James H. Johnson
Steam Barge · Lost 1895 · Door County & Lake Michigan
A St. Joseph-built steam barge stranded on unmarked Horseshoe Reef in the low water of 1895; fishermen saved her five crew.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
The wooden steam barge James H. Johnson was built at St. Joseph, Michigan, in 1882. On the night of May 1, 1895, carrying bricks and hay for Manistique, she stranded on the unmarked Horseshoe Reef in Sister Bay, a year of unusually low water. Fishermen rescued her five crew. Salvagers from the schooner Ebenezer recovered most bricks, her machinery went to the tug Commodore Jack Barry, and the hull broke apart across the reef.
Vessel
- 1882
- US registry no. 76340
- Not established
- St. Joseph, Michigan
- Wood
- 98.5 ft
- 16.3 ft
- 52.08 gross tons
- Steam, side paddle
- Not established
Loss
- May 1, 1895
- Grounding
- Horseshoe Reef (the "Rock"), Sister Bay, Door County, Wisconsin
- Green Bay
- Manistique, Michigan
- Bricks and hay
- 5
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Ephraim, Wisconsin
Institutional inventory position not used; surveyed provenance not established.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (84/100)
Builder and surveyed position are not established in the source reviewed.
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks: James H. Johnson
Construction table and complete Final Voyage narrative read; underlying newspapers not independently inspected.
