Shotline Diving Wreck Profile

• Name: Wave
• Type: Two-masted wooden schooner
• Year Built: 1833
• Builder: Samuel Southerland, Swan Creek, Michigan
• Dimensions: Length: 54 ft (16.5 m); Beam: 18 ft (5.5 m); Depth of hold: 6 ft (1.8 m)
• Registered Tonnage: 44 tons
• Location: 10 miles SSW of the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, Lake Michigan
• Official Number: None (Pre-dates official U.S. vessel registration)
• Original Owners: Likely involved in lumber transport along the Great Lakes
• Number of Masts: 2

Wreck Location Map

Vessel Type

The Wave was a small two-masted schooner built in 1833 for cargo transport on the Great Lakes.

Description

The Wave was likely used for:

• Lumber transport, hauling timber from Michigan forests to markets in Illinois and Wisconsin.
• General trade, moving grain, goods, and supplies between small lakefront towns and larger cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit.
• Passenger transport, as schooners in this era often carried small groups of settlers, traders, or fur company employees.

History

Operated between Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois ports. She was heading to Grand River (near present-day Grand Haven, Michigan) with lumber at the time of her loss.

Significant Incidents

The Wave was bound for Grand River with a cargo of lumber when she was caught in a powerful gale. The storm drove her ashore, where she broke apart and was declared a total loss. Some sources suggest that as many as 13 crew and passengers perished, though the best reports list 5 fatalities. The famous schooner Fur Trader later salvaged equipment from the wreck and transported it to Chicago. Just two weeks prior, the Wave had run aground near Racine, Wisconsin, but was successfully refloated—only to be lost on this subsequent voyage.

Final Disposition

The Wave was lost on March 17, 1844, approximately 10 miles SSW of the mouth of the Kalamazoo River in Lake Michigan. The cause of loss was attributed to being driven ashore by a storm.

Current Condition & Accessibility

The Wave was a wooden schooner, meaning most of her structure has likely disintegrated over time. Some ballast stones, fastenings, or scattered remains could still exist on the lakebed near the shoreline. No documented dives or recoveries have been reported. Shoreline erosion or shifting sandbars may have covered or exposed parts of the wreck over time.

Resources & Links

References are being reviewed for this wreck.

The Wave (1833–1844) was a small but important schooner in the early Great Lakes lumber and trade economy. She was lost in a March 1844 storm off modern-day Saugatuck, Michigan, with five to thirteen casualties. While her wreck has never been formally discovered, her loss remains one of the earliest recorded maritime disasters in Lake Michigan history.