AH-WR-1824

Coquette

Sloop · United States · Lost 1866 · Chicago & Southern Lake Michigan

A former government lake-survey sailing vessel capsized off Waukegan in a July 1866 squall; four men died and two were rescued.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Coquette was built by A. & D. Bailey at Perry, Ohio, in 1858 as a wooden two-masted schooner. The U.S. government bought it for Lake Survey work in 1859, and its rig changed to a sloop in 1860. After an earlier Rock Island wrecking and rebuilding, it was sold into merchant service in May 1866. A contemporary newspaper reports that a northeasterly squall capsized it off Waukegan on July 17 while it was leaving Chicago with pig-iron ballast and no canvas set. Captain Patrick Lee, mate Robert Scott and two crewmen drowned; Falcon rescued owner Nat Sanders and another man around daylight.

Vessel

Built: 1858
Registry: US registry no. 5057
Builder: A. & D. Bailey
Yard: Perry, Ohio
Material: Wood
Length: 87.8 ft
Beam: 20 ft
Tonnage: 95.91 gross tons
Propulsion: Sail; sloop rig after 1860
Owners: U.S. government (Lake Survey, 1859–1866); Nat Sanders of Menominee (final-voyage newspaper account)

Loss

Date: July 17, 1866
Cause: Storm
Location: Off Waukegan, according to the contemporary newspaper account; institutional county/location metadata conflicts
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Chicago, Illinois
Cargo: Approximately eight tons of pig iron as ballast
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 4
Master: Patrick Lee

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Final capsize documented; present-day condition and surviving remains not established.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Waukegan, Illinois
Region: Chicago & Southern Lake Michigan

Narrative gives off Waukegan while institutional metadata gives Kenosha County; uncorroborated position omitted.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (87/100)

The institutional chronology, location metadata and ownership spellings conflict; exact wreck position, depth, present condition and total aboard are not independently established.

Wisconsin Shipwrecks — Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant
Full construction and service chronology; sloop conversion, civil Lake Survey ownership, earlier recovered wrecking and rebuilt return to merchant service; reproduced Door County Advocate July 26, 1866 account supplies final July 17 storm, four deaths and two rescues. Source conflicts retained.