.13 miles SW of Whitefish Dunes State Park, Lake Michigan

Summary

Success Shipwreck (Scow Schooner)
Lake Michigan, Sevastopol, Door County, WI
Date of Construction: 1875
Builder: Julius Johnson

The scow schooner Success (47-DR493) lies in 8 feet of water in Lake Michigan partially covered by sand in Whitefish Bay, 500 feet south of Whitefish Dunes State Park, Town of Sevastopol, Wisconsin. Nearly all hull structure, artifacts, and some rigging implements remain intact on the site beneath the shifting sand. Julius Johnson, a Norwegian foreman and spar maker at Hanson & Scove Shipyard, built Success privately in Manitowoc, Wisconsin for other Norwegian immigrants entering the Great Lakes maritime trade. She operated primarily in the Lake Michigan lumber trade her entire career.

Late in the evening on 22 November 1896, Success arrived at Whitefish Bay to pick up a load of lumber for Christen Olson, her former owner. A southwest gale was building, bringing large seas into the bay. The wind shifted to the southeast on 25 November, which brought even larger waves into the bay. From this direction it blew into Thanksgiving Day, 26 November. Success began leaking so badly that by the afternoon her pumps were unable to keep water out of the vessel. In a heroic effort, Fred Raatz in a pound boat, owned by Fred and Charles Raatz, Peter Peterson, and Ed Thompson, went out to the wreck and rescued all of Success’ crew. Her cargo was later salvaged, although, the vessel, valued at $1,000, was declared a total loss.

Today, the Success is the only known example of a scow schooner in the Great Lakes with fore-and-aft bottom hull planking, and provides historians and archaeologists the rare chance to study and document this vessel type. Interestingly, this wreck site also has a large number of artifacts not normally found with Wisconsin shipwrecks. Given that much of this wreck is covered by sand, there is the potential that more artifacts may be uncovered; these artifacts may shed light on the intra-Lake lumber trade, such as for example, day to day shipboard life. Success remains undisturbed and lightly visited.

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

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