10/07/2026
Hello and welcome back to another ! Today we are featuring the canal schooner WALTER B. ALLEN!
WALTER B. ALLEN was built in 1866 by shipwright, H.C. Pierson in Ogdensburg, New York. WALTER B. ALLEN was built as an "extreme" sailing canaller, constructed to fit within the tight confines of the second generation Welland Canal locks. These “extreme” sailing canallers had very specific dimensions that were only slightly smaller than the size of the locks at this time. Additionally, these vessels were built with a flat bottom, a sharp turn of the bilge, and a plumb bow. WALTER B. ALLEN had many other unique canaller features as well, like folding davits and catheads, and a bowsprit that could be raised and lowered to traverse the canal locks.
H.C. Pierson actually built two sailing canallers which now lie on the bottom of the Great Lakes: WALTER B. ALLEN (1866) and E.B. ALLEN (1864). E.B. ALLEN has many of the same unique features as WALTER B. ALLEN, though the vessel was slightly shorter and less boxy, demonstrating the difference between the earlier "moderate" canaller and the later "extreme" canaller designs. Today, E.B. ALLEN lies within the NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
WALTER B. ALLEN spent much of its career carrying grain and lumber eastward, and returning with coal to fuel the growing cities of the western Great Lakes region. WALTER B. ALLEN served as a workhorse of this important east-west trade until April 1880, when the vessel ultimately was lost beneath Lake Michigan - twice.
On April 10, 1880, while sailing past South Manitou Island from Chicago, a gale swept WALTER B. ALLEN ashore. During the grounding, the vessel lost its mainsail as well as its anchor. Three days later, the tug CAROLINE WILLIAMS, of Manistee, Michigan assisted in pulling WALTER B. ALLEN off the island and towed it across Lake Michigan for repairs. The tug arrived with a large steam pump to be used to pump water out of the vessel. The pump, installed on the vessel’s deck, was successfully able to pump out the vessel enough to refloat it. Filled with a waterlogged cargo of grain, WALTER B. ALLEN was bound for Manitowoc to unload and receive repairs, however, Manitowoc did not have the capacity for the wet grain, so CAROLINE WILLAMS continued south toward Milwaukee with WALTER B. ALLEN in tow.
On April 16, 1880, as the two vessels were sailing south toward Sheboygan, the wind began to increase, and waves quickly began crashing over WALTER B. ALLEN's bulwarks. The vessel began to fill with water and eventually the steam pump could no longer keep up. Soon after, the canaller slowly sank while the crew was rescued by CAROLINE WILLIAMS.
Today, WALTER B. ALLEN sits upright in 165 feet of water, southeast of Whistling Straights Golf Course. The hull of WALTER B. ALLEN remains almost entirely intact, with only its cargo hatches, and cabin structure missing. Both masts remain on site, though they no longer remain upright. The site was documented by Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archaeologists and volunteers in 2010, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. In August 2024, the site was outfit with a sanctuary mooring buoy for easier dive access.
(Historical research and archaeological information compiled by our partners at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Maritime Archaeology and Preservation Program)
[image descriptions: an underwater image of a diver swimming over WALTER B. ALLEN's bow (Becky Kagan Schott), a drawing of an "extreme" sailing canaller design (Louden Wilson), a still from a diver collected video of WALTER B. ALLEN’s bow (Eric Poggemann), a ROV image of WALTER B. ALLEN’s portside stern, showing one of its fallen masts (Hibbard, Inshore), a multibeam sonar image of the vessel (NOAA)]
