AH-WR-1675

Francis Hinton

Lumber Steambarge · United States · Lost 1909 · Door County & Lake Michigan

A lumber steambarge driven ashore in a 1909 gale after flooding extinguished its boiler fire.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Francis Hinton was built at Manitowoc in 1889 by Hanson and Scove for Lake Michigan lumber service. On November 16, 1909, it encountered a gale carrying lumber from Manistique toward Chicago. Floodwater put out the boiler fire, and after the anchor line was cut the powerless vessel drifted ashore in Maritime Bay. The captain and crew escaped in the yawl; the ruined vessel was stripped the following day and subsequently broke apart. Sport divers rediscovered its remains in 1987.

Vessel

Built: 1889
Registry: US registry no. 120754
Builder: Hanson and Scove
Yard: Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Material: Wood
Length: 152.2 ft
Beam: 30.9 ft
Tonnage: 417.34 gross tons
Propulsion: Steam screw
Owners: Built for Horatio Truman and George Cooper; final owner George G. Oliver

Loss

Date: November 16, 1909
Cause: Storm
Location: Maritime Bay, northeast of the Manitowoc River mouth, Wisconsin
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Manistique, Michigan → Chicago, Illinois
Cargo: 450,000 board feet of Norway pine
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Bilge remains embedded in clay with sand cover; engine remains, boiler and four-bladed propeller visible; damaged by ice and waves.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 1987
Protection: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Position

Coordinates: 44.111° N 87.631° W
Accuracy: Surveyed position
Nearest: Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Region: Door County & Lake Michigan

Confirmed institutional position: N 44°06.67′, W 087°37.876′, converted directly.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (88/100)

Numeric water depth is not established in the source reviewed.

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.