Survivors of fire, water and time, Vollrath products from 1906 are among hundreds of artifacts at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum’s “Wisconsin’s Shipwreck Coasts” exhibit.

A vital line for travel and trade, the Great Lakes are the site of an estimated 6,000 shipwrecks, among them the S.S. Atlanta, a steamship owned by the Goodrich Transportation Co. On March 18, 1906, the Atlanta was transporting goods and passengers from Green Bay to Milwaukee and Chicago when it stopped in Sheboygan to pick up more cargo, including furniture and Vollrath enamelware. A short time later, a fire was discovered in the cargo hold. 

Although the ship was only 15 years old and had new firefighting apparatus, the crew was unable to extinguish the fire. As the crew and passengers were driven to the upper deck, a fishing tug named the Tessler appeared and began an evacuation. All but one of the crew and passengers survived. The Atlanta was towed to shore and left to burn to the waterline. 

Maritime archeologist Caitlin Zant recovers, documents, and preserves artifacts from Great Lakes shipwrecks. 

The Klopp Collection 

In the 1960s and ’70s, Allan “Butch” Klopp of Port Washington dove on Atlanta and dozens of other shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Butch’s collection of nearly 10,000 artifacts was donated by his family after his 2021 passing to be protected and preserved by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  

“Luckily, here in Lake Michigan, we have cold freshwater, and this particular site of Atlanta was covered by sand fairly quickly,” said maritime archeologist Caitlin Zant. “In a lot of cases, that helps protect the wreck and protect the artifacts on board because there's less oxygen. And so, with less oxygen, you get less rusting; you get less deterioration of a lot of these items.” 

Caitlin said when the artifacts were recovered from the water, they looked similar to how they look today and didn’t require much cleaning. While many of the artifacts were damaged, it was due to the fire rather than being under water. 

Although the wreck site has long been known because of its burning and its location in only 20 feet of water close to shore, Caitlin said it wasn’t until 2016 that the Atlanta was recorded and fully documented by the Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Archeology Program, along with a group of maritime students from East Carolina University. 

The cold freshwater of Lake Michigan contributed to the good condition of artifacts recovered from the Atlanta.

The Vollrath Discovery 

Museum collections staff discovered reports detailing Atlanta’s port stops and cargo, including enamelware picked up in Sheboygan during this time. While researching artifacts recovered from Atlanta and other shipwrecks, they consulted a 1905 advertisement featuring Vollrath products and were able to identify items that had been picked up in Sheboygan shortly before Atlanta’s sinking. 

“One of the most surprising things is just how intact and colorful a lot of these objects still are,” Caitlin said. “A lot of times with artifacts like enamelware or ceramics, those are covered with a glaze or covered with something that helps protect them a little bit better than other artifacts, particularly with Vollrath. The enamel itself coating the metal held up very well under water. 

“I think it's really significant that these products survived under water for this many years, because it shows just how well-preserved items can be in the Great Lakes on one hand, but then it also shows how much this enamelware does hold up over time,” Caitlin said. “It just goes to show how well-made some of these products were, to last not only through a fire but also being underwater for 100 or almost 100 years and then being even out of the water and dried out for another 50 or 60 years.” 

Artifacts of Everyday Living 

Caitlin said although the Atlanta was a palace steamer, the items it was carrying on board weren’t all luxury items but, rather, utilitarian things people used in their daily lives. 

“One of the biggest things that these artifacts tell us about daily life at the time was just how normal daily life was, especially with things like enamelware, where it was used in the kitchen,” she said. “There was a large shipment being sent down to Chicago at the time to be sold in local markets. And so, you know that was an item or a brand of products that people really used a lot, and they wanted to have as part of their daily lives at the time.” 

This stack of pans was fused together during the 1906 fire on the S.S. Atlanta.

Preserving Wisconsin’s Story 

Caitlin said each artifact requires about three to six hours to fully document, potentially clean, and then catalog and rehouse for long-term preventative conservation. With 10,000 artifacts in the collection, that’s many years of preservation and conservation, but she said it’s important to connect people to local history. 

“This exhibit and these artifacts really tie in to telling not only people's history here in Wisconsin and how people lived their lives, but also how they got their different commodities delivered to them, how transportation occurred at the time 100 years ago, and how different industries grew and developed throughout Wisconsin over time,” she said. “It's really important to preserve and protect these stories because, truly, that is a large part of Wisconsin's history. Wisconsin has a lot of companies that were originally started here 100, 150 years ago, and they're still in business today. 

“When people see Vollrath artifacts here in the exhibit, it's hopeful that people take away from that just how resilient some of these items and artifacts and companies can be. These companies, such as Vollrath, were in existence well before the Atlanta sinking, and they're still in existence today. And so the fact that we have this collection of artifacts from this point in time really just tells that story of the longevity of not only Vollrath, but other Wisconsin industries,” Caitlin said. “They're a part of our everyday lives.”