Located 0.5 miles southeast of the entrance to North Bay, Door County, Wisconsin, lie the remains of the wooden scow schooner Boaz in 8 feet of water in North Bay, Lake Michigan on a bottom of sand. Built in 1869 by Amos C. Stoakes in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Boaz was one of a unique class of Great Lakes vessels: the double centerboard schooner. Much of our understanding of this vessel type, and the lakeshoring trade in which they operated, has come from archaeological data recovered from wreck sites. Little historical documentation exists on double centerboard schooner construction and operation.

The vessel spent most of its career carrying lumber from various ports throughout the Great Lakes region. In November 1900, Boaz was caught in a gale while sailing for Racine, Wisconsin from Pierpont, Michigan with a cargo of lumber. The old vessel quickly began to leak heavily and sought shelter in nearby North Bay. While attempting to enter, the vessel struck the point, and missed the entrance to the bay. The crew dropped anchor to prevent the vessel from running ashore, but fearing the vessel would capsize in the waves, the crew abandoned the vessel in the yawl. The following day the crew requested assistance from the nearby vessel, Two Myrtles. The steamer towed Boaz into the bay, where the vessel was grounded. Attempts were later made to pull the vessel off, but to no avail. The cost of recovering the old, damaged schooner was deemed too high, and it was listed as a total loss. Today, the vessel sits upright, with many of its hull components intact and many more extant beneath the sand. As a double centerboard schooner, Boaz provides historians and archaeologists the rare chance to study double centerboard schooner construction and the Great Lakes lumber trades.

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