Wreckage of 300-foot ship missing for 132 years found in Lake Superior
The remains of the steamer Western Reserve have been confirmed to be located in Lake Superior.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society recently made that report, citing an initial discovery in summer 2024 by a Marine Sonic Technology device aboard its research vessel, the David Boyd.
The Western Reserve, a 300-foot steel steamer, broke in two as it wrecked in 1892 about 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior. When the wreckage was found, the bow section had rested on top of the stern in nearly 600 feet of water.
"Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic," GLSHS Executive Director Bruce Lynn said about the accident.
Only one person survived the ordeal.
The accident
The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel vessels on the Great Lakes and considered one of the safest and fastest ships working in the region. At the time of this route, Captain Peter G. Minch, the ship's owner, brought his family along on a cruise through Lake Huron with plans to go to Two Harbors, Minnesota. The ship was under the command of Captain Albert Myer for this voyage.
The weather was cooperative until they reached Whitefish Bay, then the crew dropped anchor to wait out poor weather conditions. After they weighed anchor and steamed into Lake Superior, a gale brewed up.
About 9 p.m. Aug. 30, the Western Reserve began to break up and sink.
The Minch family and the ship's crew boarded and launched the two lifeboats; but almost immediately one of the lifeboats overturned, with many of those aboard lost. The remaining lifeboat, with the Minch family and surviving crew, rode out the gale and night darkness for about 10 hours when a steamship passed by. Those survivors screamed but were not seen in the night.
About 7:30 a.m. the next morning, they were about a mile offshore the Deer Park Life-Saving Station on the Lake Superior shoreline when the lone lifeboat overturned in the breakers.
The only survivor was wheelsman Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Michigan.
Finding the shipwreck
It took decades, and technology advances, in order to find the ship's last location.
Director of Marine Operations, Darryl Ertel and his brother and First Mate, Dan Ertel, looked amid Lake Superior for the Western Reserve for over 2 years:
"We side-scan looking out a half mile per side and we caught an image on our port side. It was very small looking out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet," Darryl Ertel explained, "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 150 feet long and then we measured the width and it was right on so we knew that we'd found the Western Reserve."
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