Lying peacefully in seventy feet of water – two and one half miles off the coast of South Haven, Michigan – are the remains of the lumber scow-schooner the Rockaway. One hundred and six feet long, twenty-four feet wide, with a draft of seven feet and rated at one hundred and sixty-four tons, the Rockaway and boats like her were once considered the workhorses of the Great Lakes shipping industry. During the late nineteenth century, close to two thousand schooners sailed Michigan’s Great Lakes. They transported lumber, grain and other cargo to coastal communities both large and small.
The Rockaway was built in Oswego, New York in 1866. She “skipped the waters” of the great inland seas for twenty-five years. (The term schooner is believed to originate with an old Scottish word meaning “to skip or skim over the water.”) On the night of November 19, 1891, while hauling a load of lumber from Ludington to Benton Harbor, the Rockaway sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan. It had been sailing through one of the Lake’s infamous “Gales of November.” The Rockaway’s crew of five clung to the vessel until it became too waterlogged to float. All hands were eventually rescued.
For more than seventy years, the Rockaway remained undisturbed at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Then, on September 29, 1983, a charter fishing boat based in South Haven dropped anchor for a pleasant day of sport fishing. As evening came and the crew began to weigh anchor, they found themselves entangled in the Rockaway’s wreckage. Their discovery of this wreckage was followed by a more-than-five-year underwater archaeological study of the boat’s debris field.
The Rockaway’s anchor is currently on exhibit in the Michigan Historical Museum’s Growth of Manufacturing gallery. It is on loan from the Museum’s sister agency, the Office of the State Archaeologist. The Museum had previously placed Rockaway artifacts on temporary exhibit in 1989-1990. The artifacts included clothing worn by the crew, the boat’s stove and various parts of the boat’s rigging.
Those wishing to learn more about the Rockaway and Michigan’s nineteenth century maritime heritage might wish to consider visiting the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven. It’s an excellent opportunity to take a real adventure back in time! While in South Haven, take time for a pleasure cruise on the sloop Friends Goodwill. On this Great Lakes “tall ship,” you can experience the life of a sailor on the Great Inland Seas.