Built at Grand Island, New York, in 1867, Trinidad was a prominent cargo ship in the grain trade on the Great Lakes. She had many successful runs along the lakes delivering grain between Milwaukee, Chicago and Oswego, New York, until she began to show signs of wear and tear.
On May 11, 1881, Captain John Higgins and his crew were aboard Trinidad in Lake Michigan when the vessel began taking on water. Higgins and his crew of eight abandoned ship, and watched from their lifeboat as Trinidad sank. Higgins made a detailed report of where Trinidad sank which aided shipwreck hunters in her discovery.
After 142 years, Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck found Trinidad, nearly 300 feet below the surface and mostly intact. Her deckhouse was still attached, and cabinets had dishes stacked inside them. Baillod described the wreck “like a ship in a bottle. It’s a time capsule,” he told The New York Times.
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