Located 12.75 miles northeast of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the Grace A. Channon (MI-0551) is located in 180 feet of water on the bottom of Lake Michigan in a bed of clay. Built in 1873, and measuring 140.7 feet in length, the Grace Channon represents a class of vessel, the canaller, traveling the longest routes of any of the trades carrying grain grown in the heartlands to the eastern cities and returning with coal to fuel the development of the Midwest.

On the evening of 2 August 1877, the propeller of the ship Favorite struck the Grace A. Channon with a heavy blow to her port side, striking between the fore and main rigging, and penetrating five feet into her hull, cutting down to the waterline. Water immediately poured in and the schooner careened. In less than five minutes from the initial collision, she started down, bow first. As she sank, her headgear and foremast canted to port so that some of her rigging was thrown across the bow of the Favorite. The weight of the sinking schooner drew the propeller down several feet before the Grace A. Channon’s masts broke.

Little historical documentation exists on canaller construction and operation. Much of our understanding of this type of vessel lays on the lakebed and comes from archaeological data recovered from wreck sites similar to the Grace A. Channon, such as the Daniel Lyons, the America, the Walter B. Allen, the Floretta, and the LaSalle.

The Grace A. Channon site, which was documented by Wisconsin Historical Society archaeologists in July 2016, has been lightly visited by divers. The site has already produced a wealth of archaeological knowledge and has the potential to yield additional important archaeological data as sands uncover more of the wreck in future years.

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.

Wisconsin Shipwrecks