The Progress was launched in 1880 as a wooden bulk freighter built by the Wolf & Davidson shipyard in Milwaukee. Converted to a crane equipped bulk freight barge at Edward Gillen Dock & Construction Company, Racine, Wisconsin in 1908. She had a capacity of 1,000,000 board feet of lumber and was used for construction work and cargo handling. The vessel was shortened 7' and reduced in depth 6' in 1910.
The barge Progress was reported stranded in Green Bay in November of 1904. However, she must have been salvaged as Greenwood reports her abandoned in the 1920s off Milwaukee.

"By mid-1921 the condition of this vessel (the Progress) was such that further operation appeared unsafe and further repair was not economical. Therefore, it was abandoned to rot and sink off Milwaukee, Wisconsin in Lake Michigan." Greenwood 1984:131
The Progress has not been found , but still might be extant.