Sunshine
Scow Schooner · United States · Lost 1869 · Door County & Lake Michigan
Sunshine was beached at North Bay in 1869 with lumber for Chicago; its shallow wreck was located in 2021.
Become Captain of RecordSee Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built at Detroit in 1856, Sunshine was a two-masted scow schooner whose flat bottom suited shallow harbors. She carried barrel staves, coal, plaster and other cargoes before entering the Lake Michigan lumber trade. Earlier sinkings in 1861 and 1865 were followed by recovery and repair. On September 29, 1869, leaking while bound for Chicago with lumber, she was beached on a North Bay rock ledge and battered by surf. Deemed a total loss days later, her surviving wreck was located by Matt Olson in 2021 and investigated archaeologically in 2022.
Vessel
- 1856
- US registry no. 23057
- Captain Jerry Dupree (also recorded as Duprey)
- Detroit, Michigan
- Wood
- 97 ft
- 24 ft
- 115.56 gross tons
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- September 29, 1869
- Grounding
- North Bay, Door County, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Chicago, Illinois
- Lumber
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 6 ft
- Preserved wreck portions covered and uncovered by shifting sand; archaeologically investigated in May 2022.
- Not established
- 2021
- Not established
Position
- 45.14° N 87.07° W
- Reported, unconfirmed
- North Bay, Wisconsin
Published institutional coordinates retained as reported/unconfirmed; survey-point provenance and horizontal error are not supplied.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Well documented (92/100)
Final-loss crew and casualty totals are not established; the published map position has no stated horizontal-error estimate.
Wisconsin Shipwrecks — Wisconsin Sea Grant and Wisconsin Historical Society — Sunshine
Full construction table, service history, final voyage and present-wreck narrative; earlier recovered casualties and later administrative dates distinguished; coordinates qualified.
