The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Telescope 155 The Shipwrecks of Lake Superior. Part I, 1822-1889 Julius F. Wolff, Jr. The shipping industry on Lake Superior has had a fascinating history. One can find romance, adventure, mystery, hardships, all part of a panorama of the westward march of American civilization. Indeed, the development of adequate shipping made possible the habitation and eventual industrialization of the Lake Superior country. And, just as most human undertakings carry the risk of trouble or loss, so did the vesselmen of Lake Superior suffer tragedy and disaster in their efforts to carry the commerce of this North Country to the eastern United States and to the world. The object of this paper is to record the story of shipping losses on Lake Superior, a project undertaken initially for the St. Louis County (Minnesota) -Historical Society as "The Shipwrecks of the North Shore of Lake Superior," published in TELESCOPE, May-June 1956. The present study attempts to report, as succinctly as possible, all major accidents known to have occurred on the largest of the Great Lakes. The author wishes to thank the U. S. Engineers Office, Duluth, the St. Louis County Historical Society, the Lake County (Minnesota) Historical Society, the Duluth Public Library, the Peter White Public Library of Marquette,Michigan, the Marquette County Historical Society, the University of Mlnneosta Library, Duluth, as well as a great many private individuals who have contributed information. The fur trade naturally brought the first shipping to Lake Superior. Although the early French and Canadian voyageurs came up the Lake in their large freight canoes and Mackinaw boats, by the early nineteenth century the Northwest Company and the Hudson Bay Company used a number of small schooners, the RECOVERY. DISCOVERY, INVINCIBLE, MINK, and OTTER.1 Also,the Canadian explorer, Alexander Henry, reportedly built a forty ton sloop at Point of Pines, near Sault Ste. Marie, in 1871, and used it to transport exploration parties to Ontonogan. As one would suspect, these tiny craft made the first shipwreck history of Lake Superior. The INVINCIBLE, built in 1813, survived nine years, going ashore and being pounded to pieces at Whitefish Point in 1822. Her crew escaped. Not so fortunate was the OTTER, also built in 1813, which supposedly was lost in a northwest gale off the Au Sable banks with all hands,some time before 1829. The DISCOVERY was wrecked in 1829 at the Soo, in an attempt to run her down the Canadian rapids of the St. Mary's River to Lake Huron. The RECOVERY and MINK were successfully taken down the Soo Rapids, leaving Lake Superior with no vessel larger than the freight canoe from 1829 to 1835. A revived fur trade prompted the American Fur Company to undertake construction of sailing vessels after 1835. Earlier, this group had portaged a small ship, the AXMOUTH, across the Soo in 1817, although her fate on Lake Superior is unknown. The first of these American-constructed ships, the schooner JCHN JACOB ASTOR, of