W.L. Brown
Steam Screw · Lost 1886 · Door County & Lake Michigan
The pig iron steamer W.L. Brown foundered near Green Island in an 1886 storm; her crew escaped just before she sank with an explosion.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1872, the wooden steamer W.L. Brown was carrying pig iron from Escanaba to De Pere when she sprang a leak in a storm on October 21, 1886. Neither her steam nor hand pumps could keep up, and her captain and crew took to the lifeboat. They had only just pulled clear when she sank near Green Island with a loud explosion that blew off her upper works. The tug John Leathem picked them up and landed them at Menominee.
Vessel
- 1872
- Not established
- Not established
- Wood
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Steam (screw)
- Not established
Loss
- October 21, 1886
- Storm
- Near Green Island, Green Bay, off Peshtigo, Wisconsin
- Lake Michigan
- Escanaba, Michigan → De Pere, Wisconsin
- Pig iron
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
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- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Peshtigo, 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) — W.L. Brown
Specification table and final-voyage text read; quoted newspapers not independently inspected.
