Margaret A. Muir Shipwreck (Schooner)
In Lake Michigan
Builder: Hans M. Scove
Date of Construction: 1872
Margaret A. Muir was constructed by Master Shipbuilder Hans M. Scove at Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1872. The vessel operated in the Great Lakes grain, lumber, and other bulk cargo trades throughout its career between Lake Michigan and the lower Lakes. Margaret A. Muir experienced groundings and collisions which required repairs; however, its ship lines remained the same. On 29 September 1893 Margaret A. Muir was sailing on Lake Michigan bound from Bay City to South Chicago with a cargo of salt when a southeast gale struck. The ship battled the storm throughout the night and the next morning (30 September 1893) when the schooner was a few miles off Ahnapee (Algoma), Wisconsin, it fell into a trough of the mountainous sea as an enormous wave broke over the deck and sank in 57 feet of water. The ship was valued at $6,500 but insured for $4,000. After a few years, the derelict vessel was declared a hazard to navigation and in 1894, the vessel was dynamited to flatten the hazard.
The Margaret A. Muir site, which was documented by Wisconsin Historical Society archaeologists and volunteers in 2024, has not been visited by divers outside of the survey. The site has already produced a wealth of archaeological knowledge and has the potential to yield additional important archaeological data in future years. In 2024, the vessel sits upright. Its hull sides have fallen away, broken at the turn of the bilge, however, many of its hull components remain intact and many more remain extant beneath the sand. As an early wooden schooner in Wisconsin waters, Margaret A. Muir provides historians and archaeologists the chance to study wooden schooner construction and the grain, lumber, and other bulk cargo 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.
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