Debris from a launch that sank on Green Bay’s Little Harbor. Image: Wisconsin Historical Society
By Eric Freedman
The National Park Service has put another Lake Michigan shipwreck on the National Register of Historic Places.
But most of the boat’s history remains unknown.
The name of the gas-powered launch that sank in Green Bay’s Little Harbor is unknown.
So is the identity of the company that built the boat.
And so is the year it was built.
And so is the year it sank.
And so is the reason for its loss.
The National Register is the “nation’s official list of historic places worthy of preservation. Among them are shipwrecks, buildings, sites, districts and structures.”
“The Little Harbor Launch represents a class of vessel – the gasoline launch – that transported fisherfolk, hunters, freight, workers, vacationers and more throughout the (Door) Peninsula region,” according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
It was “likely built sometime between 1890 and 1930, and measuring 29.5 feet in length,” the society said, and it’s now partly embedded in 92 feet of water
The wreck is near Sevastopol, north of the Sherwood Point Lighthouse, in Door County, but its exact location hasn’t been made public.
To put the discovery in context, the society said there isn’t much historical documentation on the construction and operation of Great Lakes launches, even though they were “once ubiquitous.”
“This type of vessel was constructed regionally between approximately 1890 and 1950. 1890 to 1930 – reflects the period during which the gasoline launch was most abundantly used in Wisconsin and the Midwest,” the society saido
Although gasoline launches were common at the time, they varied in design and size.
“No comparative archaeological work on launches has been conducted in the Great Lakes to examine how these vessels were constructed,” the society said
The wreck provides opportunities for additional research, according to the society.
“Due to the high level of hull integrity, the Little Harbor launch has vast potential to yield further information through future archaeological investigations,” it said.