AH-WR-1760

Sassacus

Schooner · Lost October 1893 final-voyage account; enrollment date conflicts with the narrative · Door County & Lake Michigan

Sassacus capsized during a salvage tow in 1893 and was finally stranded at Lily Bay after repeated towline failures.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Sassacus was a wooden two-masted schooner built at Oswego in 1867 by Lee and Navagh. She carried cordwood and worked in the stone trade. The institutional account describes a September 1893 grounding at Jacksonport, followed by refloating and an October salvage tow toward Sturgeon Bay. Heavy seas parted the towline, and the schooner swamped and capsized; repeated tow failures left her stranded at Lily Bay. A later attempt to refloat the beached hull failed, and the source describes it still buried in sand.

Vessel

Built: 1867
Registry: US registry no. 22916
Builder: Lee and Navagh
Yard: Oswego, New York
Material: Wood
Length: 94 ft
Beam: 22 ft
Tonnage: 109 gross tons
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: George W. Wing; later wreck purchaser Charles Ellis

Loss

Date: October 1893 final-voyage account; enrollment date conflicts with the narrative
Cause: Grounding
Location: Lily Bay, Lake Michigan, Wisconsin; following initial Jacksonport grounding
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Cordwood; most jettisoned before the final tow
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Institutional account describes the hull still buried in sand where it was beached.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Lily Bay, Wisconsin
Region: Door County & Lake Michigan

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (80/100)

Completed wrecking is documented, but exact final loss day is not assigned because the enrollment date conflicts with the voyage chronology; modern position and depth are not independently established.

Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Sea Grant — Wisconsin Shipwrecks
Full construction/service/final-voyage/present-condition narratives: builder, registry, dimensions, two-masted narrative rig, cordwood and stone trade; September grounding followed by October tow, swamping/capsize, Lily Bay stranding and failed 1896 salvage; contradictory July 1893 enrollment date and zero-mast metadata disclosed.