History & Site Description of the Zillah

Brief History of the Zillah
The wooden steamer Zillah (official number 136106) was built in 1890 for William H. Gratwick of Buffalo New York, at West Bay City, Michigan as the Edward Smith. She was 202 feet long with a beam of 37 feet and draft of 13 feet. Later she was sold to O.M.Boldgett of Bay City, Michigan and renamed the Zillah.

On August 29, 1926, while fighting her way through a terrible summer storm in Whitefish Bay, the Zillah started taking on water. At the time she was carrying a load of limestone, an abrasive cargo that has always been hard on ships. Her pumps were unable to keep up with the incoming water and the captain and crew abandoned ship to the life boats. They were picked up by the Coast Guard and the William B. Schiller with no loss of life, but the Zillah settled to the bottom in deep water off Whitefish Point.

The Site: Now the Zillah sits in 250' of water about 2.8 miles south-southeast of the point. It is fairly intact, but probably not as intact as the Mather. Due to its depth the Zillah is usually done in two separate dives from two separate moorings -- the bow mooring and stern mooring. Dominating the stern structure is the large and sturdy coal bunker. The stern mooring was attached to a ring in the top of the coal bunker structure starboard forward corner. Unlike most ships the coal bunker on the Zillah is located between the boiler room and the engine and stands up a full deck level above the roof of the stern cabins. The boiler room is intact and a vertical structure that I assume is a donkey boiler stands above the boiler on the starboard side. The stack plenum is visible between the boilers. You can look through the windows on the forward wall of the boiler room and see both boilers, and there is a deck winch on the spar deck near these windows. The engine room is open exposing the cylinders of the engine since the cabin walls surrounding the engine have collapsed. On the fantail sits two giant towing bits and a capstan. Swimming around the stern deck and upper structures we were easily able to keep the dive to less than 240 feet.