Chicago, Illinois— The “ghost ship” schooner FJ King drowned in Lake Michigan during a storm in 1886. After almost 140 years, a team of underwater archaeologists has finally figured out what happened to it. On June 28, 2025, off the coast of Bailey’s Harbour on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, a wreck that was in great shape was found.
The FJ King was a cargo ship with three masts that was 144 feet long and built in 1867. It was trapped in a strong gale on September 15, 1886, while it was carrying iron ore. The storm’s waves, which were 8 to 10 feet high, were so strong that they ripped the seams of the ship’s hull. The crew worked hard to pump out the water, but the ship finally sank at 2 a.m.
A passing schooner saved all of the crew, including Captain William Griffin. But history has lost track of the exact spot where their ship sank.
Brendon Baillod, a researcher who worked with the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, spearheaded the recent discovery. Baillod’s group was able to focus their search to a two-square-mile area thanks to a report from a lighthouse keeper who saw what happened. They found the wreck with a side-scan sonar just half a mile from where it was last seen.
The team was surprised to find that the hull of the FJ King was mostly undamaged, which is unusual given the hefty iron ore it was carrying. Baillod stated in a statement, “A few of us had to pinch each other.” “We couldn’t believe we had found it so quickly after all the other searches.”
The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association has had a lot of success in finding wrecks; in the previous three years, they have located five. Earlier in 2025, the steamboat LW Crane, the tugs John Evenson, and the schooner Margaret A. Muir were all part of this. Baillod found the Trinidad schooner off the coast of Algoma, Wisconsin, in 2023.