AH-WR-0002

Frank O'Connor

Wooden Bulk Freighter · United States · Lost 1919 · Door County & Lake Michigan

Originally launched as the steamer City of Naples, the wooden freighter met her end in 1919 when fire swept through the vessel off Door County. She drifted ablaze near a lighthouse, but every person aboard escaped safely to shore.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents.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

Documented Likeness. Drawn from surviving builder's plans or clear photographs of this vessel. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

She was twenty-seven years old and on her second name when she burned. The fire began forward and moved aft into the steering gear, which left three hundred feet of blazing wooden hull turning slowly in open water off the Door Peninsula. What followed is the part of the story Wisconsin still tells: the lighthouse keeper at Cana Island and his assistant put out in a small boat, reached the crew's lifeboats, and towed them in. The hull burned down to the waterline and sank. Because she was wooden and the fire consumed what stood above the deck, what survives on the lake floor is the machinery — engine, boilers, propeller, rudder — standing upright in clear water, which is why the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Timeline

1892
Built at West Bay City, Michigan
Entered service as the City of Naples.
1916
Renamed Frank O'Connor
29 September 1919
Departs Buffalo with 3,000 tons of coal
Bound for Milwaukee.
3 October 1919
Fire and loss off Cana Island
Lighthouse keepers towed the crew's lifeboats ashore; no lives were lost.
1 June 1994
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Vessel

Built: 1892
Builder: Not established
Yard: West Bay City, Michigan
Material: Wood
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Triple-expansion steam
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: October 3, 1919
Cause: Fire
Location: About two miles off Cana Island, North Bay, Door County
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Buffalo, New York → Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Cargo: 3,000 tons of coal
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 50–67 ft
Condition: Hull burned to the waterline; boilers, engine, propeller and rudder remain largely intact and upright
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1 June 1994

Position

Coordinates: 45.114° N 87.012° W
Accuracy: Approximate position
Nearest: Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin
Region: Door County & Lake Michigan

Coordinates are consistent between the National Register listing and Wisconsin's state maritime records.

From the Logbook

A rescue rowed out from a lighthouse

The keeper of Cana Island Light and his assistant put out in a small boat and towed the crew's lifeboats to shore.

Machinery that outlived the hull

Unusually for a wooden wreck, her engine, boilers, propeller and rudder still stand upright on the lake floor.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)

The specific shipyard at West Bay City is not named in the sources reviewed.

Wisconsin Shipwrecks — Frank O'Connor
Wreck condition, surviving machinery, period photographs, state ownership
SS Frank O'Connor vessel record
Former name, build year and place, cargo, voyage, fire sequence, lighthouse rescue, depth, National Register listing