In March 1893, a new owner took possession of the Kate Kelly. Captain Hartley J. Hatch of Chicago had commanded sail and steam vessels on the Great Lakes for nearly twenty years. Well-connected in the shipping world and highly respected among his peers, Hatch seemed well suited to wring profits out of the old schooner.

Despite its decline as a port city in the 1890s, Chicago remained the “schooner city.” A growing industrial giant, Chicago’s demand for raw materials, including iron ore, coal, and wood products, and its importance as a grain port supported a large-scale maritime trade. With his connections, Hatch may have been well positioned to get good charters for the old, but operationally inexpensive, Kate Kelly.

On October 28, 1893, the Kate Kelly had run ashore on Spider Island, one of the many obstacles that made the Death’s Door Passage between Green Bay and Lake Michigan so hazardous. At the time, the vessel was carrying a heavy cargo of grindstones from Grindstone City, Michigan, to Milwaukee and suffered significant damage. The Door County Advocate noted that the vessel’s cargo, worth $10,000, was “far too valuable to risk out in an old leaky vessel at this season of the year.”