Three Brothers was a small wooden Great Lakes lumber freighter built in 1888 by the Milwaukee Shipyard Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Chicago-based John Spry Lumber Company. Originally she was christened as the May Durr and bearing the official number 91998. The vessel was rated at 582 gross tons, 444 net tons, and measured 162 feet (49 m) in length, had a 31.4-foot (9.6 m) beam and a draught of 11.8 feet (3.6 m).