By Carl Eisenberg
As more people were getting their vaccine shots, lessening the chance of catching the virus, it seemed to be a good time to accept the Wisconsin Historical Society’s invitation to visit historic markers noting shipwrecks off Milwaukee County.
Let me confess, right off the bat, the invitation was on the Society’s website, open to all who wished to accept it. The Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology team encourages everyone to visit and enjoy a little history about the state’s submerged archaeological sites.
So one day this month, a friend and I visited two Wisconsin Historical Maritime Markers.
Our first stop was Atwater Park in Shorewood. Few people were around. The sky was gray, the temperature in the low sixties. Two Red-winged Blackbirds were calling each other against a background of happy children’s voices from the nearby playground.
Up a slope from the Lake Michigan beach stands a marine-colored, waist-high marker on the edge of a walkway. Besides me and my companion the only other person in sight was an intrepid surfer near the shore of the great gray-green lake.
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“Just 150 yards from here, in 20 feet of water, lies the Appomattox, the largest wooden steamer ever to sail the Great Lakes, possibly the world,” the marker reads. “Her builder, Captain James Davidson, pushed the limits of wooden shipbuilding techniques to 320 feet well after steel ships had become the
norm . . . ” The marker says that his ships, called “Davidson’s Goliaths,” successfully competed with their steel peers.
The marker is at the north end of Atwater, easily reached from the northbound lane of N. Lake Dr., just beyond the intersection with E. Capitol Dr.
I learned that the Appomattox was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine, could carry 3,000 tons of ore, and tow a barge with another 5,000 tons.
The marker’s text is printed over photos of the watery grave site. There’s a picture of what appears to the ribbing of the ship. A propeller. The ship’s bilge, keel and port-side hull remain intact, the marker states.
On November 2, 1905, the Appomattox was towing the barge Santiago loaded with coal, approaching Milwaukee. “A blinding mixture of fog and industrial smoke from the city engulfed the vessels, and they ran aground” off what is now Atwater Beach.
There’s more to the story of the sinking and the ship. Fortunately there was no loss of life. I encourage you to visit the marker and reflect on what happened all those years ago.
A photo of Captain Davidson shows him sporting a full mustache and beard and what appears to be a Victorian cravat with a studded stick pin under a vest and jacket.
The marker tantalizes the viewer with the comment that “Seasonally marked” by a mooring buoy, “the Appomattox is often visible from the surface.” It was not visible the day I visited.
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Bender Park at the east end of Ryan Road in Oak Creek is the location of the second marker we visited. It overlooks a small inner harbor. The placard commemorates the wreck of the schooner Lumberman. She was a three-masted, wood ship built in 1862 and rebuilt in 1889. The 126-foot ship sank April 7, 1893.
A bit more wind here made a nearby flag pole clang. Ducks swam in the boat launching area behind the breakwater. The lake was the same gray-green color here, but there also was a patch in a beautiful light shade of blue. Nearby, white smoke rose from the Oak Creek power plant.
The marker notes that the well-preserved ship lies four miles offshore, sixty feet beneath the surface of the lake. “For three decades, the three-masted wooden schooner hauled lumber, barrel staves, railroad ties, and other forest products from isolated towns on Lake Michigan to the hungry markets of Chicago,” the marker reads.
The story is that on April 6, 1893, Captain Orin Vose was sailing to a northern port to pick up his first load of the season. “Suddenly, fierce southwest winds slammed into the ship. The crew frantically tried to shorten sail, but the winds were too strong.” She capsized and sank, largely intact. According to the marker, this was Vose’s first trip in command of the schooner.
As the Lumberman settled on the bottom, Vose and his crew clambered to the top of the rigging above water. A passing steamer rescued the mariners three hours later.
Returning to our car for the ride home, we met a father and his son arriving to celebrate the man’s 81st birthday. The man was carrying a pack of beer.After reading the marker, it’s nice to think that maybe they toasted the memory of Captain Vose and his crew who survived nearly one-hundred and twenty-eight years ago.
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The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program is “dedicated to preserving Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks and other underwater non-renewable cultural resources, according to the Society’s website. The program was created in 1988 in response to the passage of the U.S. Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987. The website states that the “act gave the state the responsibility to manage abandoned historic shipwrecks in state waters. The Program became an active research unit of the State Archaeology Program.”
Divers, snorkelers, boaters, maritime enthusiasts and tourists are encouraged to visit and enjoy Wisconsin’s diverse collection of maritime resources, the Society writes on its website. “A collaborative effort between the Wisconsin Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sea Grant Institute, the Maritime Trails initiative seeks to document, preserve and protect the state’s submerged archaeological sites.”
I encourage everyone to accept the Society’s invitation. Visiting the sites was educational and fun. The chance to reflect on another age was an added gift.
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Photo at top: Maritime marker at Atwater Park, Shorewood, Wisconsin. Photo Credit: Carl Eisenberg
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Carl Eisenberg’s experience at the Atwater marker:
Resource material:
Wisconsin Historical Society Historical Markers
Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Preservation Program
Wisconsin Shipwrecks
Carl Eisenberg is a sailor and birdwatcher, and served as president of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society from 2016 – 2024. A retired pediatrician, he is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine. He lives in Mequon, Wis.
