The schooner Jennibel is located in Lake Michigan, southwest of Chambers Island, in the Town of Gibraltar, Door County, Wisconsin. Built in 1863, and measuring 95.2 feet in length, today the vessel lays with most of its hull components extant less only its ship's wheel, anchors and spars. Jennibel’s hull structure, cabin framing, windlass, bilge pump, centerboard winch, cargo and rudder remain on the site.

The schooner Jennibel was constructed at the Stoakes & Locklin shipyard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1863. The vessel operated in the Great Lakes lumber trade, and to a lesser extent in other bulk cargo trades throughout its career. Jennibel experienced groundings and collisions, which required repair; however, its ship lines remained the same throughout its service history. On the morning of 17 September 1881 Jennibel was sailing through Deaths Door Passage with a load of green lumber and tan bark from Egg Harbor, Wisconsin bound for Milwaukee when a sudden gale struck, and the ship capsized. The tug John Gregory came to its aid, took the crew aboard and the vessel in tow toward Sturgeon Bay. While off Chambers Island the ship settled and sank. Although salvage attempts were made to recover the ship it was ultimately abandoned. The vessel was valued at $2,500 but carried no insurance.

As an early wooden schooner in Wisconsin waters, Jennibel provides historians and archaeologists the chance to study wooden schooner construction and use in 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.

Wisconsin Shipwrecks