Ghost Ship Found: 139 Years Later, Lake Michigan Gives Up the F.J. King
Bailey’s Harbor, Wis. — September 16, 2025
Nearly 140 years after it vanished in a storm, the long-lost schooner F.J. King has finally been discovered at the bottom of Lake Michigan, reviving one of the Great Lakes’ most enduring maritime legends.
A team of researchers led by Brendon Baillod of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association located the wreck on June 28, just off Bailey’s Harbor on Door County’s eastern shoreline. Using side-scan sonar to sweep a two-square-mile grid based on historical reports, the team found the ship resting intact less than half a mile from shore.
The F.J. King, built in 1867, was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago when it was caught in a violent storm on September 15, 1886. Despite the crew’s efforts, the vessel went down with its heavy cargo, and its final resting place remained a mystery—until now.
“What’s remarkable is the hull’s condition,” Baillod said. “For a 19th-century schooner loaded with iron, the fact that it’s still structurally intact after all this time is incredible.”
The discovery was guided by conflicting 19th-century accounts. While the ship’s captain reported the sinking further offshore, a lighthouse keeper at Bailey’s Harbor gave a different description. Modern sonar technology confirmed the latter account.
Historians note that the Great Lakes may hold as many as 10,000 shipwrecks, but the F.J. King was one that captured local imagination, often referred to as a “ghost ship” because of failed searches since the 1970s.
Now resting under invasive quagga mussels, which threaten its long-term preservation, the wreck will be studied as both a window into 19th-century shipbuilding and a reminder of the human cost of maritime commerce.
“This isn’t just about finding a ship,” Baillod added. “It’s about reclaiming a piece of history that was lost to time.”
