M.J. Bartelme
Steel Bulk Freighter · Lost 1928 · Door County & Lake Michigan
A 352-foot steel freighter ran onto Cana Island's rocks in fog in 1928 and was scrapped where she lay.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
F.W. Wheeler built the 352-foot steel steamer M.J. Bartelme at West Bay City, Michigan, in 1895. On the night of October 4, 1928, running light from Milwaukee to Escanaba, she grounded in thick fog on the southeast point of Cana Island. Boulders were driven through her bottom before wreckers could reach her. The tugs Favorite, Leathem D. Smith and Arctic gave up, and scrappers cut up the hull through 1929.
Vessel
- 1895
- US registry no. 77170
- F.W. Wheeler
- West Bay City, Michigan
- Steel
- 352 ft
- 44.8 ft
- 3,400 gross tons
- Steam, screw
- Not established
Loss
- October 4, 1928
- Grounding
- Southeast point of Cana Island, Door County, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin → Escanaba, Michigan
- None (running light)
- 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, depth and surveyed position are not established in the source reviewed.
Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks: M.J. Bartelme
Construction table and complete Final Voyage narrative read; underlying newspapers not independently inspected.
