A shipwreck in the waters off Baileys Harbor was relisted on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places under a new name after the Wisconsin Historical Society announced May 29 the wreck isn’t of the ship it first thought it was.
And it took an old insurance form to make the final call.
The wreck is of the Joseph Cochrane, a 131-foot-long schooner that sank in about 10 to 15 feet of water about 563 feet southwest of the Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse (aka the “Bird Cage” lighthouse). It previously was identified as the wreck of the Christina Nilsson, and was listed on both the state and national historic place registers under that name in 2003, but the historical society’s announcement said subsequent knowledge and information that wasn’t available back then led the society to now positively identify it as the Cochrane.
The Joseph Cochrane was built in Rochester, New York, and launched from there in 1856. According to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, it initially hauled mostly grain, bringing corn and wheat from Chicago to Buffalo, but its primary cargo became lumber for the Chicago market, also hauling grain and coal, by the late 1860s as it went through a number of ownership changes.
The three-masted schooner also went through a number of wrecks over the years. The Wisconsin Shipwrecks site documents at least four collisions or sinkings in the 14 years the Cochrane plied its trade on the Great Lakes before its final wreck off Door County.
That last wreck came after the Cochrane sprung a leak while sailing through a storm and carrying a load of lumber in the northern part of Lake Michigan the night of Oct. 23, 1870. The crew attempted to pump out the ship, before the next morning Capt. Charles Anderson tried to get to Baileys Harbor for shelter.
But Wisconsin Shipwrecks says Anderson unfortunately missed the navigation channel and the Cochrane became stranded on a reef on the east side of the harbor. The water was high, so the crew had to remain on the ship until they were rescued by another boat the morning of Oct 25.
After that, the Cochrane rapidly went to pieces in high winds and water and sank below the surface within a week. Its lumber cargo washed ashore, and the site says the schooner Market Drayton sailed to Baileys Harbor on Nov. 11 and was able to retrieve 100,000 feet of the lumber. The Cochrane’s owners carried no insurance, and its final enrollment document was surrendered June 30, 1871.
The Wisconsin Shipwrecks site says the Cochrane’s remains are well-preserved, although somewhat flat, with part of its lower hull intact and major structural components, its framing and one windlass stanchion still on hand. Because the wreck site also has enough dynamic water action, few invasive quagga mussels have colonized the interior of the bilge, allowing for detailed observation.
As for the Christina Nilsson, it’s now thought it also lies near the old lighthouse off Baileys Harbor, close to the Cochrane.
The Nilsson also was a three-masted cargo schooner, measuring 139 feet to the Cochrane’s 131, that sank with a load of pig iron Oct. 25, 1884. Surveys of the wreck were conducted in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2021 by maritime archaeologists from the historical society and Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association.
But while the wreck was first identified as the Nilsson, it now has been determined to be the Cochrane. The Wisconsin Shipwrecks site says the new identification is based on its dimensions, location and a comparison of vessel losses in the vicinity based on historic newspaper accounts.
And Tamara Thomsen, maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, told the Advocate the most definitive new information came from an insurance claim form on the Nilsson in which the insurance man wrote the Nilsson’s remains were in a cove between two reefs on the northeast side of Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse. The Cochrane is on the southwest side of the lighthouse.
That said, Thomsen said the historical society hasn’t yet positively identified the wreck of the Nilsson. She said there are pieces of wrecks from at least one other ship around that cove, so maritime archaeologists need to be able to determine which were part of the Nilsson, although she added she’s “pretty sure” most or all of its is the Nilsson.
Thomsen said the historical society will file documentation with the National Register of Historic Places to relist the site under the Cochrane’s name. She said the national register generally agrees to do so, but its staff has to pore through the documentation and verify the accuracy.
And Thomsen said because of the number of wrecks in the area, and because Baileys Harbor was an important location in Great Lakes maritime history, she hopes to have the historical society declare an archaeological district there, then get the district placed on the state historic place register.
State and federal laws protect the wreck of the Joseph Cochrane. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting the site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime.
For more information on the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit wisconsinhistory.org. For more on the Cochrane, the Christina Nilsson and other Wisconsin shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Historic Baileys Harbor shipwreck isn’t the wreck they thought, but it’s still historic
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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