Since the 1980s many scuba divers have taken up the challenge of finding the wreck of the John Evenson in Lake Michigan, one dive-club even posting a $500 reward – but only now has the steam tugboat lost in 1895 been discovered – in just 13m of water.
Maritime historians Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck, already noted for having located two historic Great Lakes wrecks in the past two years, worked closely with Wisconsin Historical Society and narrowed the search area using contemporary newspaper and the captain’s own accounts before applying their high-resolution sidescan sonar to the task.
They had put three days aside from 13 September for the hunt but their research had been so accurate that it took only five minutes to find the mark, four miles north-east of Algoma near Green Bay.
What had shown up on the DeepVision Little Eye sonar screen was a large boiler, and when the pair deployed their ROV it also revealed the hull-bed with giant propeller, steam engine and various other pieces of machinery.
Wisconsin state underwater archaeologist Tamara Thomsen arrived the next day with diver Zach Whitrock to survey, document and confirm the identity of the wreck Baillod and Jaeck had reported. From 2,000+ hi-res images captured by the divers, Whitrock created a 3D photogrammetry model.
Named after the builder
The 16m steam-powered timber tug had been built John Evenson in Milwaukee in 1884 and named after himself. Used mainly to tow ships into and through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, as well as for salvaging shipwrecks, in its later years it hauled barges of stone from the Laurie Brothers’ quarry in Sturgeon Bay to Wisconsin’s lake ports.
On 5 June, 1895, the John Evenson had just undergone boiler repairs when its captain John Laurie decided to respond to a request and tow through the canal a considerably larger vessel, the steam barge I Watson Stephenson and its two subsidiary schooner-barges. The lake was rough under heavy winds.
While attempting to take the line the John Evenson crossed the fast-moving barge’s bow, which caught it at the stern. The John Evenson was swung across the other vessel’s bow and capsized, sinking within three minutes.
Captain Laurie and four of the crew were flung into the water and later rescued but fireman Martin ‘Baldy’ Boswell, who had been sleeping below decks, could not be saved.
Thought better of it
In 1897 the Laurie brothers decided to salvage the tugboat and hired a boat for the task, but because they had already received an insurance payout they faced the prospect of a damaging dispute with the insurer, and in the end left the wreck where it lay, its machinery intact.
The sinking had been widely reported at the time but the details of the depth of water seem to have varied widely, from between 15m to 90m, which confused searchers over the years.
Now the plan is for the wreck to be nominated for the US National Register of Historic Places and made available for sport divers to visit.
Baillod and Jaeck are members of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, which encourages the sharing of shipwreck discoveries with the public.
The wreck-hunters were responsible for finding the intact remains of the schooner Trinidad in Lake Michigan in June 2023, as reported on Divernet, as well as the schooner Margaret A Muir a year later.
Explore the photogrammetry model of the John Evenson.
Also on Divernet: TRINIDAD SHINES EVEN AMONG GREAT LAKES WRECKS, 108M-DEEP STEAMER WRECK HAD ‘NEW LOOK’, EARLY SCHOONER FOUND IN LAKE MICHIGAN, LAKE WRECK DISCOVERY CAN’T EXPLAIN CAPTAIN’S ODD BEHAVIOUR
