The Christina Nilsson was a wooden three-masted schooner built in 1871 by Hanson and Scove in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and it typified the vast fleet of Great Lakes schooners that carried bulk goods after the Civil War. Named after a renowned Swedish diva, she spent her career hauling grain and iron cargoes on the Great Lakes. Her final voyage began on October 23, 1884, when she left Escanaba, Michigan, with 575 tons of pig iron bound for Chicago. After passing the Sturgeon Bay ship canal, she encountered a blinding snowstorm, gale-force winds, and high seas. Unable to see the canal entrance, Captain N.A. Hammer turned north to try to outrun the storm and reach the shelter of Baileys Harbor, but the gale and blizzard forced the schooner dangerously close to the east shore. At 8:30 A.M. on October 24, 1884, the Christina Nilsson struck Outer Reef and began to founder, soon sinking in 15 feet of water, where waves pounded her to pieces. All eight crew members escaped in the vessel's yawl boat and reached shore safely. Lying on the reef off the Old Baileys Harbor Lighthouse, the wreck illustrates the dangers of nineteenth-century navigation on the Great Lakes and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.