[3] In 1905, the Hackett caught fire and sank on Whaleback Shoal in Green Bay, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) southeast of the Cedar River in Menominee County, Michigan.

He served as president of People's Gas Light Company of Cleveland and a director of the Savings Loan Association.

[5] In 1855 he served as a delegate to his county Republican convention; in 1867 he ran for public office and was elected a waterworks commissioner.

[3] By 1869, Peck & Masters was a highly regarded firm and had built more than 50 ships, including the 1867 package freighter Nebraska.

At 280 feet (85 meters) in length and almost 1,500 gross register tons, it was the largest ship on the Great Lakes at the time.

[3] The ship was originally powered by a 475 horsepower (354 kW) steam engine[8] placed all the way aft and connected to a propeller.

[3] The Hackett originally had two masts, which could be set with sail or used to support block and tackle when the ship was unloading.

A line of hatches on 24 feet (7.3 m) centers, granting access to the hold, ran the length of the deck.

With its boxy hull, hatch-lined deck, and placement of the deckhouses, the ship was ideally suited for moving cargo through inland waterways.

[3] The fore and aft deckhouses gave the Hackett a single immense hold that could be easily accessed and filled with cargo.

[10] The boxy hull maximized cargo volume, and the hatch spacing lined the ship up perfectly with the ore dock chutes in Marquette, Michigan and elsewhere.

[6] The forward pilothouse gave the captain better vision and enabled quicker reaction to dangers in the water.

Over the next 100 years, the design of the Hackett was the basis for nearly every bulk freighter built for use on the inland waterways of North America.

[9][14] Captain McCallum ran the ship aground on Whaleback Reef off Washington Island in Green Bay,[14] and the crew of 13 escaped in the lifeboats.

Flames from the fire were seen by men from the nearby Plum Island Life-Saving and Light Stations, who headed for the ship.

The wreck consists of large sections of hull along with the steeple engine, shaft, propeller and boiler,[9] cargo coal, and miscellaneous artifacts.