Talk:SS Hippocampus

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by TarnishedPath (talk) 05:20, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

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Hippocampus

• ... that the freighter Hippocampus (pictured) was sunk by fruit?

• Source: Chicago Tribune (September 10, 1868) "This disaster, to a far greater extent than most of those which have sorrowfully distinguished Lake Michigan, seems to be the direct result of the wanton carelessness or avarice of the owners or freighters in sending to sea an old vessel so manifestly overloaded that it was noticed by indifferent observers."

• • ALT1: ... that the loss of the freighter Hippocampus (pictured) represented the deadliest disaster in the southwestern Michigan fruit trade? Source: The Tragic Loss of the Hippocampus - Brendon Baillod "The loss was the worst tragedy in the history of the southwest Michigan fruit trade causing shippers to re-evaluate deck loads."
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Laurie Triefeldt and Template:Did you know nominations/On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs

5x expanded by Akaza (talk). Number of QPQs required: 2. DYK is currently in unreviewed backlog mode and nominator has 34 past nominations.

❆ AKAZA ❆ 22:48, 25 February 2026 (UTC).

• Will review this. BeanieFan11 (talk) 23:28, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Article looks mostly good. Nice work. I was wondering what makes the ShipwreckWorld citation a reliable source? It looks like anyone might be able to write for them, as their front page has a "Submit Your Own" article button. Let me know if I'm wrong. Also awaiting the QPQ @Akaza: BeanieFan11 (talk) 00:12, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

@BeanieFan11: for the source attached to ALT1, I believe WP:SPS applies. The author, Brendon Baillod, is a widely respected historian of the region, who has been cited by, among other publications, the Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and NPR. I'll do the QPQ(s) shortly. ❆ AKAZA ❆ 01:12, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

@BeanieFan11: QPQs done. ❆ AKAZA ❆ 10:51, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

The argument that the author is an expert makes sense. With the QPQs done, this should be good to go. BeanieFan11 (talk) 17:38, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:SS Hippocampus/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Akaza (talk · contribs) 20:40, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Vanderwaalforces (talk · contribs) 18:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Nice glance through, taking this as part of WT:GARC#86.--Vanderwaalforces (talk) 18:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Comments

• @Akaza: I see so many notes that appear before a punctuation (for example, appearing inside a bracket or even before a comma) all around the article, these need fixing.--Vanderwaalforces (talk) 11:28, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

  @Vanderwaalforces I think those issues only apply to the notes denoting inflation, but I can move them. Akaza ^[talk] 11:31, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

  Actually, the one discussing the additional reports surrounding the owners also falls into this category. Akaza ^[talk] 11:33, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

  Done. Akaza ^[talk] 11:39, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

• A few minor copyediting issues should be addressed:
  • "for the fruit trade between Berrien County, Michigan, and various ports on the westerly shore of Lake Michigan"; this wording feels slightly awkward/redundant.
  • "her decks piled with several thousand boxes of peaches"; consider "with her decks piled high with several thousand boxes of peaches".
  • "refused to refused to surrender" contains a duplicated word.
  • Some commas are overused throughout the article, especially around dates and dependent clauses.Vanderwaalforces (talk) 18:30, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

  @Vanderwaalforces I made some tweaks to the lede and body, such as changing "for the fruit trade between Berrien County, Michigan, and various ports on the westerly shore of Lake Michigan" to "built for the fruit trade on Lake Michigan in 1867" and removing a bunch of the commas you mentioned. Akaza ^[talk] 19:05, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

• File:Hippocampus ship.jpg is PD, relevant and appropriately placed, checks out.
• Did spot-checks, and they came back clean.
• This is a strong and well-researched article on a relatively obscure vessel. The article is comprehensive for GA level, well sourced, and generally polished. Thank you for yet another, @Akaza:, 'twas nice reading about this.--Vanderwaalforces (talk) 21:04, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

  Thank you @Vanderwaalforces. I am truly passionate about Great Lakes history, and hope to list more pages here soon. Akaza ^[talk] 21:40, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Peer review

SS Hippocampus

I'm putting this article up for peer review with the goal of gaining additional insight into potential improvements to it, in preparation for a FA review, hopefully relatively soon. The references were re-formatted per the guidance I received on an earlier PR. Specifically, I would like to receive feedback on the grammar and any possible improvements to it, as well as spot checks for the references.

Thanks. Akaza ^[talk] 05:12, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

• @Akaza: WP:PRG says an editor can only have one open PR at a time. Since Wikipedia:Peer review/SS D. M. Clemson (1903)/archive1 is still open, I'm going to close this. When that PR is concluded, you can open a PR for this article. Z1720 (talk) 16:53, 2 August 2026 (UTC)