The Appomattox, built in 1896 at Davidson Shipyard in West Bay City, Michigan, was the largest wooden steamer ever to sail the Great Lakes and possibly the world. Built by Captain James Davidson, she stretched wooden shipbuilding techniques to 320 feet after steel ships had become the norm, and these “Davidson’s Goliaths” competed successfully with steel vessels. Powered by a triple-expansion steam engine, the Appomattox could carry 3,000 tons of ore and tow a barge with another 5,000 tons. On November 2, 1905, the Appomattox and her barge Santiago, loaded with coal and approaching Milwaukee, were engulfed by a blinding mixture of fog and industrial smoke and ran aground off present-day Atwater Beach. Tugboats quickly pulled the Santiago free, but wrecking crews worked for 13 days and failed to release the Appomattox even after jettisoning her cargo. Storms and heavy seas battered the stranded ship until the crew removed everything of value, and today large sections of her bilge, keel, and port-side hull remain intact in 20 feet of water.