Service History
The wooden steamer
Alice E. Wilds was considered a first class lumber carrier.
Final Voyage
On Sunday 6/12/1892, the steamer
Alice E. Wilds was struck by the small passenger steamer
Douglas, which was bound from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Mich. The
Douglas had twenty people on board at the time of the incident. Despite the fact that there was a heavy fog at the time the collision occurred, both vessels were traveling at a high rate of speed. The lookouts of neither steamer saw the approaching danger until the vessels were within a few rods of each other when it was too late to avert the collision. Although the
Wilds sank extremely rapidly (inside of three minutes), no lives were lost. She went down in such deep water (over 300 feet) that she could not be recovered. The crew was rescued by the
Douglas who made it back to port despite her stem being badly damaged. The
Wilds was traveling light at the time of the collison, bound for Escanaba, Mich., from Chicago.
One source says she had a cargo of coal.
"The action of the Milwaukee Steamboat Inspectors in revoking the licenses of Captain Barney Wilds, of the
A.E. Wilds and C.B. Coates, of the steamer
Douglas was generally approved by marine men. The two boats were in collision off Milwaukee, and the
Wilds went to the bottom. The testimony showed that both boats were running at full speed, and although they sighted each other twenty minutes before the crash, neither changed course. Not even a whistle was sounded." Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, October 19,1892.
Today
The wreck of the
Alice E. Wilds appears to have been found in June of 2015 approximately 18 miles from Milwaukee sitting upright in 300 feet of water.