8.0 miles SE of the Sheboygan harbor, in Lake Michigan

Summary

Robert C. Pringle Shipwreck (Tug)
8.0 miles SE of the Sheboygan Harbor entrance, in Lake Michigan, Town of Wilson, Sheboygan County
Builder: Manitowoc Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company
Date of Construction: 1903

Located 8.0 miles southeast of the Sheboygan harbor entrance, in the town of Wilson, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, in Lake Michigan, are the remains of the converted tug Robert C. Pringle lies in 287 feet of water. Robert C. Pringle was launched as the Chequamegon at Manitowoc Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1903 to run an excursion route for the Chequamegon Bay Transportation Company between Washburn, Bayfield, Ashland and Madeline Island. The steamer was built to carry package freight and customers servicing summer resorts around the Apostle Islands in the summer months.

In 1904, Chequamegon was moved to Lake Michigan and began carrying passengers from Milwaukee to Pabst’s Whitefish Bay Park, and in the fall, the vessel would carry passengers and fruit from Benton Harbor, Michigan to Milwaukee. In 1907, the vessel was purchased by the Traverse Bay Transportation Company, and was moved to a route between Traverse City and Charlevoix, Michigan, continuing in the fruit trade in the fall. In 1911, the vessel began to operate between Milwaukee, Port Washington, and various Michigan ports for the Pere Marquette line, as Pere Marquette 7. In early 1918, the vessel was sold to the Pringle Barge line and was taken to Lake Erie for an overhaul.

The vessel was relaunched as a tugboat, having its passenger accommodations removed and adding a towing bit in the stern. The vessel was renamed Robert C. PringleI in October 1918. As a lake tug, Robert C. Pringle operated throughout the Great Lakes towing vessels until June 1922, when the vessel hit submerged debris while towing the steamer Venezuela off the coast of Sheboygan. The vessel filled with water quickly and sank in deep water. All men aboard the tug were picked up by Venezuela and taken to Manitowoc, with no lives lost.

Today, the vessel remains intact and sitting upright on the lake bottom. As one of only a few known and intact, converted tugs in Wisconsin waters, Robert C. Pringle provides historians and archaeologists the rare chance to study the construction of the vessel, and an early passenger and packet steamer conversion to a tug. 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

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