Frank W. Gifford
Schooner · Lost 1897 · Door County & Lake Michigan
Frank W. Gifford was abandoned leaking off Ahnapee in October 1897; City of Sheboygan rescued all eight crew members from their yawl.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
Frank W. Gifford was built at Cleveland in 1868 as a wooden three-masted schooner. She suffered earlier groundings and collisions but remained in service and was remeasured in 1895. On October 21, 1897, carrying iron ore from Escanaba, she developed a leak in a heavy northeast wind off Ahnapee. Her eight crew members abandoned her and were rescued from the yawl by City of Sheboygan three hours later. Wreckage was reported a week afterward; the source describes her subsequent sinking as apparent rather than witnessed.
Vessel
- 1868
- US registry no. 9752
- Thomas Quayle & John Martin
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Wood
- 160 ft
- 31.16 ft
- 397.80 gross / 377.91 net tons (1895 remeasurement)
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- October 21, 1897
- Storm
- Lake Michigan, reported about 25 miles off Ahnapee (now Algoma), Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Escanaba, Michigan
- Iron ore
- 8
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Algoma, Wisconsin
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
The sinking was not witnessed, the wreck location and depth are unverified, and the inventory disagrees on the destination: Fairport, Ohio versus Fruitport, Michigan.
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks
Construction, identity, service history and vessel-specific final-voyage narrative; template numeric counters excluded.
