F. J. King (schooner)
19th-century Great Lakes schooner
F. J. King was an American schooner built in 1867. She operated on the Great Lakes for 19 years, before sinking in a storm on Lake Michigan, on 15 September 1886, while laden with iron ore. Her wreck was located nearly 139 years after her loss, on 28 June 2025, in 137 feet (41.8 m) of water near Cana Island, by a Wisconsin archaeological group.
History
F. J. King (US official number 9299) was a wooden schooner, built by master shipwright George R. Rogers in Toledo, Ohio, in 1867. Her hull was 144 feet (43.9 m) in length, 26.2 feet (8.0 m) in beam, and 12 feet (3.7 m). She had a gross register tonnage of 280.55 tons, and a net register tonnage of 266. She was launched on 16 June 1867. Although built to fit within the confines of the Welland Canal, she was found to be too long, resulting in the removal of her stern's corners in 1869, to facilitate her passage. She was shortened by 3 feet (0.9 m) a year later.
She lost her bowsprit on Lake Erie, on 2 November 1871, eventually running aground at the Black River.
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This entry incorporates text from “F. J. King (schooner)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.