
Set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush and taking us to the brink of Antarctica, The Sea Captain’s Wife finally gives Mary Ann Patten―the first woman to command a merchant vessel as captain ― her due. Mazzeo draws on new archival research from nineteenth-century women’s maritime journals and on her own expedition to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in search of Mary Ann’s route. Thrilling, harrowing, and heroic, The Sea Captain’s Wife is the story of one woman who, for love, would do what was necessary to survive.