The latest long-lost vessel to be discovered by the prolific Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) is the Western Reserve – considered for a time in the 19th century to be one of the lakes’ safest ships.
She went missing with the owner and members of his family off Lake Superior’s “Shipwreck Coast” in 1892. All but one of the 28 people onboard were lost.
The 90m steel steamship was found some 96km north-west of the GLSHS's base at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Point in Michigan.
Society members used side-scan sonar from their research vessel David Boyd to locate the Western Reserve late last summer, though the find was only recently announced.
The wreck lies far from shore and broken in two, with the bow section resting on the stern beyond normal scuba-diving depths at about 180m.
Once dubbed the “Inland Greyhound”, she had been claimed in the Great Lakes to be one of the safest ships afloat.
Entering service in 1890 she had been one of the first all-steel vessels in the region, equipped to carry heavier loads at higher speeds than timber-hulled rivals – and tasked with breaking records.
Pleasure cruise
The vessel was owned by shipping magnate Captain Peter G Minch, who had decided to mix business with pleasure and bring along his wife, their two young children and sister-in-law with her daughter to enjoy a late-summer cruise up through Lake Huron to Two Harbors in Minnesota. The ship was in ballast but would collect a load of iron ore for the return journey.
On reaching Whitefish Bay on 30 August the pleasant weather turned, however, and Captain Albert Myer, who had brought his own 19-year-old son along, dropped anchor to sit out the worst of the rough conditions before steaming into Lake Superior.
At this point the Western Reserve was caught in a gale and started to break up at around 9pm.
The family-members and crew were able to board and launch the two lifeboats, but one of these, of metal construction, quickly capsized and the other, timber boat was able to recover only two of the crew who had gone missing.
Ten minutes later the Western Reserve sank, leaving the occupants of the remaining lifeboat alone in the darkness as the gale persisted.
A steamship passed close during the next 10 hours, but its crew failed to see the lifeboat, which was not equipped with flares. At about 7.30am it had reached within a mile of Lake Superior’s south-eastern shore but unfortunately it overturned in the breakers there. Only wheelsman Harry Stewart survived the ordeal to tell the story
A subsequent inquiry indicated that the shipbuilder had constructed Western Reserve using contaminated steel that was brittle, rendering it vulnerable to metal fatigue. The tragedy would lead to more rigorous standards for the use of steel plate in US shipbuilding.
Distant image
GLSHS director of marine operations Darryl Ertel and his brother and first mate Dan had been searching for the Western Reserve over the past two years, and finally picked up a mark on the port side of the David Boyd.
They had been scanning out to about 800m either side of the boat and the distant image was small, but when Darryl measured the shadow it extended to about 12m.
“So we went back over the top of the ship and saw that it had cargo-hatches, and it looked like it was broken in two, one half on top of the other and each half measured with the side-scan 150ft [45m] long,” said Darryl Ertel. “Then we measured the width and it was right on, so we knew that we’d found the Western Reserve.”
An ROV was deployed, locating features such as the ship’s bell to confirm the Ertel brothers’ initial identification.
“Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic,” commented the GLSHS’s executive director Bruce Lynn. “It just reinforces how dangerous the Great Lakes can be… any time of year.”
Also on Divernet: 130-year-old lake steamer found 200m deep, Lake wreck discovery can’t explain captain’s odd behaviour, 100-year-old wreck: mate went back for dog, Satellite tug discovered at 90m in Lake Superior
