Combined in Strength

Deadwood, a mass of timber placed at a ship's bow just after the stem post, provided rigidity and strength and reduced damage when the ship collided with floating objects or another vessel; most deadwood was made of multiple wood pieces joined together. At the stern, T-shaped metal fish plates reinforced the wood holding the gudgeon, into which a pin known as a pintle was inserted; pintles supported the rudder and allowed it to move back and forth, and gudgeons and pintles together formed a hinge. The 287-ton, two-masted schooner Grey Eagle was built by Bidwell, Banta and Co. in Buffalo, New York, and on July 10, 1869, a gale drove the schooner ashore near the north point of Whitefish Bay while she was running empty for Green Bay to pick up a lumber cargo. She was abandoned, declared a total loss, and broke up in the shallows.

Sevastopol, Wisconsin · United States