Eager Beaver

Summary

The Eager Beaver was a 28-ton landing craft based at Beaver Island. It first appears in July 1967 carrying a salvaged shipwreck rudder from St. James harbor to Charlevoix, reappears in the 1973 righting of the capsized tanker barge Oil Queen, and is last recorded hauled up on the beach for the winter of 1975, when a severe January storm washed it sideways ashore.

History

In July 1967, Jim Sawtelle of Shipwrecks Unlimited in Charlevoix — described as the originator of “shipwreck furniture” — located the ruins of what he believed was an early-18th-century sailing vessel in shoal water in northern Lake Michigan, judging from its wooden rudder and few metal fittings that it had sunk before 1730. He raised the rudder, which lay separated from the rest of the wreck by half a mile, and towed it into St. James harbor with his pontoon boat. The Eager Beaver then carried it on to Charlevoix, where Don Meggison’s tow truck unloaded it and hauled it to Sawtelle’s home to dry, bound to become a coffee table or bar top; Sawtelle and his wife Nancy sold such pieces, along with jewelry made the same way, from their Charlevoix shop. Sawtelle said he intended to remove the rest of the wreck for the same purpose.

In June 1973 the Eager Beaver was one of two craft — with the tug American Girl — cabled to the capsized barge Oil Queen during its righting at St. James; see Oil Queen capsizing and righting, 1973 for the full account.

The January 1975 Beacon describes the Eager Beaver as a 28-ton landing craft that had been hauled up on the beach for the winter, and reports that a severe storm on 10–11 January, with winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour out of the southwest, raised the harbor’s water level several feet and washed the craft sideways toward the shore. The same storm washed empty bottle-gas tanks off the Boat Dock, carried a de-icing compressor off the Yacht Dock, and pushed Gillespie’s work barge onto the lawn of Allen’s cabin.

Evidence and limits

The three notices establish the vessel’s name, its role as a landing craft and salvage tug, and a 28-ton size given only in 1975. They do not identify an owner, registry number, dimensions, or later history, and the 1975 source itself notes that the matching name supports a possible link to the earlier Eager Beaver records without confirming it is the same hull.

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes