Shipwrecks

1842: The schooner Milwaukie went aground just north of the settlement of Singapore in a winter storm. About half of the crew of 14 survived.

1873: Hamilton, a schooner, began to leak and the crew took to a yawl boat and was saved. The wreck was located in 2007 off and slightly south of the Saugatuck harbor entrance.

1880: The sidewheel steamer Alpena went down somewhere north of Saugatuck harbor and probably some distance from shore, in an October storm. The exact location is unknown. The passengers and crew, estimated at 70 to 80, perished.

1883: The steamer H. C. Akeley went down in 1883 during a multi-day storm. The schooner Driver saved twelve men, four went down with the vessel. The wreck was discovered in 200 feet of water due west of Saugatuck harbor in 2002.

1883: Tug Protection went aground south of the Saugatuck harbor entrance, in the same storm which claimed the Akeley. Sixteen of the 17 aboard were rescued by breeches buoy. The boat then drifted to shore and broke up in the surf.

1896: The Graham & Morton steamer Chicora went down in a January blizzard somewhere between South Haven and Saugatuck, exact location unknown. All aboard perished.

1929: The Andaste, a self-unloading steamboat, foundered on her way from Grand Haven to Chicago with a load of gravel. Wreckage was discovered between Saugatuck and Holland.

1943: The Gotham, a steel-hulled fishing tug, struck the north pier at Saugatuck in a winter storm and sank. The vessel was recovered in the spring. Three members of the Gotham family, and two others were lost.