Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks


	bilge
	1. Part of the underwater body of a ship between the flat of the bottom and the straight vertical sides. 2. Internally, the lowest part of the hull, next to the keelson.


	frames
	The transverse strengthening members in a ship's hull that extend from the keel to the deck or gunwale.


	centerboard
	A metal or wooden slab housed in a casing or trunk along the centerline of a sailboat; may be lowered to increase the boat's resistance to sideways motion and raised when the boat is in shallow water or beached.


	keelson
	A structure of timbers or steel beams that are bolted to the top of a keel to increase its strength. Also spelled kelson.


	hull
	The body or shell of a ship.


	ceiling
	The inside planking or plating in the hold of a merchant vessel, laid across the floors and carried up the sides of the holds to the level of the beams.

Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks - Explore Shipwrecks - Christina Nilsson

CHRISTINA NILSSON

Depth:

15 Feet |

Condition:

The vessel's well preserved bilge section and one large hull fragment lie about 2,000 feet apart on bedrock lake bottom.

Located one-tenth of a mile east-southeast of the Baileys Harbor lighthouse, the Christina Nilsson's bilge section sits upright on the cobble and bedrock lake bottom in approximately 15 feet of water. This 26-foot by 121-foot section consists of the vessel's lower frames , outer and inner hull planking, centerboard slot, keelson assembly, an intact mast step (a fitting where the bottom of the mast was joined to the keelson), and remnants of two pump shafts (piping used to carry water out of the bilge)

A view of the Nilsson's frames at the turn of the bilge.

The bilge is a flat, nearly level wooden surface, planked longitudinally in white oak, and fastened with iron spikes. Each ceiling plank is fastened to the underlying frames with four rosette-headed, square-shank iron spikes. The diagonally broken centerboard lies amidships on the bilge wreckage. Notably, this large section, essentially the entire bottom of the vessel, is located at the schooner's point of impact with the limestone reef.

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