The wooden fishing tug Peter W. was built in 1945 at the Wiinikka Boat Works at the south entry to the Keweenaw Waterway in the upper peninsula of Michigan. One source says she was built at Chassell, Michigan which is on Portage Lake, part of the Keweenaw Waterway. Her official registry number was 248805.
"The tug had a very successful career in the Keweenaw fishery being sold in 1960 to parties in L'Anse where she fished on Keweenaw Bay until 1973 when she was sold to Joseph LeClair of Sturgeon Bay who brought her to Door County and repowered her. In 1978, she was sold to John Schmirler, who fished the boat out of Ellison Bay." Brendon Baillod
"Sometime in the mid 1980's, the Peter W. reportedly "broke loose" from the pier at Gills Rock where she was berthed beside Bill Shastal's fish tug Neptune, which he used for dive charters. The Peter W reportedly sank just off the dock. Speculation by local divers, including Jon Van Harpen was that Shastal and Schmirler likely sank the boat intentionally to dispose of it and to create a new dive site, but this has never been confirmed." Brendon Baillod
Today the Peter W is occasionally dove on in her 55 foot deep resting place close to where she had been moored.