Milwaukee County Wisconsin Genealogy

MILWAUKEE MARINE AND SHIPPING
SHIPWRECKS AND DISASTERS

The following ships were listed in various sources, newspapers 
and publications as having a Milwaukee connection.
This list includes information collected by David D. Swayze, Lake Isabella, MI

TANNER

Type at loss: bark, wood, 3-mast
Specs: 157x32x13 435t (also reported as 625t in 1864)
Built: 1863 Elsworth & Davidson, Milwaukee
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Official No: 24236
Date of Loss: 1875 Sept 10
Place of Loss: 1/ mi S. of Milwaukee
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: Storm
Lives Lost: 1
Cargo: wheat
Details: She missed the south pier and went ashore, where she was pounded to pieces by the 17th. The single casualty was her skipper. The rest of the crew - except for the cook, who swam ashore - were saved by the tugs J.J. HAGERMAN and J. B. MERRILL and the revenue cutter ANDREW JACKSON. She had been bound Milwaukee for Buffalo. *May have been converted to 3-mast schooner by the time of her loss.

TENNIE & LAURA

Official No: 145115
Type of Ship: schooner or scow-schooner, wood
Place of Loss: en route between Muskegon and Milwaukee
10 mi off Milwaukee
Type/Cause: storm
Cargo: Lumber
More details:
Date Built: 1876
Builder: G. Jorgenson
Where Built: Manitowoc, WI
Size: Specs: 73x19x5 57g 54n

THEODORE W. MAURICE

Official No: none
Type of Ship: schooner, wood, 2-mast
Place of Loss: Wind Point, Wisc
Type/Cause: storm
Cargo: oak plank
More details: In 1874 it was reported that she had carried the smallest cargo of grain that had ever left Lake Michigan for an Eastern port. Rebuilt in 1841
Date Built: 1837
Builder: 1837, Fairport, Oh
Where Built: Fairport, OH
Size: 52x18x5, 46 t.

THOMAS A. SCOTT

Official No: 24785
Type of Ship: schooner-barge, wood, 4-mast
Place of Loss: 1 mi off Milwaukee
Type/Cause: collision
Cargo: corn [44,000 bu]
More details: Three crew scrambled onto AVON, 7 others took to SCOTT’s yawl and were towed in by the Lifesaving Service. Her decks were 23 feet under water after her last spar fell in Sep, 1881. Foundered in a storm Nov 18, 1869. Raised the next summer and rebuilt.
Date Built: 1869
Builder: Hitchcock & Gibson
Where Built: Buffalo as a propeller
Size: 207x33x16, 1159 t.

THOMAS DAVIDSON

Specs: 286x42x20, 2226gt 1714nt
Enrollment:
Date of Loss:
Place of Loss:
Lake Lost:
Type/Cause:
Lives Lost:
Cargo:
Details: Rebuilt in 1917, abandoned in 1933

THREE BROTHERS:

Type at Loss: Propeller, wood, bulk freight
Specs: 162x31x12 583g 44n
Built: 1888, Milwaukee Shipyard Co. Milwaukee Hull#28
Enrollment: Milwaukee, also Chicago
Official No. 91998
Date of Loss: Sept 27, 1911
Place of Loss: S. Manitou Isl. near Morazan wreck
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: Storm
Lives Lost: none
Cargo: Lumber
Details: Bound Boyne City for Chicago, she began to leak and sink in a storm and was run ashore to save her crew. There she was abandoned and broke her back soon after. S. Manitou Lifesaving Service took crew off.Owned by White Transportation of Buffalo. 422 hp engine.Wreckage located in 1996 when a sandbar washed off her. Built for John Spry of the John Spry Lumber Company in Chicago.
Additional information on the
THREE BROTHERS, including photos (offsite link)

TOBOGGAN

Type at Loss; scow, wood, self-unloading
Built: 1886, Milwaukee Shipyard Co., Milwaukee
Specs: ?
Enrollment: ?
Official number: Unregistered
Date of Loss: Jul 12, 1887
Place of Loss: 15mi off Milwaukee
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: loading error
Lives Lost: None
Cargo: Salt and Lumber
Details: She capsized and foundered while in tow of the steamer MARSHALL F. BUTTERS (qv). She was reportedly overloaded.

TOLEDO

Detroit Daily Advertiser, 9 Aug, 1859

The schr TOLEDO, which, about a week since, was run into by the steamer Cleveland, on Lake Michigan, was subsequently towed to Grand Haven, where she was again run into by the steamer City of Cleveland, and this time nearly demolished. She was owned in Milwaukee.

LOSS OF STEAMER TOLEDO OCTOBER 22, 1856
From "Lake Michigan Disasters" written in 1925 by Herbert Pits from newspaper accounts.

Another lake disaster of which very little is known is the sinking of the propeller "Toledo" which went down in a terrible storm during the nite of October 22nd, 1856, about a mile off Port Washington, Wisconsin.

The "Toledo" in command of Capt. Densham after battling the huge seas had at last come to anchor near the little Wisconsin village. Aboard the boat were passengers and crew to the number of forty or fifty anxiously awaiting the abating of the storm.

The gale continued and the waves were rapidly reducing the steamer to a wreck, and Captain Densham seeing nothing but death for all aboard, if they remained there, decided as a last resort to try and beach her. Orders were given to raise the anchors, but in doing so the chains got afoul, the huge waves hurled her anchors against her, opening up the seams, the steamer now a total wreck, with upper works and life boats smashed now began to settle with water pouring in thru her rent sides, the fires were put out and in a short time the "Toledo" went to the bottom.

The helpless passengers and crew now at the mercy of the elements clung to bits of wreckage in an effort to make the shore but a mile away. But in the cold night air and water, one by one exhausted and benumbed by cold, they released their grasp on the wreckage and died in the boiling surf amid the howling and furious tempest.

Only three deck hands, powerful enough to withstand the terrible exposure were thrown up on the beach and saved by villagers who found them.

TOPEKA

Type at Loss; propeller, wood, bulk freight, self-unloading
Built: 1889, Milwaukee Shipyard Co., Milwaukee hull# 30
Specs: 228x36x19 1376g 1111n
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Official No: 145510
Date of Loss: 1916, Aug 15
Place of Loss: Off Windsor (Sandwich), Ont.
Lake Lost: Detroit River
Type/Cause: collision
Lives Lost: none
Cargo: coal
Details: She collided with the small steamer CHRISTOPHER and sank. Her machinery was later recovered and the wreck levelled by dynamiting, Dec. 26, 1916. converted to self-unloader in 1912; converted to conveyor vessel by Leathem D. Smith Sturgeon Bay, WI 1910

TRAVELER

There are two traveller ships listed, unknown which one
was lost at sea

Type at loss: schooner, wood
Built: 1847 DeWolf, Milwaukee
Official Number: 24148
Specs: 87x19x7 109g 88n
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Date of Loss: 1868, Oct. 23
Place of Loss: 2 mi S. of Calumet
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: storm
Lives Lost: -4
Cargo: lumber
Details: She drove ashore and quickly went to pieces, pounded by waves from outside and by her cargo from inside. Owned by M. Canney and D. Lawrence, Chicago Rebuilt 1861

TRAVELER
Specs: 82g
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Date of Loss:
Place of Loss:
Lake Lost:
Type/Cause:
Lives Lost:
Cargo:
Details:

TRAVELER
Specs: 75g
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Owner: George Barber
Date of Loss: yr 1855
Place of Loss: Port Burwell
Lake Lost: Ontario
Type/Cause: sunk
Lives Lost:
Cargo:
Details: details unknown

TRAVELER:
See Campbell bio
See Williams Bio (2 ships same name mentioned)

TWIN BROTHERS

Specs: 91x21x8 144t
Enrollment: Milwaukee
Date of Loss: 1860, Mar 11
Place of Loss: Milwaukee
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: storm
Lives Lost: ?
Cargo: ?
Details: She was driven on the breakwater and destroyed. A hard-luck ship- had at least 5 other serious accidents.

TWO CHARLIES

Specs: 87g 119t
Enrollment: Milwaukee, also Chicago
Owner: D. Newhall & Hibbard
Date of Loss: 1876 Oct. 9
Place of Loss: Grand Haven, MI
Lake Lost: Michigan
Type/Cause: storm
Lives Lost: ?
Cargo: ?
Details: She sank just south of the south pier. Major repairs in 1857. Rebuilt in the winter of 1859-60

TWO FANNIES

Detroit Tribune, 15 Apr, 1876
At Milwaukee, the schooner TWO FANNIES has received entire new ceiling, floor, keelson, two new keel boxes and her frames made as good as new. The bark Red, White and Blue had been thoroughly rebuilt above and below. The schooner George Westcott has been lengthened and repaired.

TYPO

Specs: 138x26x11 336g 319n
Enrollment: Milwaukee, also Cleveland, Detroit
Date of Loss: 1899, Oct. 14
Place of Loss: off Presque Isle, MI
Lake Lost: Huron
Type/Cause: collision
Lives Lost: 4 or 9
Cargo: ?
Details: She collided with the prop V.H. KETCHUM and sank. Rebuilt in 1873, major repairs in 82 & 84. '84 repair was after a serious grounding on Amherst Island, Lake Ontario, Sept. 26, 1883

Oswego Palladium, Tues, May 6, 1884
The schooner Typo of Milwaukee, which was lying alongside the Sumner was badly scorched and damaged to the extent of several hundred dollars. She was rescued by the tug M.J. Cummings, Capt. Donovan. Two piles of lumber, one on each side of the slip, were badly damaged.