Maritime Historians Find Shipwreck from 1895 in Lake Michigan

by Aria Smith, age 14

Brendon Bailiod and Bob Jeak are two Wisconsin Maritime Historians known for going on a three-day mission to find the John Evenson, a ship that sank in Lake Michigan near Algoma, Wisconsin. They have also discovered the remains of a 130-foot canal named the Schooner Trinidad in Algoma, Wisconsin. On June 5th, 1895, the John Evenson was preparing to tow a large ship, the I.W. Stephenson.

The crew grabbed the wooden tugboat and the line. The lines then got mixed up, and the two ships collided. Five crew members went down with the ship. One person was above deck while the three others were below. Thankfully, they were rescued. The ship's fireman was sleeping below deck while it sank. He sadly sank with the ship.

Bailoid and Jaek made sure to go the extra mile to find this ship; something about the fact that it was hard to find made them even more intrigued to find the forgotten ship.

In 1890, it was purchased by John and Alexander Luarie to tow vessels, barges, an even andows filled with stone.

Brendon and Bob were inspired by a sign at a local dive club offering to find the ship with a $500 cash prize. They started by collecting all known accounts of the shipwreck. When researching the location, they found some mixed reports with some newspapers saying the ship sank in 300feet of water, while others said 50feet. They used multiple reports and got help from John Laurie’s reports about the wreck to plot some of the ideal locations in a small area. Within five minutes of setting up their side scan sonar equipment, they located the ship four miles northeast of Algoma on September 13, 2024.

[Sources: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association]