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    NAME: Merchant
    OTHER NAME(s): -
    REASON: foundered
    DATE: June 13, 1847 
    LOCATION: Lake Superior, near Munising, Mich.
    TYPE: schooner
    HULL TYPE: wooden, 2 mast
    BUILDER: in 1834, Maumee, OH
    OWNER: Barker & Holt, of Buffalo, N.Y.
           Coe & Coit, Detroit, Mich at time of loss
    MASTER: Capt. Robert Brown (temporary command)
    TONNAGE: 74 gross
    LENGTH: 69 ft
    BEAM: 20 ft
    DEPTH: 6 ft
    CASUALTIES: All (14 according to newspaper accounts)
    SURVIVORS: 0
    
                       LOSS OF THE SCHOONER MERCHANT
                            AND ALL ON BOARD
                            ----------------
                 The Lake Superior News Says: - We have for
               some time purposely abstained from mentioning
               the fears that have for two or three weeks
               been entertained for the schooner Merchant,
               on Lake Superior, which left this port for
               L'Anse on June 12th, and since which no tidings
               whatever have been heard of her.  But as all
               hope seems now given up by our citizens, we
               regret we are compelled to announce that she
               has undoubtedly been lost, and that all on
               board have found a watery grave, having prob-
               ably gone down on the night of the 13th, at
               which time it is known that a sever storm 
               raged on the Lake.  She had on board seven
               passengers and seven in crew.  Captain Robert
               Brown, of the Swallow, having command at the
               time, in consequence of the illness of Cap-
               tain Moore, who was detained on shore. Among
               the passengers were J.H. Woods, and E. Gregory,
               of Pontiac, Mich., and L.C. Smith and Geo.
               Howard of Norwalk, Ohio, all of whom had been
               employed by the National Mining Company, and
               were on their way to its location. The names
               of the other passengers we are unable to give,
               or those of the crew, until the return of
               Captain Moore, who has gone up the Lake with
               a view of visiting the Caribou Islands, in 
               the hope of finding some trace of his vessel,
               as she must have been somewhere in that 
               vicinity at the time the gale occurred.  The
               owners of the Merchant, we understand were
               Messrs. Coe & Coit, of Detroit.
                  The Buffalo Courier, Monday, July 26, 1847
               -----------------------------------------------
               
               Additional newspaper accounts state that the
               top-masts of the Merchant had been found in 1852
               and say the location was marked but did not
               divulge where the location was and no further
               mention is found of discovery or recovery of
               the schooner.


 ========================================================================
Sources: "Shipwrecks of the Lakes", Dana Thomas Bowen
          "History of the Great Lakes" Vol 1, Mansfield
          The Buffalo Courier, July 26, 1847
          Fredonia Censor, Fredonia, N.Y., August 24, 1847