Built by George R. Rogers, the F.J. King was a canaller launched on June 16, 1867 in Toledo, Ohio. A canaller is a special midwestern schooner designed to navigate the Welland canal which bypasses Niagara Falls. The schooner transported multiple goods between ports on the upper lakes and Lake Ontario. Initially owned by the Wilcox Brothers and Alonzo Cheesebrough, its shares were later sold in 1868 to Captain Harvey Bissell and partners Alfred Mosher and J.S. Dunham. When Bissell died in September 1869, his share went to his estate, and the homeport of the F.J. King was moved to Chicago. Bissell’s share was then sold to Mosher and Dunham, who then split the full ownership in three ways with Captain William Griffin. The homeport was changed again to Morriston, New York in 1876. In 1883, Mosher retired and sold his share to Dunham. In the fall of 1885 the F.J. King was converted to a three-masted schooner, as well as adding other general improvements including the addition of lumber hatches on the stern of the ship, allowing long timbers to be transported.
On September 15, 1886, the schooner was transporting iron ore south on Lake Michigan when it sprang a leak that its pumps could not keep up with. Despite the actions of the crew and captain to save it, it sank in 140 feet of water while the crew escaped on the ship’s yawl, later being picked up by nearby schooner La Petite.
The F.J. King became one of the most highly sought after shipwrecks in the 1970s, but was not found until 2025 when Brendon Baillod, president of WUAA, was conducting a class on remote sensing technology that detected the wreck. With gift funding from a donor to the Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archaeologists and volunteer divers completed an archaeological survey during site visits in August and October 2025. The F.J. King shipwreck has yielded great information about wooden canal schooner construction within the Great Lakes, and has potential to continue to provide further archaeological information in future years.