Posted by Brendon Baillod on September 16, 19102 at 01:23:06:
In Reply to: Schooner, located 2 Mi. N of Muskegon posted by Dave Miesch on September 08, 19102 at 14:38:04:
All,
Dave, Ross and I visited the wreck north of Muskegon today and did measurements, photos, etc. Here's the basics. The wreck is a scow schooner with a prominent standing centerboard trunk, 20 ft. in length. Her overall length is 90 ft. with a beam of about 22 ft. She is almost perpendicular with the shore and her bow points inward. She is listed to port about 20 degrees. Her entire hull outline is present, but ice has removed her decks and anthing above. Her hull stands about 3 ft above the sand on the starboard and about 1 ft. above the sand on the port. Her hull has been buried until recently as evidenced by the lack of zebra mussels on the wreck, but she has been uncovered in the past, as evidenced by many old beer bottles and cans were found in the members. It appears that she was a popular fishing site in the 1950s. Her bow is seriously damaged, with her stempost gone. There is a capstan pole sticking out of the sand very near her bow. Her stern is relatively exposed and is still in good enough shape to tell that she was a scow schooner. She lies about 1.25 miles north of the Muskegon harbor light and about 60 ft. off shore. Her bow is in 5 ft. of water and her stern is in 10 ft. of water. Based on my analysis of her build and dimensions relative to the other vessels known to have been lost in the area, I'd say there's a 90% chance that she's the scow schooner Helen lost 11/18/1886 with 7 lives. An article on the wreck will be in the Muskegon Chronicle on Tuesday.
Brendon Baillod
: I recently found the wreck of old wooden ship in shallow 5 to 15 ft of water only about 60 ft from shore. Wreck was more than 100 ft long, could this be the LC Woodruff (1878) or The Helen ? advice anyone!
: dave the historian