By James Heinz
The schooner LUCIA A. SIMPSON was launched in 1875 in Manitowoc, Wis. She was a typical wooden, three masted ship of 227 tons displacement. She was 127 feet long, 28 feet wide, and had 4 hatches.
Unlike most of Great Lakes schooners, the SIMPSON had a long life. Like most Great Lakes schooners, it was not an uneventful life. WMHS files show that in December 1885 she was seen flying her American flag upside down, a distress signal, off Ludington, Mich. The Ludington lifesaving service launched their surfboat.
When they got to the SIMPSON, she had anchored and was completely covered in ice so thick that her captain could not weigh anchor to escape an oncoming storm. The lifesavers helped raise the anchors and their help was “warmly appreciated”, which was the only warmth happening in the middle of Lake Michigan in December.
WMHS files show that a year later the ship was observed to be dragging her anchor as she drifted toward the breakers off Manistee, Mich., while “it was blowing a hurricane…with a raging snowstorm” ten miles south of the Manistee lifesaving station, which was closed for the season.
The keeper gathered a volunteer crew and they set off to save the ship, even though “the roads were in places quite impassible, obliging the men at times to shovel their way through them.” After an exhausting 15 mile, seven hour journey they arrived at the beach at 1 am.
When daybreak came the blowing storm was so bad the ship could not be seen until 10 am, and no one was seen on her decks as she dragged her anchor towards the beach. A phone call from a nearby farmhouse summoned a tug from Manistee, which towed the SIMPSON to safety, saving her crew of seven from being stranded in the breakers.
In November 1889 while being towed out of Manistee by a tug, she hit the sand bar at the mouth of the river and was then blown over it by a storm. She dropped her anchors once she was on the lake side. Once again Manistee lifesavers rowed out to her until her tug arrived and tried to tow her back in but the seas were so bad the tug decided to continue on her way.
The black and white photograph shows her moored in the Kinnikinnic River in Milwaukee. She is on the east side of the Becher Street bridge. A nameboard is visible on her sides. The color photo shows the same location as it appears today.
The black and white photo has been misidentified in some archives as being in the Chicago River. However, the building in the background on the west bank of the river shows the distinctive markings it displayed for many years. It is now the Ebenezer Day Care Center-Bay View at 2156 South 4th Street, Milwaukee.
The SIMPSON continued to sail as late as May, 1929. She spent most of her time hauling wood, whose buoyancy helped keep her afloat and because wood was not damaged by water from her leaking hull as other cargos, such as grain, would have been.
At that time, she was caught in a gale off Algoma and towed into Kewaunee, according to Wisconsin Shipwrecks.org. Her leaking seams were caulked and she was towed to Sturgeon Bay where further repairs to her were deemed too expensive and she was abandoned in the boneyard there.
According to Wisconsin Shipwrecks.com, in 1929 the SIMPSON was the last fully rigged sailing schooner on Lake Michigan, having sailed the Lake for 54 years.
In 1931 she was bought by the Town Harbor Yacht Club of Chicago to be used as a clubhouse, like another aging schooner, the LILLY E. which was brought to Milwaukee to serve as a clubhouse for the South Shore Yacht Club, as these stories show: https://wmhs.org/bay-views-first-breakwater/ and https://wmhs.org/lily-e-and-south-shore-yacht-club-part-iv/
Possibly due to something called The Great Depression, the yacht club still owned the SIMPSON but had not moved her when a fire swept through the Sturgeon Bay boneyard on December 3, 1935, cremating the SIMPSON along with several other ships.
The fire was caused by a spark from a welder’s torch being used on the steamer E. G. CROSBY, which was named after Milwaukee ship owner Edward G. Crosby, who died on the TITANIC. https://wmhs.org/milwaukee-ship-owner-who-died-on-the-titanic-trying-to-conceal-a-sex-scandal-chapter-1/
This was the third ship to bear that name and should not be confused with the another E. G. CROSBY, which later became the famous shipwreck WISCONSIN https://wmhs.org/milwaukee-ship-owner-who-died-on-the-titanic-trying-to-conceal-a-sex-scandal-chapter-3/
A memento of the SIMPSON is the 3/16” scale model of her that hangs in the WMHS archives room.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
Photo Credit: Historical photos from the Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. Current photos by James Heinz.
