The Lizzy Throop was a two-masted wooden schooner, that transported general goods and later, timbers across the Great Lakes from 1849 until 1873, when she broke up in a gale on October 17, 1873.
In 1865, her tonnage was reduced to 97 tons and her cargo hold was outfitted to carry timbers, logged from Northern Michigan.
The Lizzie Throop's deck separated from the hull, due to the buoyancy force of the wood slabs in the cargo hold, and the ship taking on water and beginning to sink.
The wood slabs pushed up through the strained decking, sending the hull to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
What remained of the decking washed ashore hours later, nearly nine miles north of Grand Haven, with 4 of the sailors aboard.
SideScan sonar expert Ralph Wilbanks, working with Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, on behalf of Clive Cussler, while searching for a missing airliner that disappeared in 1950, was using side-scan sonar, when an image appeared of what looked like an early wooden sailing ship.
The Wreck lies in 280 feet (85 meters) of water, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of South Haven.