GIBRALTAR, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Jennibel Shipwreck (Schooner) in Lake Michigan near the Town of Gibraltar (Door County) on the State Register of Historic Places. State Historic Preservation Officer Tricia Canaday presented a certificate to Tamara Thomsen.
The Jennibel Shipwreck (Schooner) was constructed at the Stoakes & Locklin shipyard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1863. The vessel operated in the Great Lakes lumber and other bulk cargo trades. The Jennibel experienced groundings and collisions, which required repairs, but the ship lines remained the same. On the morning of September 17, 1881, the Jennibel was sailing through Deaths Door Passage with a load of green lumber and tan bark from Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, bound for Milwaukee when a sudden gale struck, and the ship capsized. The tug John Gregory came to its aid, took the crew aboard and the vessel in tow toward Sturgeon Bay. While off Chambers Island, the ship settled and sank. Although salvage attempts were made to recover the ship, it was ultimately abandoned. The vessel was valued at $2,500 but carried no insurance.
The vessel sits upright with the hull intact, except the transom which was broken in one of the salvage operations. Many of the ship’s hull components remain intact and many more remain hidden within its hull or are scattered surrounding the site. As an early wooden schooner in Wisconsin waters, Jennibel provides historians and archaeologists the opportunity to study wooden schooner construction and use in other bulk cargo trades.
The State Register is Wisconsin’s official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin’s heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.
State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. More information on Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks may be found by visiting Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks website: https://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Home#anchor3
To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit: www.wisconsinhistory.org.
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.
