Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast: S.C. Baldwin
NOAA's Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary runs a #wreckwednesday post on its Facebook page. The Sept. 6 entry features the Baldwin, which sank in August 1908. The vessel lies upright and broken about 65 feet from the surface. She was lost until the mid-70s, when she was located by sport fishermen off the shore of Point Beach State Forest.
The WSCNMS post reads:
S.C. BALDWIN was originally built as a single decked wooden steamer with a rounded stern in 1871 by Campbell, Owen & Company in Detroit, Michigan to carry iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan to Chicago and Milwaukee. After only two years in service, a second deck was added to S.C. BALDWIN to increase the vessel’s carrying capacity. Like many other Great Lakes vessels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, S.C. BALDWIN went through many iterations throughout its life being converted multiple times as a steamer, and finally, into a barge. Unlike many other contemporary vessels, S.C. BALDWIN was converted three separate times throughout its life.
After nearly a decade operating as a two-decked steamer, S.C. BALDWIN was converted back into a single decked wooden steamer for use in the lumber trade in 1882. The vessel continued in this configuration, hauling lumber for over twenty more years, until the vessel sank in Green Bay after hitting an ice pack in 1903. Due to the cargo of lumber inside, S.C. BALDWIN’s bow remained floating near the water’s surface while it’s stern sat on the bottom of the bay. Instead of letting the vessel remain there, salvage attempts began a short while after the sinking. The vessel's upper deck structure was knocked off during the initial recovery attempts. Despite these initial recovery attempts, the vessel ended up sitting on the bottom of the Bay for nearly a year, greatly damaging the vessel’s stern and rudder. In April of 1904, the vessel was raised and converted to a wooden stone barge with a square stern. The vessel spent the next four years hauling limestone from Sturgeon Bay to Milwaukee, and other ports along the western Lake Michigan shore, until its sinking in 1908.
In late August 1908, S.C. BALDWIN was in tow of the tug TORRENT, along with a second stone scow. As the vessels were passing Kewaunee, a sudden storm blew up, and S.C. BALDWIN began taking on water. Around 3am, the vessel capsized, dumping its cargo of stone, however, the overturned vessel remained unnoticed by the crew aboard TORRENT until sunrise. As the vessel overturned, two of the three men aboard jumped clear of the vessel, but one crew member remained clinging to the overturned hull. Once the crewmen aboard TORRENT realized the situation, they cut the lines to the vessel, and S.C. BALDWIN righted and quickly sank in 60 feet of water. A month after the sinking, the vessel’s boiler, bilge pump, anchors, and cables were salvaged.
Today S.C. BALDWIN sits upright and broken in 65 feet of water. The vessel’s stem post remains uptight, standing 20 feet off the bottom of the lake. Despite being broken, everything from the waterline down, including the decking, stanchions, and cargo hatches are found on the site. Sections of the vessel's hull, including the vessel's entire stern, stern deck, and transom, remain intact, but broken away from the rest of the vessel’s keel. The vessel’s cargo of stone was located in 2015, about 2.5 miles northwest of the main site. In 2015, maritime archaeologists and volunteers from the Wisconsin Historical Society documented the site, and the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
In the summer of 2022, maritime archaeologists and divers from Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast NMS returned to the S.C. BALDWIN wreck site to conduct observations for monitoring and in June of 2023, archaeologists and divers returned to the site to collect imagery for a 3D photogrammetric model of the site. The images were processed and the model will soon be available on the WSCNMS SketchFab page.
(Historical research and archaeological information compiled by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Maritime Archaeology and Preservation Program)
Learn more about the S.C. Baldwin.
