Home was built in 1843 by Redfield on the Black River in Ohio.[1][2] The property of W. D. Winslow, Robert White, and Thomas Jones, of Chicago, Illinois, she was constructed to carry grain, lumber, and general merchandise between Lake Erie and the upper Great Lakes.[2] Her captain, James Nugent, was an abolitionist who collaborated with the Underground Railroad, and many of the merchants who shipped goods on Home also opposed slavery, making it likely that Home contributed in some way to the Underground Railroad, although she was never caught with fugitive slaves aboard.[2]
Home departed Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on October 16, 1858, bound for Chicago with a cargo of merchandise, wood, and cedar posts, and sank in Lake Michigan southeast of Manitowoc after a collision in dense fog and early-morning darkness with the schooner William Fiske at 4:00 a.m. on October 17, 1858.[2] The collision stove in Home′s hull and toppled her masts.[2] The undamaged William Fiske rescued her crew.[2]
Home is the second-oldest shipwreck in Wisconsin's waters, preceded only by the 1833 schooner Gallinipper, which sank in 1851.[9][10][5] The wreck is upright and mostly intact, although the sterncabin is missing and the starboardbow has damage from the collision with William Fiske.[2]Home′s foremast also is missing from the wreck: It was pulled to the surface in commercial fishingnets, and is on display at the Rogers Street Fishing Village in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.[2]
