MADISON, Wis.—Three Lake Michigan shipwrecks have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Those are the Australasia in Door County, the America in Kewaunee County and the EMBA in Milwaukee County.
The Australasia, which at the time was the largest wooden vessel built on the Great Lakes, sunk in 1896 after catching fire. Its site provides opportunities for further documentation on how shipbuilders pushed the known limits of wooden vessel construction.
The America allows archaeologists to study the construction techniques unique to canallers, which were a unique schooner vessel type that developed on the Great Lakes.
The self-unloading barge EMBA, named for the Employees’ Mutual Benefit Association, will be used to study construction techniques and the development and adaptation of self-unloading technology on the Great Lakes.