Josephine Lawrence
Schooner · Lost 1880 · Door County & Lake Michigan
An aging stone schooner sheltering in Baileys Harbor was driven ashore by the Alpena Gale of 1880 and abandoned.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
George Barber built the two-masted schooner Josephine Lawrence at Milwaukee in 1854. On October 16, 1880, carrying rubble stone from Washington Island to Chicago during the Alpena Gale, she took refuge in Baileys Harbor. The wind shifted, her anchor dragged, and at 2 p.m. the chain parted and she was pushed ashore. Old and heavily laden, she was abandoned and worked deep into the sand.
Vessel
- 1854
- US registry no. 12976
- George Barber
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Wood
- 85 ft
- 21.75 ft
- Not established
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- October 16, 1880
- Storm
- Shore of Baileys Harbor, Door County, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Washington Island, Wisconsin → Chicago, Illinois
- Rubble stone
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin
Institutional inventory position not used; surveyed provenance not established.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (84/100)
Crew numbers, casualties, tonnage, depth and surveyed position are not established in the source reviewed.
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks: Josephine Lawrence
Construction table and complete Final Voyage narrative read; underlying newspapers not independently inspected.
