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The wooden bulk freighter Continental, built in 1882 by George Presley in Cleveland, Ohio, spent 22 years on the Great Lakes before sinking on December 13, 1904. Early on a December morning in 1904, while steaming south past Twin Rivers Point, now Rawley Point, and headed to Manitowoc for the winter, the steam-powered vessel became disoriented in a blinding snowstorm and its captain mistakenly steered toward shore. Without cargo, the ship rode high in the water and approached shore at high speed, finally striking a sand bar and sliding far onto it. All 20 crew reached shore safely with help from local fishermen. Tug boats were unable to pull the Continental free because it had grounded too hard, and over the winter expanding and shifting ice destroyed the vessel. The wreck lies about a mile north of the Rawley Point Lighthouse in 15 feet of water, where most of the hull structure remains and, during low water, the cylinder heads of its compound steam engine break the surface while shifting sand occasionally uncovers sections of the wreckage.
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Two Rivers, Wisconsin · United States
