The A.L. Hopkins was a thirty-one year old lumber hooker at the time of her demise. She was launched as a package freighter in 1880 and converted to a bulk freighter at American Ship Building Company, Cleveland, Ohio in 1910. The bottom of the hull had been recaulked in 1887.
At about 11 pm, October 2, 1911, the lumbersteamer A.L. Hopkins, bound from Bayfield, Wisconsin, with a cargo of lumber loaded at the Wachsmuth docks, ran into "heavy seas and a squall," which nearly capsized the small steamer and left her waterlogged. After losing part of her deck load and a seaman overboard, the crew of the Hopkins attempted to abandon their vessel, only to have the lifeboat washed away with only one man aboard it. Later, both the man in the lifeboat and the seaman who had washed overboard were able to reboard the Hopkins. With the rest of the crew, they were rescued by the ore carrier Dinkey on October 3, 1911, when the Hopkins was about 15 miles north-east of Michigan Island (part of the Apostle Islands). Although partially submerged, the Hopkins did not sink immediately and was blown about Lake Superior for two weeks, being last sighted by the steamer William F. Corey on Oct. 17, 1911 about 50 miles east of Michigan Island.