At around 2:45 A.M., Captain Caughill ordered 13 of her crew to board the lifeboats. Captain Caughill, the second engineer, the second mate and a watchman stayed on the Marquette to guide her to Michigan Island. About an hour later, she foundered, and the four men abandoned her in a lifeboat. As she sank, air trapped below her decks blew her cabins off. She was valued at $65,000 and the cargo was valued at $50,000. The Milwaukee Sentinel wrote a report on her sinking: The Marquette had arrived at Ashhland, Wisconsin, light with no consort to take on a cargo of iron ore. On Wednesday, 14 October at 4:00 PM, she completed loading 1319 tons of ore at the Central Ore Dock and 700 tons of ore at the Northwestern Ore Dock. The Marquette was loaded near capacity when she departed for Cleveland. She headed out along the shipping lanes and made good time. At around midnight, the crew reported to Captain Caughill that the ship was taking on water from an unknown source. The captain went below deck and found that the water was entering at an alarming rate. He ordered the pumps started and head to Michigan Island, the nearest land, which he judged to be about 25 miles away. As the ship raced for the island, she settled further into the water, slowing her progress with each passing minute. By 2:45 Am, the situation began to look grim. Captain Caughill advised most of the 13 man crew to take to the lifeboats, leaving only himself, the second engineer, the second mate and a watchman to guide the ship to the beach. The ten men who took to the lifeboats began rowing for Michigan Island, some five miles away. On board the Marquette, the four remaining men readied a lifeboat in case the Marquette should founder before reaching shore. Scarcely an hour had passed when the vessel began to founder rapidly. the men took the lifeboat and pulled away from the wreck just in time to avoid her suction vortex as she plunged for the bottom. There was a theory that the Marquette was scuttled for financial reasons, as she was one of five vessels lost by the J.C. Gilchrist fleet in 1903: the V. Swain was lost in July, the and the A.A. Parker were lost in September and the Manhattan and the Marquette in October. Discovery