NOAA’s Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary
Posted on Facebook – January 2, 2024 ·
Welcome to the New Year! To start the year off right, we have another 3D shipwreck model to share with you!
While our staff continues to finalize the last few new 3D models, we are continuing to share some of our other models currently available on the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast NMS SketchFab page. Today we are featuring the model of the sidewheel paddle steamer NIAGARA! Check out the model at the link below!
NIAGARA was built in in Buffalo, New York as a passenger and packet freight steamer, taking passengers and cargo throughout the Great Lakes. Known as a “palace” steamer, the vessel was considered to be one of the nicest passenger steamers of its time and could carry nearly 300 passengers. On September 24, 1856, while just north of Port Washington, Wisconsin, a fire was discovered in NIAGARA’s hold, which quickly began to spread. With the fire spreading rapidly, many passengers jumped into the water or into lifeboats from the vessel’s deck in an attempt to escape the flames. The few passengers who made it to the lifeboats, as well as many passengers and crew who’d ended up in the chilly waters of Lake Michigan were rescued by nearby vessels and taken to Port Washington. In the end, 60 passengers and crew did not survive. The vessel burned to the waterline and sank in 55 feet of water, approximately a mile north of Port Washington.
Today, the aft section of NIAGARA still sits in 55 feet of water, with its walking beam engine, floor keelsons, side hull sections, and boilers remaining. The vessel’s two paddlewheels used to remain intact and upright, however, years of damage to them by currents, salvors, and other forces caused them to collapse. Sections of the paddlewheels can still be seen lying in the sand. Recently, many of the artifacts that were salvaged from the wreck in the 1960s and 1970s were donated to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum as part of the Butch Klopp collection and are currently undergoing analysis and curation. The site was originally documented by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Maritime Preservation Program in the mid-1990s, and NIAGARA was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 2021, WSCNMS and NOAA HQ divers and archaeologists revisited the site to take updated imagery and gather information for site monitoring. The images were used in the 3D model currently available on SketchFab!