''L.R. Doty'' was a

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

launched in May 1893 at

West Bay City West Bay City was a city in Bay County, Michigan, Bay County the U.S. state of Michigan. The City was formed from the communities of Banks, Salzburg, and Wenona. The city existed from 1877 to 1905 when it was merged with Bay City, Michigan. Hist ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. She was last seen afloat October 25, 1898 north of

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, during a violent storm on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

, with winds reaching . The ship was witnessed foundering at the stern by a passenger of the four-masted

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

Olive Jeanette The ''Olive Jeanette'' is a twenty-four-foot cypress vessel built in 1926 by Lutcher and Moore Cypress Lumber Company. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1991. It bears no relation to the four-masted schooner ...

'' which was being towed by the ''Doty'' until the tow line broke from the force of the storm. Seventeen crew members died. On June 25, 2010, 112 years after her loss, divers found the ''Doty'' below the surface of Lake Michigan with its cargo of corn still intact. The first divers to reach and film the Doty were Tracy Xelowski, John Scoles and John Janzen. Coincidentally, seven years later on September 30, 1905, the ''L.R. Doty'' sister ship the ''

Iosco The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is an association of organizations that regulate the world's securities and futures markets. Members are typically primary securities and/or futures regulators in a national jurisdic ...

'' also sank while towing the ''Olive Jeanette''. However, on this occasion both vessels were lost to the waters of Lake Superior.Maritime History of the Great Lakes website retrieved November 26, 2016
/ref>

References

External links

* * 1893 ships Ships built in Bay City, Michigan Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan Shipwrecks of the Wisconsin coast Steamships of the United States Merchant ships of the United States Maritime incidents in 1898 Great Lakes freighters Wreck diving sites {{Merchantship-stub