After an extensive search spanning many years, the wreckage of a historic “ghost ship” that sank nearly 140 years ago in a violent storm has been discovered. The F.J. King, a 144-foot cargo schooner with three masts, was built in Ohio in 1867. It was transporting iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago on September 15, 1886, when it succumbed to a fierce gale.
Despite the valiant efforts of Captain William Griffin and his crew to save the ship, it eventually sank around 2 a.m. The crew was later rescued by another passing vessel and brought to safety in Bailey’s Harbor, a small community in Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula.
The exact location of the F.J. King had long eluded researchers, leading to numerous unsuccessful search attempts over the years. However, a breakthrough came when a team led by researcher Brandon Baillod pinpointed the wreckage on June 28. The find was confirmed by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association.
Baillod’s team’s search strategy focused on a specific area based on a lighthouse keeper’s account, rather than previous reports of the ship’s location. This approach proved successful when a side-scan radar located a large object, 140 feet long, half a mile from the keeper’s mentioned spot.
The discovery of the F.J. King comes on the heels of the confirmation of another significant shipwreck, the Spanish galleon San Jose, which was laden with valuable treasure and sank during a battle with the Royal Navy in 1708. After years of speculation, experts in Colombia definitively identified the wreckage off Baru Island as the legendary San Jose.
Considered the “holy grail of shipwrecks,” the San Jose was carrying riches from Peru to Spain for the War of the Spanish Succession when it met its demise. The vessel’s explosion during the confrontation led to its sinking, along with its precious cargo. The recent identification of the wreckage has put an end to the long-standing mystery surrounding the fate of the San Jose.