When Was the Wreck? — Clues
This English plate and the balance-scale weights on this page were among the artifacts
found on the ship.
 News of David's discovery reminded Department of Natural Resources District
Surveyor Gerald Wiggins of an old report he had seen. In 1849, William Ives had
surveyed the northern shore of Lake Michigan. Wiggens checked Ives' original
notes. He found a reference to the shipwreck. Here was an important clue to
the date of the wreck!
 "About the middle of the course is the Reeck [wreck] of a small vessel
with the Hull nearly covered with sand. Masts broken & stubs upright. It
has probably lain there 2 or 3 years."
The artifacts found on the ship also give clues to the date of the wreck. One is
a tea chest with a paper label. The tea was Young Hyson, imported by "F
[Foster] and Co." Using this information, archaeologists determined that
the name of the ship that transported this box of tea from China to New York
was the Philip 1st. The Philip 1st made its last voyage to New York on January
22, 1839. So the schooner probably carried the tea before or shortly after
that date.
 A barrel of salt on the ship had the name "James M. Allen"
stenciled on it. Allen was the salt inspector at Salina, New York, between 1836 and
1840. It was his job to make sure that the barrels of salt were marked with
the correct weight or volume. Someone stenciled his name on each barrel after
it was checked. Then the barrels were shipped via the Erie Canal to Buffalo,
New York, and transferred onto Great Lakes vessels.  Because we know when Allen was
the salt inspector, the barrel marked with his name tells us that this ship
probably wrecked between 1836 and 1841.
 Barrels of salt and fish tell us that the schooner carried salted Great
Lakes fish. But we don't know if the crew caught the fish. And we still don't
know the name of the schooner.
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