Finding ancient ships, treasures and fossils are fascinating. In today's blog, you'll read about a recent discovery of a shop that sank in Lake Michigan 139 years ago.

(photo: A cargo schooner, the FJ King, that sank in Lake Michigan more than a century ago has been discovered.) 

Searchers find ‘ghost ship’ that sank in Lake Michigan nearly 140 years ago

By Grace Moon, MSN, Sept 2025

A group of citizen scientists has discovered the long-sought schooner F.J. King more than a century after it sank in an 1886 storm — solving one of Lake Michigan’s enduring maritime mysteries, the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said Sunday.

For decades, the quest for one of Lake Michigan’s most elusive lost ships captivated many, even inspiring a dive club to offer a $1,000 reward for its discovery. Recreational divers, hopeful fishermen and seasoned wreck hunters all tried their luck — only to come up empty-handed.

Brendon Baillod, the principal investigator, knew the F.J. King was a long shot. “Fishermen had said they brought up parts of her in their nets, but when people went out to the site, there was nothing there,” he said. The shipwreck had become a “local legend.”

Baillod said he saw the search as an opportunity to invite the public into the world of underwater archaeology. “We thought, what a fun search. We’re not going to probably find it, but every rock you run over, it’ll get your pulse going, you know,” he said.

Baillod and his longtime research partner proposed the idea of the citizen expedition to the state. Participants would have the chance to pilot remotely operated vehicles and probe the waters with side-scan sonar.

Baillod pored over old newspaper clippings, including an account from the lighthouse keeper. That became a vital clue, said Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The keeper reported seeing the ship’s masts breaking the surface. “These are historic shipping lanes, and everyone sailed on them,” Thomsen said.

The schooner sank off Baileys Harbor on Sept. 15, 1886, after taking on a load of iron ore bound for Chicago, according to Thomsen. “When the storm came up, it developed a leak that its pumps couldn’t keep up with,” she said, noting that all aboard were rescued by a passing schooner.

The keeper’s report provided an actual range and bearing for where the ship’s masts were sticking out of the water. And on June 28, Baillod used that information to scan the surface with a group that included history enthusiasts, local university students and scuba-diving hobbyists, among others.

Just two hours into the search, a big object crawled across the screen, to everyone’s disbelief, Baillod recounted. The sonar revealed an image of a ship, its hatches still gaping open.

“We absolutely could tell we found the F.J. King,” Baillod said.

And the wreck itself was “preserved like a time capsule,” he added.

“The vessel was a unique class of Great Lakes vessel,” Thomsen said, noting such ships’ role in carrying grain between the upper lakes and Lake Ontario.

To Baillod, the discovery was a chance to tell the story of the state’s port cities and the engines that powered industrial America.

Next year, they plan to do it all over again. “We’ve got a good track record of finding them, you know,” Baillod said.