1898 — Oct 25, storm, steamship L. R. Doty sinks, Lake Mich., north of Milwaukee, WI– 17

–17  Baillod, Brendon.[1] “Steamer L. R. Doty Located in 300 ft of Water off Milwaukee.” 2010.

–17  Nat. Public Radio. “Sunken Treasure in Lake Michigan: Century-Old Ship.” 6-24-2010.

–17  Oleszewski. “The First of the Doomed Sisters.” Stormy Disasters: Great Lakes Shipwrecks, p. 25.

–17  Wisconsin Shipwrecks. “L.R. Doty (1893).”[2] Wisconsin Historical Society, 2018.[3]

 

Narrative Information

 

Baillod: “A group of Wisconsin marine historians and divers have announced the discovery of the missing steamship L.R. Doty, which vanished in a violent Lake Michigan storm 112 years ago, on October 25, 1898. The Doty was the largest wooden ship still missing on Lake Michigan, with an overall length of 300 ft. She was bound from South Chicago to Midland, Ontario with a cargo of corn and the four-masted schooner Olive Jeanette in tow when she was struck by a tremendous storm several miles north of Milwaukee. Waves reportedly reached 30 ft, with 70 mph winds. The Olive Jeanette was severely damaged, but survived the storm. The Doty however, was never seen again. On June 16, 2010 a group of explorers led by marine historian Brendon Baillod and charter captain Jitka Hanakova relocated the site, which had been snagged by a commercial fish tug in 1991, and investigated by local Milwaukee charter captain Jerry Guyer nearly 20 miles off Oak Creek, Wisconsin….

 

“The L.R. Doty was built in 1893 at West Bay City, Michigan by F.W. Wheeler & Co. for the Cuyahoga Transit Company of Cleveland, Ohio as hull number 97….

 

“By all accounts the storm of October 1898 was one of the worst in 30 years….

 

“In all, 17 men were lost with the Doty….

 

“The L.R. Doty is protected by Wisconsin law as a publicly owned historic wrecksite….”

 

WI Historical Society: “The wooden three masted bulk freighter L.R. Doty was built by F. W. Wheeler & Company at West Bay City, Michigan in 1893. The Doty was named after the manager of the Cuyahoga Transit Company, Lucius Doty. The official registry number was 141272. The triple expansion steam engine had three cylinders: 20 “, 33″ and 54″ wide X 42” stroke producing 1,000 horsepower at 74 rpm. The engine was built by Frontier Iron Works. The two scotch boilers were 11 3/4 feet X 121 inches and built by Wickes Brothers from Saginaw, Michigan.

 

“The L.R. Doty was one of six sister vessels and was one of the last of the giant wooden lake steamers. She was given the highest rating for lake vessels, A1, qualifying her for any cargo. She was valued at $125,000. The Doty made trips on the Great Lakes as wide spread as Duluth to Cleveland carrying primarily iron ore and coal along with some grain. She normally towed the four masted, 242 foot long, schooner barge Olive Jeanette for additional capacity….

 

“On October 25, 1898, the L.R. Doty was towing the schooner Olive Jeanette from Chicago to Midland, Ontario. Both ships were heavily loaded with corn and after discharging their cargos, the two were to proceed to Lake Superior to load iron ore for Cleveland. At about 1 pm that day, the vessels were off Milwaukee when the winds began to freshen.

 

“By 4 pm, the Doty and Jeanette were well north of the city when the winds began to increase … When the tow line between them finally broke at 5 pm, winds were estimated at 70 miles per hour and waves reaching heights of up to 30 feet. In the storm, the crew of the Jeanette quickly lost sight of the Doty, and were then forced to endure three more days of stormy weather before finally being rescued off Chicago. The Doty and its seventeen-man crew were never seen or heard from again.

 

“On October 26, the tug Prodigy located a debris field about 25 miles off Kenosha, Wisconsin. The field contained large amounts of wood trim and hatch coverings, along with a sternpost, cabin door and other items bearing the brown colored markings of the Doty….”[4]

 

“After being lost for 112 years the wreck…was found in 320 feet of water about twenty miles off of Milwaukee.”

 

Sources

 

Baillod, Brendon. “Steamer L. R. Doty Located in 300 ft of Water off Milwaukee.” Ship-wreck.com, Great Lakes Shipwreck Research, 2010. Accessed 7-6-2018 at: http://www.ship-wreck.com/shipwreck/doty/

 

National Public Radio. “Sunken Treasure in Lake Michigan: Century-Old Ship.” 6-24-2010. Accessed 7-6-2018 at: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128086639

 

Oleszewski, Wes. Stormy Disasters: Great Lakes Shipwrecks. Gwinn, MI: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 2001.

 

Wisconsin Shipwrecks. “L.R. Doty (1893).”[5] Wisconsin Historical Society, 2018. Accessed 7-6-2018 at: http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Vessel/Details/346?region=Index

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Brendon Baillod is a Wisconsin marine historian.

[2] Year built.

[3] The “By The Numbers” section at the top of the webpage notes the Doty sank in 1899. The narrative section beneath clearly notes the date of loss as October 25, 1898.

[4] Credits as source: Association for Great Lakes Maritime History Newsletter, July-August, 2010.

[5] Year built.