The Pride sank in a squall and tornado off Egg Harbor in 1898. It was then towed to Sturgeon Bay but abandoned before it was repaired. One person died.
Christopher CloughGreen Bay Press-Gazette
STURGEON BAY - A shipwreck in shallow water about 200 feet off shore near the West Side of downtown Sturgeon Bay is Door County's most recent addition to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places.
The Wisconsin Historical Society announced the remains of the Pride, a 71-foot-long, two-masted schooner that sank in 1898, were listed with the state register May 24. It becomes the 31st shipwreck in the waters off Door County to be named a state historic place.
Although the Pride lies in the Sturgeon Bay channel, its last voyage as a shipping vessel actually ended in the waters off Egg Harbor before it went to its final resting place.
The Pride was built in Black River, Ohio, in 1866, and used by its owners mainly to ship bulk general goods on Lake Erie. According to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, by 1868 the schooner had a new owner and was homeported in Chicago, and subsequent ownership changes saw it hauling loads of lumber, building materials and other goods on the Great Lakes from home ports in Kenosha and Racine, including smaller loads of building stone between Kenosha and Sturgeon Bay for a time.
Later, Capt. Jacob Wilson bought the ship in 1893 from the Hervig brothers of Racine, after it had been for sale for six years, and used it to move lumber and bulk goods from its new home port of Milwaukee.
The Pride's 32-year working history came to an end on a voyage that departed from Milwaukee on Aug. 20, 1898, On Aug. 22, it dropped anchor in Egg Harbor to get a contract to haul a load of wood.
But at dinner time, the Pride was struck by a squall that caught it broadside, then by a tornado that whipped the ship around and capsized it "with such force that its two masts became imbedded to the lake bottom," the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website says.
Capt. Wilson survived by clinging to the side of the hull before being rescued, but his son and first mate, Thomas Wilson, was lost in the sinking until his body was found in the water more than a week later. Wilson's Newfoundland dog survived the wreck, but it was trapped inside the cabin until being rescued.
Aug. 24, two days after the sinking, the schooner was righted and towed to Sturgeon Bay to be moored at the Leathem & Smith Towing & Wrecking Co., which took ownership of the vessel in exchange for the costs. However, while tied up at the dock, the wreck sprung a leak, broke loose and drifted away, landing on Dunlap Reef in the middle of the channel (across from what is now Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding), where it posed an obstacle to other ships trying to navigate the channel.
In 1900, the Pride was moved and run ashore with consideration for restoring it, but no further work was performed on it, and it was abandoned and fell apart.
The remains of the Pride are partially embedded in the bed of the channel in about 8 feet of water, almost exactly due north of the intersection of West Juniper Street and North Lansing Avenue, about 200 feet off shore. A press release from the state historical society said the wreck "retains excellent archaeological integrity with most of the vessel hull components present and protected by sediment of the bay."
This isn't the only wreck of a ship named Pride in the waters of Door County. According to Wisconsin Shipwrecks, the three-masted, 87-foor schooner Pride sank just off the north shore of Washington Island in 1901 after 52 years of service, having been built in Ohio in 1849. That vessel's remains are broken up and scattered under 40 to 50 feet of water. It currently is not on the state historic register.
State and federal laws protect the wreck of the Pride in Sturgeon Bay. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. For more information on the Pride, visit wisconsinhistory.org or wisconsinshipwrecks.org.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 orcclough@gannett.com.
MORE: Scandinavian balls of fire, beer, wine, pride: Here's four Door County festivals in June
MORE:'Everyone's excited' for new child care center in Sturgeon Bay as fundraising continues
FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS:Check out our website
