Gilchrist Fleet

a diver takes notes while examining a shipwreck — A scuba diver documents the site of the Gilchrist Fleet.

Mooring Buoy(s): None

Description: The beginning of the 20th century witnessed the widespread abandonment of vessels engaged in the rapidly declining lumber trade on the Great Lakes. In Lake Huron’s Isaacson Bay, the area around Whitefish Point served as an abandoned ship “graveyard” for F.W. Gilchrist’s wooden schooner barge fleet. Gilchrist abandoned the ships when he moved his sawmill operations to the state of Oregon. S.H. Lathrop was stripped and run up on the point in 1902. In 1903 both Light Guard and Knight Templar were also left at Whitefish Point after being stripped. All three ships were “canal size,” or 136 to 143 feet in length. Today, large sections of ships’ hulls representing at least two of the vessels can be viewed in just three to seven feet of water. Adjacent to the hull timbers is miscellaneous wreckage including a centerboard, rudder, and a small metal duck boat. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary would like to thank the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS) for their assistance in volunteering to help with the archaeological documentation of the Gilchrist Fleet.