Washed ashore Empire MI beach

Comments and faves

1. ★

   curlyson and farlane added this photo to their favorites.

2. 

   farlane (49 months ago | reply)

   Hey Cher, I blogged this to June 2008 on Leelanau.com. Thanks for adding to the Leelanau (dot com) pool!

3. 

   LongingforLeelanau (48 months ago | reply)

   what IS that?? looks old and interesting!... any info?
   thanks. :)

4. 

   1Cher (48 months ago | reply)

   Hi SailorGirl, it was the remains of a canal schooner

   It had been just off shore for a couple of decades, and was beached around January of 2006 near the outlet from South Bar Lake. Winter wave activity brought it a few hundred feet south, putting it right smack dab into Empire's public beach.

   The Glen Arbor Sun has a great article:
   www.glenarborsun.com/archives/2006/05/shipwre cks_are.html

   Where they describe..

   "He believes the ship on Empire beach was a “centerboard vessel of canal schooner dimensions.” Although that describes about half the ships lost on the Great Lakes, Harold said, it at least cuts in half the number of possible ships this could be.

   Canal schooners were an innovation in which boats were designed to be pulled down a canal like Welland Canal (between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) and then once into the Great Lakes could raise a mast, lower a centerboard and sail."
   

   The village worked with the National Park Service, the DNR, underwater preserve, and a lot of other alphabet soup people, none of whom wanted anything to do with it

   It had some serious spikes, from 12" long up to 18" (approx).

   Another view:

   flickr.com/photos/1cher/538152337/in/pool-367 835@N20

5. 

   1Cher (48 months ago | reply)

   Thanks Farlane! It's an honor.

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