Frederickson's Lake Michigan Shipwreck Charts
Frederickson's Treasure Chart of Lost Ships and Cargoes in the Frankfort, Michigan Area
Frederickson's Chart of Ships Wrecked in the Vicinity of Door County, Wisconsin
Frederickson's Chart of Ships Wrecked from Algoma to Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Frederickson's Chart of Ships Wrecked from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Michigan City, Indiana
by Arthur & Lucy Frederickson - Lucy and the late Arthur Frederickson were the premier researchers of Lake Michigan shipwrecks in the 1950s and 60s.  Based in lower Michigan, they wrote a number of excellent books including Ships and Shipwrecks in Door County and Lake Michigan Car Ferries.  One of their most interesting creations however, was their series of four historical Lake Michigan shipwreck maps.   The maps were researched and published in the late 1950s and early 1960s and cover all of western and northeastern Lake Michigan.  Several hundred wrecks are included in each map along with the year of the wreck, the type of wreck, a very rough geographic location and a wildly exaggerated list of cargoes that each ship was allegedly lost with.   Frederickson's outright cargo fabrications have caused many researchers to dismiss the maps as useless, but I have personally found that although the cargoes are mostly fictitious, each of the accidents is based on an historically verifiable accident.   However, many of the wrecks listed were subsequently recovered and still others are listed with names badly misspelled or the wrong year, location or accident type.   Also, the Frankfort area map includes no wreck dates.  Still, the maps are an important research tool in that they provide a good working list for further inquiry and they contain many extremely obscure wrecks that are both accurate and can be found nowhere else in published materials.  The maps are now quite rare and are only occasionally reprinted.  Old copies can sometime be found in dive shops or in copies of the Frederickson's other books.  Every now and then a few are offered for sale online.   They are not an item that will interest the casual hobbying and are probably of use only to hardcore researchers willing to take the time to sift the wheat from the chaff.    Find and order Fredericksons Lake Michigan Shipwreck Charts online now.