George F. Foster? - Point Sable, MI
Posted by: S5280ft
N 44° 02.588 W 086° 30.800
16T E 538989 N 4876778
The wreck site is located on Michigan's west coast (Lake Michigan), north of Ludington in Ludington State Park. The wreck is high on the beach, about 0.6 miles north of the beach house, or about 1 mile south of Point Sable lighthouse.
Waymark Code: WM1YQ1
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 08/05/2007
Views: 86
The DNR has outlined the wreck with posts (bow, stern, port and starboard sides) and placed an informational sign at the location.
From the historical information sign on-site:
Receding lake levels of the Great Lakes have uncovered many natural and historical remnants of previous times. Shipwrecks, piers and other remnants of early shipping commerce have been revealed along Lake Michigan. This previous undocumented shipwreck site was discovered [in] the last few years.
On April 19, 2004 a team from the Office of the State Archaeologist, Michigan Historical Center and the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve conducted an exploratory excavation to determine the identity of this ship.
The shipwreck located on the beach a Ludington State Park consists of a centerboard trunk, centerboard, exposed starboard frame heads, and stern and stem posts. The majority of the vessel’s upper works are missing, while the keel hull strakes and bilge elements remain covered in sand. The wreck is oriented bow north. The site measures 94.5 feet in overall length, making the vessel representative of literally hundreds of smaller schooners built on the Great Lakes between the 1840s and 1870s. Almost all of these ships were two-mast schooners what a carrying capacity of about 150 tons. They carried virtually anything that had to be transported from one point to another, but principally lumber, grain, salt and coal. A very large percentage of the contemporary fleet carried lumber to Chicago from ports in Western Michigan. Passengers were more often carried in steamships.
The Point Sable wreck may be the schooner GEORGE F. FOSTER, which was built in Newark (now Saugatuck), Michigan in 1852 by Jacob Randall. She was 93.6 feet long, 21.5 feet wide, and measured 123 tons. The ship was lost when she wrecked a Point Sable with a load of lumber on or about October 19, 1872. She was bound from Grand Haven to Chicago when she was blown off course by a Fall gale. At the time of her loss she was owned by John Hanson of Chicago.
Several hundred schooners were shipwrecked on Lake Michigan between 1830 and 1920.
Date of Shipwreck: October 19, 1872
Type of Boat: Sailboat
Military or Civilian: Civilian
Cause of Shipwreck: Fall gale
Accessibility: An easy 0.6 walk up the beach from the parking lot, or take the lighthouse trail and turn west at the lifesaving station. Either way there are signs.
Diving Permitted: no
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Visit Instructions:
Only log the site if you have visited it personally.
Floating over a site does not qualify as a find if it is a wreck that requires diving - you must have actually visited the site - therefore photos of the site are good.