Florence M. Dickinson
Schooner-Barge · Lost 1886 · Door County & Lake Michigan
A former propeller converted to a schooner-barge, Florence M. Dickinson foundered off Kewaunee after her towline parted in an 1886 gale.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built as the propeller T.U. Bradbury at Cleveland in 1855, this vessel later became a schooner-barge. She was converted at West Bay City in 1880 and renamed Florence M. Dickinson. In November 1886 she carried coal from Toledo toward Manitowoc in a four-barge tow. After the towline parted in a gale, she struck a reef near Kewaunee and foundered on November 18. Four of the seven people aboard reached shore on planks.
Vessel
- 1855
- US registry no. 24109
- Luther Moses
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Wood
- 180.4 ft
- 27.6 ft
- 390.85 gross tons
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- November 18, 1886
- Grounding
- Reef about 200 yards off the north pier at Kewaunee, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Toledo, Ohio → Manitowoc, Wisconsin
- Coal
- 7
- 3
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Kewaunee, Wisconsin
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
Present wreck position, depth and final mast configuration are not established; the final foundering date follows the narrative’s explicit next-day sequence.
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks
Construction, identity, service history and vessel-specific final-voyage narrative; template numeric counters excluded.
