The Queen City was built at the shipyard of master builder Isaac W. Nichols in Vermilion, Ohio in 1855. Owners were Alva Bradley, 7/12 interest; Ahira Cobb, 7/24; and James W. Grover, 1/8. According to her original enrollment document, the Queen City was 137 feet in length, 25 feet 7 inches in beam, and 11 feet 3 inches in depth. She was described as a schooner with one deck, two masts, a square stern and no head (no scroll or figurehead), and measured 368 tons (Builder's Old Measure). She sailed in the Bradley & Cobb fleet (later Alva Bradley and Company). By the time of her demise in 1864 she was rated B1 and valued at $7700.
On what was to be its final voyage, the Queen City was carrying a cargo of fire bricks and other supplies consigned to the Collins Iron Company at Marquette. The company intended to use the bricks to build a new hot blast oven and reline their charcoal iron blast furnace at Collinsville. (The Collinsville furnace was one of the earliest blast furnaces in the Upper Peninsula, producing its first iron on December 13, 1858.) As the schooner neared Marquette, a storm came up, blowing the Queen City ashore. The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel reported:
"From Lake Superior we have accounts of numerous disasters to the shipping on that lake, but full particulars have not reached us. The schooner Queen City is in a total wreck... The schooner Queen City met the gale 5 miles below Marquette. She lost her anchors and finally broke in two, and will prove a total loss. The crew was saved." (November 19, 1864)
The Detroit Advertiser & Tribune was more optimistic about the chances of saving the vessel:
"...the Queen City, ashore near Chocolate River, was expected to be got off without sustaining much damage. Her cargo, consisting of machinery, was being lightered off." (November 21, 1864.) "The schooner Queen City, it is thought, would be saved from a total loss." (November 22, 1864.) "...the schooner Queen City would probably be got off..." (November 24, 1864.)
Despite this optimism, the wreck was not saved. During the fall and winter, crews worked to salvage as much of the cargo as possible, then abandoned the vessel to the elements.
Site Survey
Remaining features of the wreck observed during the October, 1993 survey consisted of a large portion of the port side of the hull, along with the centerboard trunk and centerboard, and remnants of the boat's deck machinery and cargo. The extreme stern area and the entire starboard side are not visible; both are believed to be buried in the sand. The visible sections of the hull lie in an east-west orientation with the bow to the west.
The dominant feature at the Queen City site is the port side of the hull, which at the time of the survey stood nearly six feet above the surrounding sand. The side stands nearly vertical, with a slight list to starboard. The forward part of it is intact from deck level down. Above deck level the bulwarks and rails are gone, apparently carried away by ice. Approximately 118 feet of this side was exposed above the sand. At the western end, the stem is still attached to the side. It is fitted with an iron stem band. The starboard side has broken away from the stem and is believed to lie buried in the sand.
From 9 to 35 feet back from the stem, shelves inlet for deck beams remain in place. The grooves indicate that the deck beams were 10 inches wide and spaced about 4 feet apart. The shelves are supported by hanging knees, the bottom ends of which are angled slightly astern. Frames are made up of double futtocks 5¼ inches wide by 6½ inches deep, spaced 22 inches on center. Hull planking on the exposed area above the turn of the bilge is 3 inches thick in widths of 6½ and 8 inches, while the ceiling is 2½ inches thick and 12 inches wide. A reinforcing arch made up of 3 strakes of 2½ by 10½ inch planks is laid over the ceiling, extending about 2/3 of the length of the exposed hull.
Some 35 feet aft of the stem is a series of 4 chainplates, indicating the location of the foremast. This location would suggest that this vessel had only two masts. The upper portions of the chainplates and their associated deadeyes are missing, apparently cut away by salvagers or souvenir hunters. The chainplates are spaced 22 inches apart, and are bolted through the underlying frames.
Nearer the stern, the side of the hull is more extensively broken below deck level, and the last 23 feet is buried in sand. By probing the sand with a slim steel rod, the approximate outline and extent of the hull was traced to what is believed to be the sternpost, buried in over a foot of sand. Measurements from the stem to this point give a length of 138 feet.
64 feet aft of the stem and 13 feet inboard of the port side stands the centerboard trunk. The trunk is 27 feet long, but only about 4 feet of its height is exposed above the sand. The centerboard is still in the trunk in its retracted position. A simple iron pin or kingbolt served as the pivot. The trunk appears to be still securely fastened to the hull, since it is in an upright position and parallel to the port side. Owing to the depth of sand inside the hull, it was not possible to determine if the centerboard trunk penetrates the keel or if it is offset to one side.
During the time of the survey, some of the ship's cargo and deck machinery was exposed, along with more modern debris such as old shoes, golf balls, plastic bottles, and beer cans. Lying next to the after end of the centerboard trunk is a drum with attached gear and ratchet wheel from a windlass. It may be assumed that this was part of the mechanism used to raise and lower the centerboard. Forward of the centerboard trunk and between the trunk and the port side of the hull are several squared-off blocks of sandstone. The largest block was estimated to be 4 feet long, 2 feet wide and 1½ feet thick. Numbers chiselled into the surface were observed on at least one of the blocks.
Many firebricks were found in the wreck. Individual bricks were found throughout the exposed area of the wreck, but the largest concentration observed was just forward of the centerboard trunk. Here the bricks were found still piled in an orderly stack, protected from surf action by a sandstone block lying on top of them. One representative brick measured 9 inches long, 2 3/4 inches thick, and tapered from 4 to 4 1/4 inches in width. The taper would suggest that these bricks were made for use in a circular furnace or stack.
Identification
The Queen City measured 137 feet in length, with a 25 foot 7 inch beam. The survey of the Chocolay beach wreck showed a length of 138 feet from the stem to the buried stern post. The distance from the port side to the center of the centerboard trunk was measured at approximately 13 feet, implying a beam of 26 feet, assuming the centerboard trunk was centered on the keel. Like the Queen City, the wreck had two masts.
Although Wells listed the Queen City's cargo as iron ore, it appears that it was in fact upbound with supplies for the Collins Iron Company's Collinsville blast furnace. A letter from "C" at the Collins Iron Works appearing in the April 28, 1865 Lake Superior Mining Journal stated:
The Chocolay beach survey site is consistent with the described location of the wreck of the Queen City near the Chocolay River 5 miles from Marquette, the wreck's dimensions agree within inches with the registered dimensions of the Queen City, and the firebricks found during the survey correspond to the Queen City's cargo. From this evidence, it seems safe to conclude that this wreck is indeed the Queen City.
Bibliography Field Work by Daniel R. Fountain & Randolph G. Beebe
What is believed to be the wreck of the schooner Queen City is located at 46° 29.42' north latitude, 87° 18.64' west longitude, approximately 5 miles southeast of Marquette. The hulk is located approximately 150 feet offshore. It is in an exposed area which is subject to high-energy surf action; conditions and sand coverage at the site can change radically from year to year, and even within a single diving season. The wreck is often nearly buried in sand, but in the fall of 1993 the shifting sands exposed a large portion of her hull. Water depth during the survey was a maximum of 13 feet inside the wreck. The highest point on the wreck comes within about 5 feet of the surface.
Identification of this wreck as the schooner Queen City is based on several factors: location, dimensions, and cargo. Initially it was thought that these remains might be those of the Siscowit, a schooner wrecked near the mouth of the Chocolay River in 1849. Once the size of the wreckage was determined, however, it became obvious that this had been a much larger vessel than the 50 ton Siscowit. In addition, several sources put the location of the Siscowit's demise within a few hundred yards of the mouth of the Chocolay River, while the wreckage in question lies about two miles away. A search was then made of various listings of Lake Superior shipwrecks to identify candidates among the "unaccounted for" wrecks in the Marquette area. One vessel that seemed to be a good possibility was the Queen City. The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel for November 19, 1864 reported: "The schooner Queen City met the gale 5 miles below Marquette." The Detroit Advertiser & Tribune of November 21, 1864 referred to "...the Queen City, ashore near Chocolay River..." In Lake Superior Shipwrecks, Julius Wolff, Jr. notes "The Queen City was all through, laying her bones on the Chocolay shore..." Homer Wells's History of Accidents, Casualties and Wrecks on Lake Superior lists a "Schooner Queen City, ore, wrecked near Marquette. Damage, $10,000."
"The Company have built entirely a new hot blast oven, and partially relined the furnace, making it almost as good as when first built. This has been done at a very great cost, in consequence of the loss of the schooner Queen City last November, which had on board the fire bricks for re-lining, and repairs of their works - most of the bricks used were taken from the wreck during a very unfavorable season for prosecuting such work."
Part of the cargo found on the wreck at Chocolay is a large quantity of tapered firebricks, of a type suitable for use in a hot blast oven and blast furnace.
October 3 & 23, 1993