Located 1.5 miles northeast of the Manitowoc Breakwater Light, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the tug Arctic lies in 10-15 feet of water in Lake Michigan and is partially covered by sand. The Arctic was built in the Rand & Burger shipyard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The tug was commissioned for the Goodrich Transportation Company to aid their passenger/packet steamers and keep navigational channels open during the winter.

The vessel was in service for 49 years, but with age came more maintenance and repair costs. It was decided that the tug was not worth keeping in service and it was stripped and beached north of Manitowoc Harbor. Today, the Arctic provides historians and archaeologists the rare chance to study and document this vessel type.

The Manitowoc Herald-Times paid homage to the tug in an article saying, “to recount the items of service this craft has rendered throughout its life, would fill volumes-- its responses to the four blasts of vessels on the lake in need of help; its assistance to grounded boats; its welcome stream of water on dock property being destroyed by flames; its charges into ice jams that threatened destruction of boats and bridges; and breaking of ice that enabled navigation to continue—all are legion in number, and no man can recount them all.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove or structure when visitng this site. Removing, defacing 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