The Richard Mott was a wooden bulk freight two masted schooner barge with a capacity of 320,000 board feet of lumber or 475 gross tons of iron ore, depending upon which trade it was engaged. Her official registry number was 21181 and she was rated A2 in the 1881 Marine Directory. The Mott had been owned on Lake Michigan, mostly at Chicago, but also Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay, and was involved in the lumber trade. She was converted to a stone barge in 1909 for use as a stone carrier in her last few years.
In 1910 she was owned by Wisconsin Land and Lumber Co., Blaney, Michigan, and her last owner in 1915 was the Sturgeon Bay Stone Co., Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin where she was used to carry stone, probably since 1911.

September 1856: Aground at South Manitou Island with a cargo of lumber and coal.

April 1858: Ashore at the Straits of Mackinac. Jettisoned her cargo to get released.

July 1860: Mainmast damaged by lightning.

October 1863: Grounded in Chicago harbor.

1865: Remeasured.

August 1868: Damaged in a gale on Lake Michigan.

September 1874: Collided with schooner R.P. Mason off Sheboygan.

July 1883: Lost main boom on Lake Michigan.

June 1885: Collided with two barges of the propeller Oregon and repaired at Milwaukee. A suit was filed in court and both captains were found at fault.

November 1892: Stranded on the reef in North Bay, Lake Michigan.

May 1895: Damaged in a storm.
The Richard Mott was abandoned in 1916 at Green Bay due to age and poor hull condition. From the "Boneyard of the Great Lakes"; "Sch.- Richard Mott-formerly owned by the Sturgeon Bay Stone Co. and at one time the fastest sailing vessels on the Great Lakes in the lumber trade, was caught in the ice and wrecked." and now resides at the Sturgeon Bay boneyard.