Challenge – Lake Michigan Schooner Shipwreck (1871)

Shotline Diving Wreck Profile

• Name: Challenge US 4349
• Type: Schooner
• Year Built: 1852
• Builder: William Wallace Bates and Stephen Bates (Bates & Son)
• Dimensions: 87.50 ft (26.67 m); Beam: 22.70 ft (6.91 m); Depth of hold: 7.20 ft (2.19 m)
• Registered Tonnage: 87.07 GRT
• Location: Approximately twelve miles south of Sturgeon Bay, near Kohler-Andrae State Park, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
• Coordinates: N 43° 28.226′, W 87° 47.462′
• Official Number: 4349
• Original Owners: Capt. John O’Brien (1910)
• Number of Masts: Two

Wreck Location Map

Vessel Type

• A clipper-type wooden schooner with two masts built for speed and cargo efficiency in the mid-19th century Great Lakes trade.

Description

• Stern and bow lines styled after East Coast schooners, adapted by William Wallace Bates for Great Lakes conditions. The hull was relatively wide for its length to accommodate cargo and shallow ports.

History

• Built in 1852; considered Bates’s first clipper schooner combining East Coast design with Midwest trade needs, initiating a regional shipbuilding trend at Manitowoc.
• Stranded at Bailey’s Harbor in December 1901; salvaged and returned to service by 1907.
• In 1910, owner Capt. John O’Brien (Chicago) commanded the vessel; crew included his son Edward O’Brien and Charles & William Wolf of Milwaukee.

Significant Incidents

• Final Incident (September 5, 1910): In dense fog near Port Washington, the schooner failed to enter port, became entangled in fishing pound nets and began leaking. Crew deliberately beached her approximately 12 miles south of Sturgeon Bay. Gear and sails were stripped ashore; the vessel was effectively abandoned with no lives lost, including Captain O’Brien’s wife, who walked ashore with the crew.

Final Disposition

• The enrollment certificate was formally surrendered in Chicago on September 30, 1910, marked “Abandoned.”

Current Condition & Accessibility

• The keel remains of the Challenge now lie exposed near the nature center at Kohler-Andrae State Park, Sheboygan County. The keel washed ashore and has been preserved there as a public exhibit.
• Though visible on land, the underwater wreck in situ probably no longer survives; no diver survey record, but the keel constitutes the sole extant physical remnants.

Resources & Links

[shotline_reference_links slug=”challenge-us-4349″ title=”References & Links”]

• The schooner Challenge represents an important transitional vessel: William Wallace Bates’s first clipper design adapted to Great Lakes trade, influencing regional shipbuilding. Its final demise in 1910 reflects both navigational hazards posed by fog and pound nets, and longevity of wooden schooners carrying fragile cargo well past their prime. The visible keel at Kohler-Andrae serves as a tangible heritage artifact of 19th-century Great Lakes maritime commerce—no lives were lost, yet the loss underscores economic obsolescence and navigational risk. Though not diveable, its onshore keel exhibit makes it accessible for public education, maritime heritage interpretation, and further research.