AH-WR-1674

Continental

Wooden Bulk Freighter · United States · Lost December 12–13, 1904 · Door County & Lake Michigan

A wooden ore carrier stranded near Rawley Point in 1904 and broke up after unsuccessful salvage attempts.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Continental was launched at Cleveland in 1882 for Republic Iron Company and worked primarily between Cleveland and Marquette. During the night of December 12–13, 1904, it missed a course change in a snowstorm while traveling light for winter repairs at Manitowoc. All twenty crew reached shore safely after it grounded near Rawley Point. Salvage efforts failed, winter ice broke the hull, and its documents were surrendered as a total loss on December 8, 1905.

Vessel

Built: 1882
Registry: US registry no. 126016
Builder: George Presley Shipyard
Yard: Cleveland, Ohio
Material: Wood
Length: 244.7 ft
Beam: 36.4 ft
Tonnage: 1,506.67 gross tons
Propulsion: Steam propeller; compound steam engine
Owners: Republic Iron Company of Marquette, Michigan

Loss

Date: December 12–13, 1904
Cause: Grounding
Location: Sandbar north of Rawley Point Lighthouse near Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: St. Ignace, Michigan → Manitowoc Dry Dock Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Cargo: None; traveling light for winter dry docking
Aboard: 20
Lives lost: 0
Master: W. A. Black

The Wreck Today

Depth: 0–15 feet, varying with water level and shifting sand
Condition: Broken hull periodically covered by shifting sand; much machinery, including the compound engine, remains.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Position

Coordinates: 44.232° N 87.508° W
Accuracy: Surveyed position
Nearest: Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Region: Door County & Lake Michigan

Confirmed-location institutional page publishes N 44°13.932′, W -87°30.462′; west sign interpreted once.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (88/100)

The source dates grounding across two calendar days and has conflicting mast counts; both uncertainties are retained in the research notes.

Wisconsin Historical Society / Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks
Construction and registered original hull dimensions, service, final voyage, total-loss outcome and surviving remains. Tonnage is gross register tonnage, not displacement.