Built in 1867 at Martell, Tonawanda, N.Y., and rebuilt in 1875-1876, the wooden two-masted schooner Kate Kelly served for three decades hauling grain and coal between Lake Michigan ports and Kingston, Ontario, and in May 1895 left Alpena, Mich., loaded with railroad ties for Chicago under Captain Hartley J. Hatch, an experienced Great Lakes captain and inventor who had equipped the vessel with novel life-saving devices. On May 13, 1895, the schooner encountered a raging storm and sank just short of Chicago, as farmers watched helplessly from shore. Captain Hatch and all six crewmen died, and the wreck now lies broken and scattered in 55 feet of water about two miles offshore, with only her masts and thousands of floating railroad ties initially marking the disaster.