H.L. Whitman
Schooner · Lost 1869 · Chicago & Southern Lake Michigan
The lumber schooner H.L. Whitman struck the reef off Racine's Wind Point in 1869 and was left to break up after salvors gave her up.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1855, the two-masted schooner H.L. Whitman was carrying lumber from Oconto to Chicago when, on the night of October 11, 1869, she ran too close to Racine's North Point, now Wind Point, and struck the reef. Her deckload was thrown over, but she filled and sank. Three days of heavy seas pounded her before the tug Mosher arrived with a lighter; after a day's work the salvors judged her too far gone, took her sails and left her to go to pieces.
Vessel
- 1855
- Not established
- Not established
- Wood
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- October 11, 1869
- Grounding
- North Point Reef (Wind Point), Racine, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Oconto, Wisconsin → Chicago, Illinois
- Lumber
- Not established
- The source does not report any loss of life.
- Capt. E. Finn
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Racine, Wisconsin
No pin: Wisconsin Shipwrecks inventory positions are not used as wreck pins.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (75/100)
Original newspaper accounts are quoted by the source and were not independently inspected.
Wisconsin Shipwrecks (Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant) — H.L. Whitman
Specification table and final-voyage text read; quoted newspapers not independently inspected.
