Pathfinder
Schooner · Lost 1886 · Chicago & Southern Lake Michigan
The iron ore schooner Pathfinder broke her towline in an 1886 snowstorm and went ashore in quicksand near Two Creeks; all her crew survived.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1869, the three-masted schooner Pathfinder was in tow of the steam barge Jim Sheriffs with 1,200 tons of iron ore when a great gale and snowstorm struck north of Rawley Point on the night of November 17, 1886. Heavy with ice, she broke her towline. The steamer could not get near her, and around 4 a.m. she went ashore in a bed of quicksand. At daylight her crew rowed out to the anchored Jim Sheriffs. No lives were lost, but within a week the surf broke her in two.
Vessel
- 1869
- Not established
- Not established
- Wood
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- November 18, 1886
- Storm
- Ashore north of Rawley Point, near Two Creeks, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Not established
- 1,200 tons of iron ore
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Two Creeks, 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) — Pathfinder
Specification table and final-voyage text read; quoted newspapers not independently inspected.
