Note
from http://www.michiganshipwrecks.org/shipwrecks-2/shipwreck-categories/shipwrecks-found/condor
The schooner Condor sank near Shriver’s Bend in Ox-Bow Lagoon at the entrance to the Kalamazoo River at Singapore (Saugatuck), Michigan in the spring of 1904 when its rotted sides were crushed by the spring ice.
Built by Martin Olson in 1871 at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the Condor was a 58 foot, two-masted schooner (some sources say scow schooner). She made her maiden voyage on July 11, 1871 under the command of Captain Olson, bound for White Lake, with a load of supplies. (Milwaukee Sentinel, July 17, 1871)
The Condor had a rather long and somewhat checkered career on the lakes with at least ten owners. By 1875 the vessel was owned by George Mumm, of Manitowoc, WI. Four years later, Henry Norton, of Manitowoc was the registered owner. She was rebuilt or repaired in 1881.
On May 14, 1883, the Condor went ashore in a fog near Sheboygan, while loaded with with lumber and shingles. The sheboygan lifeaving crew, with the assistance of the tug Kitty Smoke rescued the crew and refloated the vessel. From the annual report of the U.S. Life Saving Service:
“On May 14 at 7 o’ clock in the morning during the prevalence of a northeast rain storm the captain of the schooner Condor of Chicago, Illinois arrived at the Sheboygan Station Eleventh District Lake Michigan and requested assistance in saving his vessel which he reported had run ashore that morning at 3 o clock some six miles north of Sheboygan Harbor. She was a small vessel of thirty tons carrying a crew of but two men and was from Muskegon Michigan with a cargo of thirty thousand feet of lumber from Manitowoc, Wisconsin”
“The men had landed in their yawl without difficulty soon after she struck. The surf boat was at once launched and the station crew took the captain across the river to the tug Kitty Smoke with which arrangements were made for getting the schooner off, the party leaving soon afterwards in tow of the tug for the stranded vessel. They found her nearly high and dry and as the surf had increased and was too rough for successful operations it was decided not to do anything until the sea moderated.”
“The captain therefore returned with the relief party to Sheboygan. On the following morning, the 15th, the weather being favorable the station crew again went out in tow of the tug and after running the tug’s hawser, went to work lightening the schooner some manning the pumps to get the water out of her while the rest removed the cargo on to the beach, When this was done the tug commenced pulling on her and about an hour later the schooner got off and was towed to Sheboygan whence she was afterwards taken to Manitowoc for repairs. The captain thanked the station crew very heartily for their help in saving his vessel.”
In 1884 she was sold to August Evert of Chicago, then enrolled in Grand Haven in 1888. Two years later Condor was owned by Cochrane, in Muskegon who sold it to Captain Marine (George) Boomsluiter, of Grand Haven in 1892.
She nearly met her end in 1898 when she became waterlogged and began sinking off Muskegon. The crew were assisted by the U.S. Life-Saving Crew, and the vessel towed into the harbor. The Condor underwent serious repairs, including being lengthened by ten feet to 68 feet in length.
Daniel Ludwig of Ludington purchased the vessel in 1900, but he sold it to William Sell of South Haven in 1901.
On Aril 1, 1904, while lying alongside the pier in the Kalamazoo River, and owned by Benson A. Ingraham of South Haven, the vessel was crushed by ice moving out during the spring breakup.
A week later, Captain Benjamin Randall of South Haven purchased the rights to the vessel. But on March 13, 1905, her documents were surrendered at Grand Haven Michigan as “abandoned.”
In 1938 numerous artifacts were salvaged including her wheel & brass lantern. the wheel is displayed at theHolland Museum in Holland, Michigan.
Condor wheel
The harbor entrance was moved in 1907 to eliminate the dogleg relegating the old Singapore and Ox-Bow area to obscurity. Over the decades the wreck has been salvaged, then forgotten, rediscovered, explored, and forgotten again.
Michigan diver Kevin Ailes rediscovered the wreck of the Condor in the fall of 2014. He reports the vessel in 15 to 20 feet of water, decking somewhat intact with a tow bit at the bow and other original features still visible. “The hull is twisted, probably due to salvage attempts.” he says. “She was resold to salvagers twice after being sunk. The title wasn’t surrendered until 1905.”Note
from https://sdhistoricalsociety.org/publications/NLHist/NLHist/P97.php
During the summer I spent at the Summer School of Painting in Saugatuck [1929] I rowed a boat from the school to the old lighthouse. Sometimes I went in the canoe with Avis and Elsa who lived in the boathouse near the lighthouse where I lived with the director of the Summer School of Painting and his wife.
One day I saw some young people out on the lagoon with a rowboat and some rigged-up equipment for going underwater. They had a kerosene can and some rubber hose and a bicycle pump. The kerosene can had been made into a helmet and was connected to the house which was connected to the pump. they were taking turns going down while another one pumped.
They said they thought they had located the remains of a boat that had sunk there in winter several generations before.
I joined them and watched for a while as each of them put the helmet on and went down under water while another pumped. After a few minutes they asked me if I would like to go down. I put the helmet on and dropped off the edge of the boat. They weren't pumping me enough air so I came back up and we tried again. There wasn't much to see but the top rim of the wooden deck covered with brown silt, but I walked along it before coming up.
It was exciting. Naturally, Mother was horrified!
-- Anne Partridge Richter
...
The wreck that the amateur divers were rediscovering was probably the scow-schooner Condor that went down in Ox-Bow lagoon in the spring of 1904 when its rotted sides were crushed by the spring ice. Portions of the wreck are still visible in the lagoon. The wheel and a few other items have been recovered and are occasionally displayed at the Holland Museum Special section of historical letters, recollections and reprints concerning the Saugatuck area.
