Sunk for over 100 years, the J.C. Ames is located in Lake Michigan near Manitowoc

MANITOWOC, Wis. – Historians in Wisconsin are celebrating an exciting find in Lake Michigan after a shipwreck believed to be the J.C. Ames was located in Lake Michigan off the coast of Manitowoc last week. Christopher Thuss, who is the step-grandson of “Shipwreck Suzze,” was fishing on a foggy day when he noticed the wreckage north of the Manitowoc breakwater just nine feet below the water’s surface. Thuss reported his finding to Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen who worked in collaboration with Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association president Brendon Baillod to identify the wreck as the J.C. Ames.

“These kinds of discoveries are always so exciting because it allows a piece of lost history to resurface. It sat there for over a hundred years and then came back on our radar completely by chance,” said Thomsen, maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society. “We are grateful that Chris Thuss noticed the wreck and reported it so we can share this story with the Wisconsin communities that this history belongs to.”

Thuss’s discovery is remarkable in its own right but stretches into the extraordinary given his step-grandmother’s legacy of locating lost wrecks. "Shipwreck Suzze" Johnson, who took up the hobbies of operating a powered parachute and ultralight plane as a retiree, has incredibly discovered a variety of shipwrecks from the air in the recent past including three shipwrecks in three days in Lake Michigan in 2015.

According to the 1990 book “Green Bay Workhorses: The Nau Tug Line,” the J.C. Ames was “one of the largest and most powerful tugs on the lakes, developed 670 horsepower with her fore-and-aft compound engine…She reportedly cost $50,000 to build.” That sum would be well over a million dollars in today’s money. The ship was built by Rand & Burger of Manitowoc and was originally christened the J.C. Perrett by its first owner, the Marinette Barge Company.

The J.C. Ames was built in 1881 for the lumber trade and served a number of purposes before it was dismantled and intentionally sunk in 1923. It suffered a collision in 1889 that required repair to its stem before a new owner—the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transportation Company of Peshtigo—took possession of the ship for transporting railway cars. In addition to tugging other vessels throughout its lifetime, the J.C. Ames was used for the pulpwood trade and changed owners several times before it fell into disrepair and was eventually discarded.

The shipwreck is located within the boundary of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary designated in 2021 and comanaged by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state of Wisconsin. Maritime archaeologists with the Wisconsin Historical Society will begin the process to list the J.C. Ames on the State Register of Historic Places, the step that precedes listing to the National Register of Historic Places. Due to the wreck’s unique position in Lake Michigan, it has the potential to become a popular destination for kayaking and snorkelers.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing, or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. More information on Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks may be found by visiting Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks website.

About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active, and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.