- Date
- circa 1886-11
- Kind
- Shipwreck
- Wreck of
- LaFinire
- Eras
- Irish era
- Concepts
- maritimeshippingshipwrecksheritage
- Within
- Beaver Island archipelago
- Media
- Beaver Island History Map, 1978 revision
Summary
In the week before November 18, 1886, a schooner printed as Lafrinier was wrecked on Hog Island. The contemporary report calls it a total wreck and records the wrecking tug Leviathan recovering its gear.1 A later local retrospective calls the vessel LaFinire, a three-masted coal schooner. 2
Evidence and limits
This Shipwreck record follows the contemporary report’s explicit “wrecked”
and “total wreck” wording, while leaving took_place_at empty because “on Hog
Island” does not establish a reef, shoreline, or point. The spelling Lafrinier
in the 1886 report and LaFinire in the 1961 retrospective may identify the
same vessel, but no enrollment, official number, master, owner, or registry
record is held to settle that question. The cargo and three-masted rig come only
from the later account.
Open questions
- Can a registry or enrollment identify whether “Lafrinier” and “LaFinire” are the same vessel, and provide its owner, master, and crew?
- Where exactly off Hog Island did the wreck occur, and were there survivors?
See also
Sources
Footnotes
Sources
- Charlevoix Journal, November 18, 1886, “Local Notes and News.”The contemporary report prints the name “Lafrinier,” says the schooner was wrecked on Hog Island the previous week, and calls the vessel a total wreck. It reports that the tug Leviathan returned to Cheboygan with chains, anchors, sails, running gear, and standing rigging, after demanding property from unnamed Beaver Island parties who had partly stripped the vessel. It does not establish a precise wreck point, casualties, owner, master, cargo, or the vessel’s registered spelling. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Retrospective says another three-masted schooner carrying coal, the LaFinire, was wrecked off Hog Island in 1886.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
- The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1961-12_Beaver-Beacon
Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Wreck of the LaFinire, 1886”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/wreck-of-lafinire-1886/, accessed [date], citing Charlevoix Journal, November 18, 1886, “Local Notes and News.” (and 2 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Wreck of the LaFinire, 1886”RIS for “Wreck of the LaFinire, 1886”