Working draft
Northerner was an American-built schooner built by the well-known shipwright John Oades in Clayton, New York, in 1850. The ship had an overall length of 81.13 feet, a beam of 18.60 feet, a depth hold of 7.60 feet, and a registered tonnage of 77.33 tons. It was constructed with a single deck and had two masts.
Northerner began its career on Lake Ontario, carrying goods to towns along the lake’s American and Canadian shores. Its final years were spent on Lake Michigan, ferrying lumber between small and large ports.Â
On November 28, 1868, Northerner’s hull was damaged during loading. While being towed to Milwaukee for repairs the next day, the ship filled with water, capsized, and sank off Port Ulao with a cargo of cordwood in its hold. The ship’s crew were rescued, but the ship itself was abandoned on the lakebed. Today it rests upright and largely intact, 135 feet beneath the surface of Lake Michigan, and is one of many shipwrecks in the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Originally discovered by divers in the early 1970s, the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program officially recorded the location of Northerner in 2009. The following year, the ship was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeological site. In 2021, divers and maritime archaeologists from NOAA captured imagery for the first 3D photogrammetry model of the Northerner site.
In 2025, maritime archaeologists and engineers supported by NOAA Ocean Exploration revisited the wreck during the Exploring the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary at Scale project. They reimaged the site while testing new technology — a Saab Sabertooth hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle/remotely operated vehicle equipped with a Voyis Observer Pro imaging system — and techniques for exploring deepwater shipwrecks.
- N. Virginia, USA
